QAnon: The conspiratorial force behind Trump

The 2020 presidential election approaches, and we have seen more and more members of the QAnon movement showing up in the media and at President DonaldTrump's campaign rallies. But, who are they exactly?

Consisting of thousands of members throughout numerous Facebook communities and other online platforms, QAnon is a conspiracy group that believes that President Donald Trump was recruited by military generals to run for president in 2016 to take down a global child sex trafficking ring operated by pedophiliac government officials and entertainers, such the Clintons and Oprah. And so, with the arrival of the 2020 presidential election next month, it is almost certain that Mr. Trump will once again capture the vote of the ever-growing QAnon movement. It has become more common to see members of the movement showing up at Mr. Trump‘s campaign rallies and publicly branding the letter “Q.” They're no longer some little group anymore.

The growth of QAnon

According to The New York Times account on QAnon, the birth of the movement began in October 2017 when an anonymous account, “Q Clearance Patriot,” posted on the public message board 4chan. This user, who then became known as “Q,” had claimed to be a high-ranking intelligence officer who had “classified information” on Mr. Trump’s fight against a global child sex trafficking ring among elite government officials and entertainers.

Lisa Welch, a 50-year-old QAnon follower from Clearwater, Florida, has been a part of the community “since the very first drop”:

To this day, Q’s identity is still unknown, but the number of QAnon members has certainly grown as we begin to see more of them appearing in the real world rather than just the internet. Many of them have been starting to appear in the media and especially at Mr. Trump’s campaign rallies. Even a prominent congressional candidate for Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has recently established herself as a QAnon follower to the public.

Moreover, the QAnon movement has also grown to become attached to activist causes, like the legitimate anti-child-trafficking movement Save the Children. They made connections with many other conspiracy groups as well.

The movement may have a global influence that extends the United States as well. Fabrizio Nuñez, a 27-year-old QAnon follower from El Salvador, believes that there’s a network of people across the world connected to the movement, as it is “one of the six global projects” going on right now. He further explained that Mr. Trump’s win in presidency would be important for the movement’s agenda toward a "new world system”:

Regardless of Nuñez’s belief in Mr. Trump contributing toward a new QAnon world “system,” it remains unclear about whether or not Mr. Trump is actually a part of the movement. However, Mr. Trump once said in a White House press briefing, “I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”

The danger posed by QAnon

Aside from Mr. Trump’s talk of QAnon’s proud patriotism, the internet-based conspiracy movement has been notoriously known across the media for being violent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had even warned last year that QAnon could potentially be a domestic terror threat. After all, there have been several cases of QAnon followers involved in violent crimes, such as one in which a believer had been accused of murdering a mafia boss in New York last summer.

Two big social media corporations, Facebook and Twitter, have even began to take measures in repressing QAnon’s large presence on their platforms. As they acknowledge that the group has been linked to violence in the real world and dangerous claims, such as the idea of COVID-19 being a hoax, the corporations have started to discourage users from joining the movement by banning hashtags related to QAnon or kicking off QAnon groups that incite violence among their members.

On the other hand, in response to the media’s cautious perspective of the movement, some QAnon members are actually hurt by the notoriety that their community gets. Derek Johnson, who was an admin of the Facebook group “QAnon Universe” (a group now deleted from Facebook), expressed his concern for QAnon’s “bad reputation” to me through Facebook Messenger. He sent the following picture:

Finding “the truth” in QAnon

In regard to what QAnon means to her, Welch said that the movement is all about discovering “the truth” for yourself. Actually, before our interview, she directed me to qmap.pub to read through the “evidence” on my own. The recent posts that I saw consisted of a series of government official names, Republicans and Democrats, who were linked to sexual assault and sexual harassment cases involving minors.

Welch said, “You can go right on the internet to check it out. You don’t have to believe me.”

Welch further said that people have to follow more than just Q for evidence, as they should pay close attention to the small details around them. For example, there was one case in which she came to her own conclusion that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama must’ve been linked to pedophilia:

Welch didn’t stop there with her “conspiracy facts,” however. She added on to them, explaining how Barack Obama is really “Barry Soetoro” and how his wife Michelle is actually “Michael.” She had a lot to say about her other findings.

QAnon now, in the 2020 presidential election

Overall, as they paint Mr. Trump as a sort of savior in their beliefs, members of QAnon are presently trying to spread the influence of their movement for the upcoming presidential election. They make and wear QAnon merchandise, attend Mr. Trump’s rallies, and also intend to build their community on the web.

Nuñez is one of several QAnon members who hope that Mr. Trump will take his “great opportunity” to win the upcoming presidential election in the fight against the supposed global child sex trafficking ring. He expressed his confidence in Mr. Trump’s candidacy and ability.

Regardless, in the potential case of Mr. Trump losing the 2020 presidential election, Nuñez said that QAnon doesn’t necessarily need him. He said that with or without Mr. Trump, the QAnon agenda will still continue.

We’ll just have to see what that’ll entail.