Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former president who tried to overturn the 2020 elections and inspired the violent attack on the Capitol after he lost, tried his best to woo the QAnon crowd during his 2024 campaign announcement speech on Tuesday night.
Not only did he invite QAnon influencers to attend the event at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, Trump repeated several QAnon dog whistles during the 70-minute long speech, including multiple references to the storm, a well-known trope within the conspiracy movement. But while influential adherents to the movement were thrilled, most QAnon-ers posting on Telegram last night, in fact, reacted angrily to Trump’s announcement. This could be a worrying sign for Trump’s 2024 campaign, coupled with the growing resentment against the former president inside the Republican party after major GOP midterm election losses.
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Certainly, the response among the major figures within QAnon, a group of influencers and grifters who have driven the movement in recent years, was almost universally positive. “Make NO mistake…President Trump is absolutely UNSHAKABLE,” an influencer known as QAnon John wrote on his popular Telegram channel, adding: “That’s WHY God picked him.”
Jordan Sather, a QAnon influencer who uses his popularity within the movement to shill vitamin supplements, also hyped Trump’s return. Sather was actually in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom for the announcement and excitedly wrote on Telegram that during lunch earlier in the day Trump had passed his table and gave the group a thumbs up.
But for rank-and-file QAnon supporters, who have spent the last two years loudly voicing their anger at having the 2020 election stolen, the announcement was a bitter blow. The majority, who voiced their opinions on Telegram channels and fringe message boards, viewed Trump’s speech as a tacit admission that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen.
“Does he seriously think there will be anyone left to vote in two years, or better yet, that our country will even be viable?!!! We will NOT make it two more years! This is a flippin joke! I don’t know about you guys but I’m pissed! The storm is coming…in two years,” one member of a popular QAnon forum wrote on Telegram after Trump’s speech.
“Patriots aren’t in control of anything, the cabal is,” another wrote.
Others were even less conciliatory: “I’m fucking done with this political shit show and WILL NEVER VOTE AGAIN! FUCK POLITICS AND THE NAZI REGIME,” one Telegram user wrote.
Some influencers tried to quell the concern. But after QAnon John suggested in a post that Trump’s abandoning of the 2020 election denier claims was all part of the plan, one Telegram user responded, “Trump pissed off a LOT of people tonight. Never thought my loyalty would be challenged by the Dems, but Instead from Trump himself. We will NOT wait until 2024. Trump conceded tonight. It’s over. Trump being “one of them” seems much more plausible now.”
When one major QAnon group posted a message suggesting that Trump had prevented election fraud in 2016 when he was first voted into office and would do so again in 2024, a follower of the group angrily replied: “If they could’ve stopped the fraud, why didn’t he in 2020 or 2022? Stop it.”
But of course, as always with QAnon, some members of the movement still tried to find hope in the former president’s announcement.
One conspiracy that took hold in the hours after Trump’s speech was claimed he never mentioned 2024—though that isn’t true.
“Everyone go rewatch his speech. Nowhere did he say 2024. Remember it’s a movie we are watching,” one QAnon believer wrote. Another user who supported this baseless claim cited a conspiracy made popular by sovereign citizens, who believe that they are not subject to the laws of the United States because it’s a corporation rather than a republic.
“Patriots, sleep easy tonight,” the user wrote on Telegram. “Trump is looking for our vote in 2023, not 2024. He never said 2024. A 2024 election belongs to the Corporation. It’s dead.”
Trump’s efforts to remain in the White House in 2020 have triggered multiple legal investigations. Earlier this year, the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home in order to recover boxes of classified documents the former president allegedly illegally took with him when he left office.
