Trump keeps getting closer to QAnon: "It's like a cult"
Created: 2022-10-02 23:08
By: Teresa Toth
Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy group now identify themselves during Trump speeches.
© Chris Seward/dpa
Both QAnon and Trump see a conspiracy behind everything - that makes them allies.
However, they have never been as close as they are now.
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump seems to be getting closer and closer to the conspiracy theorists of the QAnon movement.
A few weeks before the important parliamentary elections in early November, Trump shared a drawing posted by another user with more than four million followers on his Twitter replacement Truth Social.
It shows Trump with a Q symbol on his jacket.
The image also reads: "WWG1WGA" - short for QAnon's motto "Where one of us goes, we will go together."
It has long been known that Trump is close to the right-wing extremist group.
During his tenure, his team at least kept QAnon at a distance – said the scientist and author Mia Bloom, who researches the group, to the
German Press Agency
in Washington.
One scene from the fall 2020 campaign was particularly memorable when a journalist asked Trump about QAnon, to which he replied, "I don't know much about the movement other than that they like me a lot -- which I appreciate."
Trump and QAnon: The conspiracy group's fans are stepping out of the shadows
Trump has always been able to present it as having nothing to do with QAnon - whether convincingly or not, according to Bloom.
That has now changed.
His QAnon fans are stepping out of the shadows.
At an event on Saturday evening (October 1) in Warren, Michigan, supporters of the movement sat in the front rows directly in front of the lectern from which Trump spoke.
At another Trump speech in Ohio, the organizers played a song that inspired some in the crowd to respond with a raised finger, possibly symbolizing the "1" in the QAnon motto.
And Trump himself officially confirms his sympathy with the group.
For example, the former US President shared a video with a huge "Q" over his face on his own account.
The accompanying text: “Information warfare.
It's time to wake up.” QAnon, which was founded on the Internet about five years ago, and Trump have in common that they suspect a clique behind everything that happens in the world that pulls the strings.
Donald Trump and QAnon: The former President may feel isolated
According to Bloom, there is a reason why Trump is now flirting so aggressively with the conspiracy theorists.
"I think he's feeling a bit isolated right now," she says, referring to the FBI's search of his Mar-a-Lago, Florida home and the various legal issues he's currently dealing with.
QAnon advocates are "the most loyal followers, fanatical, almost like a cult".
From them he gets love, support and donations.
"I think Trump thinks QAnon is like a secret army," she said.
With the proliferation of far-right conspiracies and their unconditional support for Trump, they could do a lot of damage.
For the 76-year-old, QAnon is a card he has in hand.
"It's like a cult," she says.
"They believe everything he says." QAnon's central conspiracy theory is that there is a satanic elite who kidnap children and use their blood to prepare a rejuvenating juice.
(tt/dpa)
