Absolutely wild stuff surrounding Trump.
Go deeper: The wildest right-wing conspiracy theory showed up at a Trump rally
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Among the rally-goers at President Trump's
Make America Great Again event in Florida on Tuesday were followers of a growing right-wing conspiracy theory — the QAnon crowd.
The big picture: A conspiracy theory that started in fringe online chatrooms has leaped to major political events. Whether President Trump does or does not know about the movement isn't of concern to "the anons," as they call themselves, since they often find signs of his support in almost anything.
What is QAnon?
To understand the movement, it's important to understand its language.
- "Q" is an anonymous internet user who claims to be a top government official. Per The Washington Post, Q is "waging war against the so-called deep state in service" to Trump.
- "Anons" are supporters of Q, The Daily Beast's Will Sommer reports.
- Q drops "bread crumbs," deeply vague hints, for "bakers," the users who then rush to decipher them.
- All of this is leading up to "the storm," which is when the QAnon community believes Trump will purge the government of criminals and deep state operatives.
According to Sommer, the main idea behind the movement is that every other president before Trump was corrupt and involved in serious criminal activity. The military then recruited Trump to run for president in order to stop it.
What they're saying
On fringe chatrooms like 8chan — an even more niche version of 4chan, the nefari