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Topline
Adherents of the rapidly growing pro-Trump conspiracy movement QAnon descended upon Dallas over Memorial Day weekend for a conference that spawned a number of viral moments which underscore both the severity of the group’s beliefs and its increasingly mainstream status in some GOP circles.
OREGON, USA – MARCH 28 : A Qanon supporter is chased by black bloc counter-protesters. More than a … [+]
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Key Facts
The For God & Country Patriot Roundup, which was steeped in QAnon regalia and hosted by major QAnon supporters, included appearances by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Texas GOP Chair Allen West and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn, a former three-star general who received a pardon from Trump in November for lying to the FBI had the most viral moment of the event, who responded to an audience question by stating there is “no reason” the U.S. shouldn’t have a coup like the one in Myanmar in February, adding, “It should happen.”
Referencing a popular QAnon theory, former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who helped lead his 2020 election lawsuits, discussed the baseless idea that Trump can be “reinstated” on a “new inauguration date,” with President Joe Biden being “told to move out of the White House.”
Key Background
The QAnon conspiracy movement emerged during the 2016 election and baselessly posits that Trump was combating a cabal of bureaucrats, liberal politicians and Hollywood figures running an underground child sex trafficking cult. The movement expanded considerably during Trump’s presidency, though Trump’s election loss and increasingly strict new social media content policies appear to have curbed some of that growth.
Tangent
The event – tickets for which went for $500 each – was reportedly organized by John Sabal, known in QAnon circles as “QAnon John.”
Big Number
79. That’s how many conspiracy-motivated crimes had been committed by QAnon believers as of May 26, 2021, according to a report from the Domestic Radicalization Project at the University of Maryland, including the Comet Ping Pong shooting in 2016 and an assassination threat against Biden.
Crucial Quote
“Well, I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate,” Trump said of the group during a White House press briefing last August, adding, “if I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it.”
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