Trump tweets message of support for deranged QAnon conspiracy theorists after FBI labels group a terrorism threat
To supporters of the wacky QAnon conspiracy theory, President Donald Trump is much more than a politician/real estate mogul — he is also the person who has been chosen to fight an international ring of pedophiles and child sex traffickers, and “Q” is the anonymous figure who is secretly sending messages on the battle. Journalist Will Sommer, in a January 2 article for the Daily Beast, reports that Trump has retweeted some posts from QAnon supporters — and they see that as validation of their cause.
In late December, Sommer reports, “Trump or someone with access to his account retweeted a message of support containing the ‘WWG1WGA’ hashtag, a reference to a QAnon motto. In total, Trump retweeted QAnon fans more than 20 times on the same day.”
Those retweets, according to Sommer, have “provided new fuel for QAnon fans, who are convinced, among other things, that Trump is on the verge of arresting and executing top Democrats at Guantanamo Bay. QAnon Twitter accounts and messages boards seized on Trump’s retweets as a tacit acknowledgment of their conspiracy theory’s validity.”
One of the leading QAnon supporters is Roy Davis, a.k.a. “Captain Roy,” whose book, “QAnon: An Invitation to the Great Awakening,” has been a big seller on Amazon. Davis, addressing Trump’s retweets, told the Daily Beast, “It draws more eyes.”
Thread: Trump last night amplified nearly 20 accounts supporting QAnon & that have pushed QAnon content (some of th… https://t.co/FCzSEmqMet— Alex Kaplan (@Alex Kaplan)1577544286.0
Multiple accounts that Trump retweeted this morning appear to have pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory. https://t.co/vVe6ir61yH— Alex Kaplan (@Alex Kaplan)1556712903.0
Trump hasn’t actually mentioned QAnon in any of his tweets, and Sommer acknowledges that the president could be retweeting QAnon-friendly tweets without realizing what he’s promoting — noting rapper/actor Ice-T’s “apparently accidental use of a QAnon meme in a tweet.” But one Trump campaign official who is calling QAnon out is Jessie Jane Duff.
On Twitter, Duff posted, “I know we on the campaign don’t support Q and its all bizarre nonsense for ppl who need to believe something,” Duff tweeted. “Q is so absurd, why should the President acknowledge it when NO ONE cares? It isn’t a campaign issue. it isn’t an economic issue. It’s an issue for ppl who wish they were in the know based upon irrelevant or anonymous sources on irrelevant web sites.”
The FBI, Sommer notes, considers QAnon a “potential source of domestic terrorism.” Last year, Staten Island resident and QAnon supporter Anthony Comello was charged in the March 13, 2019 shooting death of mobster Francesco “Frankie Boy” Cali.
Trump’s official Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, has 68.2 million followers.
