{"id":5480,"date":"2026-08-28T13:39:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5480"},"modified":"2026-08-28T13:39:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:39:02","slug":"a-dark-conspiracy-shaped-maga-and-still-haunts-trumps-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5480","title":{"rendered":"A dark conspiracy shaped MAGA \u2014and still haunts Trump\u2019s America"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Election Day in 2024, as voters cast their ballots, Elon Musk posted a campaign music video supporting Donald Trump\u2019s bid for president.<\/p>

Read more \u2018Kerfuffle\u2019 as Trump aides fan out to sell agenda \u2014 and\u00a0get pummeled by MAGA<\/a><\/p>

Set to Van Halen\u2019s \u201cJump,\u201d with a montage of 1980s cultural references and images of Trump in various strongman poses, the video includes a line about \u201cPATRIOTS\u201d in which the \u201cO\u201d turns into a \u201cQ,\u201d a reference to the online conspiracy theory QAnon. <\/p>

Started on the online forum website 4chan in 2017, QAnon spread false, far-right theories on social media about a shadowy cabal of satanic pedophiles among the political elite, which Trump was purportedly fighting alongside a mysterious ally named \u201cQ.\u201d<\/p>

As a scholar of conspiracy theories and extremism, I\u2019ve watched QAnon seep from the margins into mainstream American politics over the past decade. While Q stopped posting in 2022, the movement did not disappear. As we near the 10-year anniversary of QAnon, these theories continue to haunt America\u2019s politics.<\/p>

The afterlife of QAnon<\/h2>

Building on the 2016 \u201cPizzagate\u201d conspiracy theory, which claimed Democrats were trafficking children in the basement of a pizza restaurant based on interpretations of Hillary Clinton\u2019s leaked emails, QAnon appeared on 4chan in October 2017 with claims that Clinton was about to be arrested. <\/p>

That\u2019s when someone calling himself Q claimed to be an intelligence operator trying to expose the \u201cdeep state,\u201d a purported shadow government secretly controlling global events in pursuit of a satanic agenda. QAnon invited users to build the theory by decoding messages on social media. That work, Q claimed, would expose a satanic cabal of pedophiles among the elites. <\/p>

The theory is an example of what author Naomi Klein has called a \u201cconspiracy smoothie,\u201d mixing existing theories into a vast conspiracy map, which absorbs existing conspiracy theories about events such as 9\/11 or the JFK assassination into itself. The result is a sprawling theory combining paranoid interpretations of current events with historical conspiracies. <\/p>

Polls suggest that 20% of Americans had favorable views of QAnon as late as 2022. <\/p>

Many of Trump\u2019s nominations for high-ranking posts were figures who had previously been considered on the fringes of national politics. Some of them have brought conspiracy theories into the highest echelons of government.<\/p>

FBI Director Kash Patel, for example, has been sympathetic to QAnon. He appeared on a show hosted by a QAnon influencer before being selected to run the agency. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has advocated anti-vaccination conspiracy theories also shared by QAnon.<\/p>

QAnon haunts Washington<\/h2>

I\u2019m particularly fascinated by the ghost of QAnon \u2013 how the theory continues to haunt politics today. Philosophers call this tendency \u201chauntology\u201d: Political ideas and movements may die, but they continue to haunt our present.<\/p>

Q\u2019s ideas have not dissipated. It\u2019s what I call QAnon\u2019s afterlife, or the transformation of QAnon from a conspiracy theory to a political vocabulary. In fact, the movement\u2019s vocabulary quickly began to appear in official government circles at the start of Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>

In March 2026, for example, the official X account for the White House posted a photo of a mustachioed fighter pilot with the QAnon tagline \u201cPatriots are in Control.\u201d While the phrase may pass as mundane, I believe it is a clear reference to QAnon language, first used by Q in October 2017. <\/p>

Read more GOP crisis deepens as Trump throws party under the bus for his failures<\/a><\/p>

The U.S. Department of Labor posted the same phrase over an image of Trump in January 2026. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who has publicly advocated deep state conspiracies, ran the department until she resigned on April 20, 2026. <\/p>

And Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, celebrated America\u2019s 250th birthday with an AI-generated video called \u201cSweet Land.\u201d This post generated buzz because it referenced QAnon and prompted an online scavenger hunt for Q symbols.<\/p>

QAnon goes to war<\/h2>

Amid the U.S. war with Iran, some government officials have turned to QAnon for inspiration. <\/p>

The official account for the Pentagon\u2019s chief technology officer, Emil Michael, has posted propaganda using Q catchphrases as military slogans. For example, the department posted a picture of a Marine saluting Trump with the phrase \u201cTrust the Plan.\u201d <\/p>

On Truth Social, Trump posted a meme of himself on the deck of a battleship with the words \u201cIt was the Calm Before the Storm,\u201d a cryptic phrase first used by Trump while meeting with military leaders in October 2017. Almost exactly one month later, the phrase appeared as a central QAnon concept. <\/p>

The use of Q phrases by government agencies during wartime has excited online conspiracy theorists. They see it as an official endorsement that \u201cthe storm\u201d will soon be upon us, a time of upheaval and punishment of the shadowy deep state. For these conspiracy theorists, Trump and Q will bring about \u201cthe storm,\u201d to be followed by a golden age. <\/p>

The QAnon style of American politics<\/h2>

Whether or not these references to Q posts by official government accounts are truly ideological or simply trolling is less relevant than the effect they have. <\/p>

Official uses of Q language have invigorated conspiracy theorists to advance new theories, undermining public health, governance and civil society.<\/p>

And the Jeffrey Epstein files, which have exposed the late financier\u2019s private network and financial dealings, have only lent credence to QAnon theories among believers. That\u2019s because Q referenced Epstein Island in drops of information on 8chan and other message boards.<\/p>

I believe these ghostly eruptions of QAnon conspiracy theories into the public will only continue to divide Americans at a time of social and economic crisis.\n

\"The<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Matthew N. Hannah, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Politics and Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison<\/em><\/p>

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.<\/p>

Read more Canadian politicians vow to inflict \u2018massive pain\u2019 on MAGA states<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside the sprawling “conspiracy smoothie” that permanently re-wired the American political landscape<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nA dark conspiracy shaped MAGA \u2014and still haunts Trump\u2019s America - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5480\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A dark conspiracy shaped MAGA \u2014and still haunts Trump\u2019s America - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Inside the sprawling "conspiracy smoothie" that permanently re-wired the American political landscape\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5480\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-28T13:39:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/790f96ac8d89422e2c3c22b6adfe81eb.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\"},\"headline\":\"A dark conspiracy shaped MAGA \u2014and still haunts Trump\u2019s America\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-28T13:39:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480\"},\"wordCount\":991,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c045dee32728452c78c36797ef4bdd26.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5480\",\"name\":\"A dark conspiracy shaped MAGA \u2014and still haunts Trump\u2019s America - 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