A cavalcade of supporting characters in the MAGA universe, and President-elect Donald Trump, showed up at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday to attend a soirée for the conspiratorial, QAnon-adjacent conservative non-profit America’s Future. Mel Gibson, the traditionalist Catholic actor/director, told the crowd, “I got nine kids, if one of them got stolen or trafficked, I’d have to kill someone.” That chimes with the kind of themes promoted by the group’s chairman, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has remade America’s Future in his own image. Since his appointment in 2021, the formerly meat-and-potatoes conservative group has shifted to promoting QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories about a clandestine cabal of pedophiles controlling media and government. Last year, Gibson executive produced Sound of Freedom, a Christian thriller starring QAnon conspiracist Jim Caviezel that stoked QAnon paranoia. He praised Flynn for exposing “wolves in sheep’s clothing that prey upon our young,” during Tuesday night’s speech at Trump’s club. In addition to Gibson—who arrived in a polo shirt, shorts and Crocs before changing into a more appropriate suit and tie—other attendees included British comedian turned conspiracy theorist Russell Brand, car dealership fortune heir turned working-class poseur Kid Rock, Fox News outcast Tucker Carlson, and former Trump advisor Roger Stone. Trump was listed as an “invited honored guest” and was seen alongside Flynn before he briefly addressed attendees outside.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT