Trump re-energizes QAnon community just weeks ahead of the midterm elections

For years, former President Trump has hinted at QAnon tolerance and support, but recently he has openly endorsed it through political rallies, speeches and even posts on his platform, Truth Social. And while the movement has suffered its setbacks over the years with Trump’s 2020 loss, the Jan. 6 aftermath and more, Trump has found a way to reenergize Q-sympathizers just weeks ahead of the US midterm elections.

“They’re certainly not as big and networked as they once were, but they are still there,” said ISD senior research manager Jared Holt to VICE News. “And a lot of them, in the absence of Q after Biden’s inauguration, pivoted towards election denialism, along with the rest of the conspiratorial GOP.”

“He’s using his platform as a former president to, at the very least, legitimize QAnon material, if not actively lend some credence to it, which is incredibly dangerous,” Jared said. “There are still millions of people getting this kind of imagery, watching Trump as he plays footsies in a more apparent and accelerating way with QAnon, so it’s implausible for me to imagine that there aren’t people in that crowd that haven’t been exposed to QAnon before that are maybe seeing it now because the [ex-]president is sharing it.”