Donald Trump stepped up his outreach to believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory on Thursday, posting a video filled with references to the movement that sees him in messianic terms.
The video, first posted to Trump social media network TruthSocial by a QAnon believer, features a slideshow of QAnon memes. The images allude to QAnon supporters’ beliefs that Democratic leaders are Satan-worshiping, cannibalistic pedophiles, and that Trump will soon execute them or imprison them in Guantanamo Bay. Trump reposted the video on his own account on Thursday night.
Trump’s promotion of the meme video marks the latest step in his recent campaign promoting QAnon. The images feature QAnon slogans like “Where we go one, we go all,” and reference “The Storm” — the moment QAnon believers think Trump will imprison his enemies and usher in a sort of fascist utopia. Other pictures included an edited image of Trump holding a playing card with “Q” on it, and another featuring Trump promising to take on the “Satanists” and “pedos.”
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The former president has become more overt about his attempts to promote the conspiracy theory in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Trump posted a photo illustration of himself wearing a “Q” pin. At a Trump rally in Ohio last weekend, he spoke over a song that seemed identical to a pro-QAnon song called “Wwg1wga,” though a Trump spokesperson denied it was that song.
Trump’s new outreach to QAnon believers comes just weeks after the latest murder allegedly inspired by the movement, which the FBI has classified as a potential source of domestic terrorism. On Sept. 11, a Michigan man murdered his wife and seriously wounded his adult daughter with a shotgun before being fatally shot by the police himself. The man’s other daughter blamed the incident on her father’s belief in QAnon.
A Trump spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The new video posted by Trump also included references to punishing “acts of treason” illustrated with the skull logo of vigilante superhero “The Punisher” — a favorite for QAnon believers — and a picture of a book on military criminal law, a reference to the QAnon idea that top Democrats and prominent celebrities will face military tribunals.
One picture shows an image of Trump protecting a wailing child, an apparent reference to the QAnon concept that Democrats sexually torture children and drink their blood.
“Pain is coming!” the text attached to the picture reads. “You should’ve stayed away from the children.”
The picture includes the hashtag “Save Our Children,” a reference to a QAnon offshoot movement from 2020.
QAnon leaders took Trump’s reposting of the video on Thursday as a recruiting opportunity, citing Trump’s support as evidence that QAnon conspiracy theories are real. On TruthSocial, Q booster Lisa Mei Crowley wrote that Trump’s post was a “massive hat tip” to QAnon supporters and a “big middle finger to the fake news.” Another prominent QAnon account on the site described the video as proof that “the Storm is coming.”
Another pro-QAnon user on TruthSocial used Trump’s video as an opportunity to indoctrinate more mainstream Trump supporters into the movement, writing that it is “never too late to jump on board.”
“You have a lot to catch upon,” they wrote. “And we would love to show you as much as we can.”
