How the QAnon movement entered mainstream politics – and why the silence on Epstein files matters

The Justice Department urged a federal court on July to unseal grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein s matter The direction from President Donald Trump came after weeks of frustration among specific far-right groups over his administration s refusal to release the complete and unredacted Epstein files Epstein a wealthy financier with high-profile connections was arrested in on sex trafficking charges and later died by suicide in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial In early a federal court unsealed portions of the court documents While names of selected of the alleged clients and casualties were issued multiple were redacted or withheld Epstein s arrest and death became a central focus for QAnon followers who saw them as proof of a hidden global elite engaged in child trafficking and protected by powerful institutions The release or withholding of the Epstein files is often cited within QAnon movement circles as evidence of a broader cover-up by the so-called deep state Selected followers of the MAGA Make America Great Again movement and the Republican Party believe in the false claim that the United States is secretly controlled by a cabal of elites who are pedophiles sex traffickers and satanists Related Conspiracy theory is the new normal was the year QAnon went mainstream Over time what started as a baseless conspiracy on obscure platforms has migrated into the mainstream It has influenced rhetoric and approach debates and even reshaped the American political landscape The foundational belief of a multitude of of the QAnon followers is that Trump is a heroic figure fighting the elite pedophile ring Trump s attempts at downplaying or obstructing the very disclosures they believe would validate their worldview has led to confusion To various the delay in the release of the files feels like a betrayal or even the possibility of his wrongdoing Others are trying to reinterpret Trump s actions through increasingly baseless conspiracy logic Trump has publicly dismissed demands for the full release of the Epstein Files as a hoax He has also made false states On July Trump commented And I would say that you know these files were made up by Comey They were made up by Obama As a scholar who studies extremism I know that the movement views Trump as a mythological figure and it interprets Trump s actions to fit this overarching narrative an elasticity which makes the movement both durable and dangerous From Pizzagate to QAnon The QAnon movement began with the Pizzagate conspiracy theory in which falsely claimed that high-ranking Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington D C pizzeria The baseless theory gained enough online momentum that a man armed with an assault rifle stormed the restaurant seeking to free the children In an anonymous figure called Q began posting cryptic messages on message boards like chan and kun The baseless accusations of a global system of elites involved in controlling global institutions including governments businesses and the media as well as operating a child trafficking and ritual abuse were central to the QAnon movement s narrative The movement has recruited followers through language like Save the Children to mobilize around issues of child trafficking Countless QAnon adherents particularly women were drawn to the movement through such appeals to child protection According to psychologists Sophia Moskalenko and Mia Bloom this type of appeal taps into powerful emotional instincts making conspiracy theories like QAnon more persuasive and harder to dislodge even in the face of contradictory evidence QAnon movement s rise QAnon followers perceived Trump as a messianic figure working to expose this cabal in a climactic reckoning known as The Storm a moment when mass arrests would absolutely bring justice They claimed that this moment would eventually bring about a Great Awakening a reference to the religious revivalist movements of the th and th centuries In this context the phrase described the supposed political and spiritual enlightenment that would follow The Storm a moment of mass realization when people would wake up to the truth about the deep state In the FBI identified QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat and major social media platforms began banning related content but by then QAnon had bled into mainstream conservative politics Q-endorsing candidates such as Marjorie Taylor Greene ran for and won elected office a year later Trump and QAnon During Trump s first administration from to the QAnon movement flourished The posts from Q claimed to reveal insider knowledge of a secret war being waged by the president often in coordination with the military against the powerful elite Trump never explicitly endorsed the movement but he did little to distance himself from it His administration also included figures like former National Measure Adviser Michael Flynn who openly interacted with Q content online Trump s rhetoric especially during the COVID- pandemic and the voting process gave new life to QAnon narratives When he questioned the integrity of the electoral process QAnon followers interpreted it as confirmation of the deep state s meddling However after Trump s loss to Joe Biden in the presidential race QAnon followers revised their original prophecy to maintain belief in The Storm and The Great Awakening Particular claimed the defeat was part of a larger secret plan with Biden s presidency serving as a cover for exposing the deep state Particular maintained Trump remained the true president behind the scenes while others reframed the awakening as a spiritual rather than political event Indeed by several congressional candidates openly embraced or displayed sympathy for the QAnon movement At various campaign rallies in and after Trump used the movement s symbolism On Truth Social his social media platform he retweeted Q-affiliated accounts and praised QAnon supporters as people who love our country That same year he reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words The Storm is Coming After the elections Trump s departure from the White House in January created an existential problem for the QAnon movement Predictions that he would declare martial law or arrest Joe Biden and other Democrats on Inauguration Day failed to materialize Q s posts also stopped leaving multiple followers adrift Various abandoned the theory Others rationalized the failed predictions or embraced new conspiracy narratives such as the belief that Trump was still secretly in charge or that the military would soon act to reinstate him Particular QAnon communities merged with or were absorbed into broader anti-vaccine anti-globalist and Christian nationalist movements How big is the movement Estimating the number of QAnon believers is arduous because multiple individuals do not openly identify with the movement and those who do often hold a range of loosely connected or partial beliefs rather than adhering to a consistent or uniform ideology Not everyone who shares a Q meme or echoes a Q talking point identifies as being part of the movement That commented surveys by groups like the Citizens Religion Research Institute and the Associated Press have detected that of Americans believe in specific of QAnon s core states such as the existence of a secret group of Satan-worshipping elites controlling the authorities Among Republican voters the number is often higher This does not mean all these people are hardcore QAnon adherents but it does show how far the narrative or parts of it has seeped into mainstream thinking Epstein as evidence of the cabal The Trump administration s failure to disclose the information in Epstein files has fueled internal confusion disillusionment and even radicalization within the movement For several QAnon believers this failure was a turning point if Trump once seen as the hero in the conspiracy narrative would not or could not reveal the truth then the deep state must be more entrenched than imagined At the same time frustrations have grown within MAGA and the QAnon movement s spaces Specific see it as a failure to fulfill one of his majority vital promises exposing elite pedophiles Others believe the delay is strategic another example of the plan requiring more patience The QAnon movement continues to evolve even as its central figure hedges and hesitates showing how potent myths can be in times of uncertainty In my view understanding why this belief continues to gain traction is essential for understanding the current state of American democracy Art Jipson Associate Professor of Sociology University of Dayton This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license Read the original article Read more about this topic What if they re not crazy Belief in conspiracy theories may be normal QAnon Sound of Freedom and the rise of MAGA vigilantism QAnon s weirdest obsession Why does the radical far right fear the 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