Trump's Latest Signal to QAnon Shows He's Scared
Trump’s latest rally in Ohio this weekend was alarming, but the salute from his supporters, that harkened back to Nazi’s saluting Hitler, caused many to overlook a more ominous concern. While the crowd saluted Donald Trump in a shocking way, the Trump Campaign echoed the QAnon call with its own subtle response. While Donald Trump spoke of chaos and destruction, his campaign played the QAnon theme song softly in the background.
Although Trump has made a point in the past of feigning ignorance when asked about his MAGA movement’s ties to the QAnon conspiracy theories that formed the basis for the attack on the US Capitol, he has made clear and pronounced statements that definitively link him to that violence.
“Proud Boys stand back and stand by,” barked Donald Trump who was cornered in a debate against Joe Biden in 2020, when he was accused of supporting white supremacists. Instead of condemning the actions of QAnon and all of their para-military subgroups, he sent out a rallying cry, one that he is intensifying now through QAnon songs and social media posts.
Trump is now intentionally and purposefully echoing QAnon propaganda in an attempt to meld it with his faltering MAGA movement when it seemed he was slightly downplaying his QAnon association before. At a rally for Republican Senatorial Candidate JD Vance this weekend, a QAnon anthem, titled “WWG1WGA,” an acronym used as a rallying cry for Q adherents that stands for “Where we go one, we go all,” was played during his speech.
A Trump spokesperson denied that the song was played at all and insisted the song that was played was called “Mirror” saying, “The fake news, in a pathetic attempt to create controversy and divide America, is brewing up another conspiracy about a royalty-free song from a popular audio library platform.”
Directly contradicting this statement is the fact that the Trump Campaign has previously used songs without permission. Just ask the Rolling Stones, who claim Trump breached licensing agreements and demanded that he cease using their music in 2020. Additionally, Trump chose to play the QAnon “WWG1WGA” song to close out a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
The same song appears in one of his recent campaign videos, a video which also displays the prominent QAnon theme of “The Storm.” For years, a mysterious figure called Q, which supposedly directs the QAnon crowd, has issued promises that Trump’s political enemies are on the verge of being exposed and defeated by Trump in a cataclysmic event called "the Storm."
Despite “The Storm” never fully materializing, QAnon followers still believe in their conspiracies, perhaps more than ever. QAnon's predictions failing to come to fruition have not led to any real abandonment of the movement; rather those associated with it see the lack of clarity as a call to take greater control of the direction of the movement. Enter Donald Trump who is doing what he does best — predicting a trend and capitalizing on it without ever brokering in the truth or reality.
Last week, Trump used his Truth Social platform to repost an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” This is a direct reference again to the QAnon “storm,” which refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television.
Trump “retruthed” the post (shown above), which is the term his platform uses to mimic a “retweet” that is used on Twitter. The fact that the layout of Truth Social is a cheap copy of the Twitter platform itself is not surprising, coming from Donald Trump, but he is openly using a call to QAnon-ers and their reverent search for “the truth” by naming the function this way.
This is not Trump’s first attempt to send out QAnon messages via his own social media site. Media Matters, an organization that tracks right-wing political extremists in media, says that Trump has posted or reposted more than 100 messages linked to QAnon since the beginning of the year.
The fact that Trump has upped his game in the QAnon imagery department to include a musical score and a movie poster just shows his increased desire to let the world know that he is backed by an angry, and often violent mob, that is willing to kill to restore him to power. When QAnon supporters call for “The Storm” they are not just signaling for the defeat of their political enemies, they are calling for a gruesome take-down of their opponents, where, if they are lucky blood will be spilled publicly for all to witness.
The FBI predicts that this attempt at a controlled rebound from QAnon, despite the lack of any of their prophecies materializing, will not deter members but instead will lead to more violence headed into November. The expected surge will likely involve “digital soldiers” taking violent action in the real world.
Perhaps the most damning example of how much Trump has openly embraced the violent QAnon movement comes from a QAnon-linked account on Truth Social that was commenting on Trump’s recent post involving storm imagery saying: “Trump [is] Sending a Clear Message Patriots. He Re-Truthed This for a Reason.”
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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I’m never quite sure if I should be amused or horrified that grown-ass adults who likely show at least a modicum of rationality in other parts of their lives go in for this complete horseshit. The founding generation, the greatest generation, now the dumbass generation. I would hope there’s not enough of these lunatics to propel that fat bastard back into office, that Fat Don is running out of adoring fans so he’s resorting to the crackpot wing for soothing comfort. But the simple fact these people have lots of guns and an inability to reason is definitely frightening.
That #^%&*!! psycho won't be satisfied until more people die in his name. He gets off on that.