In flailing bid to reverse US election loss, Donald Trump turns to his last hardcore base: QAnon heroes

Trump has recently hosted three QAnon figures at the White House and toyed with suggestions circulating in the conspiracy movement’s community

The group believes the president is fighting a Satan-worshipping cabal of paedophile elites who control Washington

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A person holds a QAnon flag during a rally to protest the results of the US election in Washington. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:13pm, 24 Dec 2020Updated: 11:42pm, 24 Dec 2020

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Tina Nguyen on politico.com on December 23, 2020.

With his presidency dwindling, Donald Trump is turning to QAnon heroes, contemplating QAnon ideas and boosting QAnon accounts.

At the White House, Trump has recently hosted three of the conspiracy movement’s most prominent figures. On Twitter, he has surged his activity boosting QAnon-linked accounts. And he has been toying with a series of suggestions – such as seizing the voting machines – that are circulating in QAnon circles.

Trump has long flirted with QAnon figures and equivocated when asked to denounce the movement, which believes Trump is fighting a Satan-worshipping cabal of paedophile elites who control Washington.

But Trump’s recent moves are perhaps the most he has directly engaged with QAnon-beloved figures as president in such a short period. In a matter of several days, he met multiple times with Sidney Powell, the controversial lawyer who is a hero in the QAnon community, and talked multiple times with Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first QAnon-booster to get elected to Congress.

Trump also met with Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who became a celebrated QAnon figure after seeking to rescind a guilty plea for lying to the FBI.