Law enforcement agencies are raising security around the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of reports that QAnon supporters are convinced that Donald Trump will become president that day, and that it could become violent.
The U.S. Capitol Police already reported on March 4 a possible conspiracy by the militia to attack the Capitol, saying in a statement that they had taken “immediate steps to improve our security position” in a few days.
What is not clear is how many QAnon believers are actually on board with the idea that Trump will be in power again that day, or intends to take action himself.
Supporters of QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory that Trump is waging a secret war against an ominous cabal of cannibalistic Satanists in the Democratic Party and other liberal institutions, were well represented in the January 6 riot.
Out of the more than 250 individuals charged on January 6 for the storm on the Capitol, dozens have openly posted about their belief in QAnon and other conspiracy theories. The fur-clad conspiracy theorist known as the “QAnon Shaman” entered the Senate Hall and left a threatening letter to Vice President Mike Pence, while another QAnon supporter was caught in a “Q” shirt and captured threatening police officers and later claimed he helped attack the Capitol to make sure QAnon gets credit for the attack.
Many QAnon believers who were promised that Trump’s presidency would bring about a kind of American utopia, coupled with a violent purge of his opponents in a moment known as ‘The Storm’, were stunned on January 20 when Joe Biden took office was sworn. . In the QAnon chat rooms, some fans said Biden’s successful inauguration led them to suspect that the strange conspiracy theory was false, while others described the physical aversion to the feeling of deception.
At least some QAnon believers, however, have decided that Biden did not really become president. Instead, they borrowed an extensive theory of the civil movement against the government, claiming that the United States had been a corporation since the 1870s, not a country. In this narrative, the United States is a business owed to bankers in London, and no laws passed since then have been legal.
A faction of QAnon supporters claimed that Trump would return as head of the “real” US government on March 4 – the original date of the inauguration until 1933.
According to The Travis View, co-presenter of QAnon Anonymous, the March 4 theory is more popular among average QAnon believers than the promoters who make up the conspiracy theory’s public face. While many QAnon leaders have claimed that March 4 is a trap meant to arrest QAnon believers or blame them for violence, ‘Q’ – the anonymous figure of the whole movement – has not been seen since December. posted online, which means there is no power to accept or reject the March 4 idea.
View compares the views of March 4 with the idea, even in QAnon, controversial, the John F. Kennedy Jr. Fake his death to help Trump tackle the ‘deep state’.
“I think it’s a different situation in which the QAnon followers get it right, but it seems to be an embarrassment for some of the more established QAnon promoters,” View said.
On Telegram, the messaging program and social media network where many QAnon believers ended up after being banned in the wake of the riots on more major platforms, leading QAnon leaders urged their followers not to gather on March 4, and claiming their focus on the date is meant to undermine them. With ‘Q’ silent, others mention a ‘clue’ from Q that mentions both the word ‘trap’ and the phrase ‘March 4’ as proof that the date is meaningless in the QAnon canon.
January 6 was widely embraced by both QAnon supporters and other hard-core Trump supporters as an important date as it was the congressional vote of the election. Plotters openly discussed plans to violently attack the Capitol to disrupt the counting of votes, and protesters devised plans to drive to Washington together to weaken the numbers in the city. By comparison, there were significantly fewer open discussions over March 4th.
“The main promoters of QAnon – they’re not on board, but that’s a false flag,” View said.
Whatever happens on March 4, QAnon has already been linked to three murders. Recently, a QAnon believer allegedly killed an amateur legal expert who used sovereign civilian tactics in court.
The role of QAnon in the Capitol riots is also still emphasized in the alleged rioters’ court cases.
Jacob Chansley, the self-described ‘Q Shaman’, who was one of the first to storm the Capitol while wearing a spear and a bullhorn and wearing a headdress, claims to be a ‘leader’ of the violent conspiracy wash. He even wore the elaborate costume in several arrests in Arizona to raise awareness of QAnon, prosecutors had earlier claimed.
An employee of the Federal Aviation Administration who took a selfie in front of the office of House Speak Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was arrested after he claimed to have a ‘Q approval’ to enter the Capitol . Prosecutors say Kevin Strong allegedly told a QAnon witness that he had declared that World War III would take place on January 6 and that he had a “WW1WGA” flag – representing the popular QAnon slogan “where are we going one” , we all go “- to his house. Strong also told the witness he believes the QAnon ‘Storm’ would cover the cost of a truck he recently bought, according to a criminal charge.