CNN
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Supporters of QAnon on former President Donald Trump’s social media platform have celebrated what they see as his renewed embrace of the conspiracy theory over the past week after he shared a meme that was viewed as one of his most brazen nods to QAnon yet.
The meme Trump shared on Truth Social included an illustration of him wearing a “Q” on his lapel and two QAnon slogans – “The storm is coming” and “WWG1WGA” (Where we go one, we go all). A few days later, he held a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where he delivered some of his speech to music that sounded almost exactly like a song associated with QAnon. As he did that, a group of his supporters in the crowd began pointing in unison toward the sky.
“Once we saw that, we realized we might have a problem,” a Trump aide told CNN. The former President’s team spent hours online after the rally trying to understand what the salute meant and where it might have come from, sources said.
Some thought the crowd pointing one finger (their index finger) toward the sky was in reference to Trump’s “America First” platform, said one Trump aide who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity. Another said they believed it referred to “God first,” while others thought it might be an allusion to the QAnon slogan, “where we go one, we go all.”
Even among academics and experts who track QAnon and other disinformation online, the answer to what this all means remains unclear; they had not seen this one-finger salute before.
But the post was welcomed on Truth Social by followers of the conspiracy theory, who believe in the existence of an evil cabal and view Trump as their hero.
“At this point, anyone denying that Q was a legit operation affiliated with the Trump administration is in major denial,” read a post on one QAnon-supporting Truth Social account that has 120,000 followers.
Trump has appeared to associate with QAnon themes in the past. However some aides, who were not authorized to speak publicly, have dismissed concerns about their boss’ behavior, chalking it up to the mindless social media re-posts of a “boomer.”
His team has also continued to use a song at recent rallies after some of his aides became aware it had QAnon connections in early August.
Trump aides believe the former President had re-posted the meme not because it referenced QAnon, but because it was fashioned like a “Game of Thrones” poster, pointing out it resembled a poster Trump had brought to a Cabinet meeting as president.
Mindless or not, some experts say what Trump is doing is dangerous. “What we have is a former President, a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States, legitimizing what is in essence a cult,” Greg Ehrie, a former FBI special agent who now works with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told CNN Tuesday.
The FBI warned last year of the potential for QAnon to stoke violence, and some people who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol were wearing or carrying QAnon paraphernalia.
Trump has previously shared QAnon-adjacent memes – often retweeting conspiracy theorists while president before he was removed from Twitter. Asked about QAnon in 2020, Trump responded, “Well I don’t know much about the movement, other than they like me very much.”
The former President has been known to rapid-fire post to his Truth Social account, often without looking closely at the accounts he’s elevating or the content, according to a person close to Trump. “The QAnon stuff is way over his head,” claimed one Trump adviser describing a generally held view in his orbit.
Another person…
Read More: QAnon fans celebrate his latest embrace of the conspiracy