Former President Trump reblogged a meme reacting to a QAnon message from 2017 early Tuesday morning, causing a stir online.
In screenshots of Trump’s Truth Social page posted by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, the former president appeared to reshare a message Q posted to 4chan’s popular /pol/ channel in 2017.
But, according to another report, Trump reposted a meme that was reacting to the Q drop, not the drop itself. However, Truth Social’s balky user interface made it look like he reposted the drop.
“Who is the Commander and Chief of the military?” the cryptic message reads “Under what article can the President impose [Martial Law], take over investigations for the 3 letter agencies? What conditions must present itself?”
The fact that it appeared Trump shared something directly from QAnon caused a frenzied response
Although it appears that Trump wasn’t citing the conspiracy directly, the meme he was reposting was additionally steeped in the conspiracy, with a picture of Trump calling himself the “Storm.”
The QAnon movement originated in 2017 and grew in popularity among far-right Americans. The crux of the conspiracy theory is that a satanic, cannibalistic, and child sex trafficking cabal conspired against Trump during his term in office. Q supporters claim that Trump is working to expose the sexual predators and could conduct mass arrests or executions of cabal members on a day known as “The Storm.”
Over the course of the Trump presidency, Q, the person behind the claims, would post anonymous messages on 4chan and later 8chan. Members of Trump’s staff have amplified QAnon-derived theories, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and QAnon supporters were heavily involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In subsequent, now-deleted posts on Tuesday, Trump also reblogged a myth that the FBI and antifa colluded to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, not his supporters. He also reblogged a fake quote from his own daughter, which said that the Biden administration was “trying to manipulate” Americans with “useless vaccines” and that with their book—which Biden apparently banned—Americans can cure themselves naturally of COVID-19 at home.
Yesterday, Trump went on Truth Social to declare he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election and that the election was stolen, a lie he was repeatedly spouted since the election was called and which remains popular in the QAnon conspiracy