Infamous pro-Trump conspiracy theorists have been 'strangely muted' on the Epstein scandal

Footage of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-a-Lago in the 1990s (Image: Screengrab via NBC News)

Will Sommer, author of “Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America," writes in The New York Times that though the recent revelations around deceased Jeffrey Epstein should have been a "dream" for conspiracy theorists, their reactions have been "strangely muted" and "dismayed."

QAnon, a far-right American political conspiracy theory and movement that claims a cabal in the "deep state" is operating a global child sex trafficking ring and that President Donald Trump is secretly fighting them, has been placed, Sommer says, in a awkward position by Trump's relentless resistance to releasing the Epstein files.

"What was harder to explain, for many believers, was why Mr. Trump spent so long resisting the release of the key evidence that would confirm what they suspected was happening all along," Sommer says.

He says that, while there are some "celebrants" of the Epstein developments, "much of QAnon’s response to Washington’s Epstein excitement has been strangely muted, even dismayed."

And as Congress near unanimously voted to release the Epstein files last week, the conspiracy theorists in the group may have already moved on, Sommer notes.

"But with revelations about Mr. Trump’s relationship to Mr. Epstein mounting, the default QAnon position has become that Mr. Epstein just isn’t that interesting anymore," he writes. "That’s partly because QAnon believers no longer stand out so brightly in the conspiracy-minded Republican mainstream."

Sommer explains that the truth doesn't exactly match the QAnon "grand fantasies of elite exposure that QAnon dreamed up at its height. But for QAnon, the real problem with the Epstein revelations is that Mr. Trump sits uncomfortably close to the center of them."

QAnon members took to social media after the vote to release the files, including Jon Herold, who wrote, “All the awful things that people are saying, I hope it’s not true,” Mr. Herold said. “I don’t want to see any of it.”

"Given that the conspiracy theory doubles as a cult of personality built around Mr. Trump, this sort of reaction isn’t particularly surprising. But the new emails do suggest the conspiracy theorists were right about Mr. Epstein’s significance — albeit not in the ways they thought," Sommer says.

The Epstein scandal, Sommer writes, should matter deeply to QAnon, "because he was a rare example of the supposed sex-trafficking cabal’s machinations coming out in the open."

"While Mr. Epstein was mentioned relatively rarely in QAnon before his 2019 indictment, his mysterious death propelled QAnon recruitment and provided endless alleys for its amateur internet sleuths to explore," Sommer adds.

Trump's long and proven friendship with Epstein, however, has always been difficult for QAnon to explain, Sommers notes.

"The traditional QAnon explanation for the pair’s closeness has been that Mr. Trump was getting close to Mr. Epstein just to bring more publicity to his crimes," he writes.

But this explanation has begun to look "shaier" as more emails about Trump and Epstein have emerged.

"QAnon’s retreat from the Epstein story is striking because there remain real questions about Mr. Epstein that could make for a rich vein of new theorizing," Sommer writes.

"For most QAnon believers the priority is protecting Mr. Trump at all costs. Even if it means no longer asking questions. Even if it means letting the moment they finally got something right pass them by. Even if it means continuing to thirst for a storm that will never come," he explains.

And while one-time QAnon believer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has moved away from Trump due in part to the Epstein scandal, Sommer says that "While Ms. Greene claimed she was no longer 'a victim' of 'media lies' that led her to QAnon, she still seems motivated by the hunt for information about sex trafficking that QAnon claimed to pursue."

QAnon, Sommer says, offered people "an understanding of the world in which Mr. Trump wasn’t letting his voters down, he was just fighting forces far more powerful and evil than they could imagine."

But things have changed, he writes.

"Now, Mr. Trump is once again bogged down in the first year of a presidential term, this time by the Epstein investigation. Prices are rising. Trump supporters are growing restless," Sommer says. "Do you think Q has one more clue left in him?"

From Your Site Articles