The Trump Campaign: Pizzagate and the emergence of ‘Q’
- John Zek
- Apr 23
- 7 min read
When Trump descended from his golden elevator to announce his presidential election in 2015 he was no stranger to conspiracy theories[i]and his presidential campaign was marked with the same superficial critiques and vagueness that made The Protocols popular. Documentarian Adam Curtis described Trump’s approach as ‘ceaseless shapeshifting’; a real-estate mogul turned reality star businessman who used rhetoric that might have come from the mouth of someone at an Occupy Wall Street rally. Trump was going to ‘drain the swamp’ and in the same breath argued that he could not be bought as he was so rich; he was a political chimera where his supporters could both ‘love freedom’ and celebrate locking up their political enemies.
The 2016 Presidential campaign was aided by a vast army of denizens from the image board and forum 4chan[ii] who mixed mocking and ironic meme culture with cryptic but earnest white nationalism. They dubbed themselves ‘kekistanis’[iii] and converted the image of Trump into a frog headed humanoid, part satirical nod to Icke’s paranoid ramblings of ‘reptilian overlords’ and part surreal joke as Southern Poverty Law Centre a U.S nonprofit that tracks hate groups describes them as:
“Kek, in the alt-right’s telling, is the “deity” of the semi-ironic “religion” the white nationalist movement has created for itself online – partly for amusement, as a way to troll liberals and self-righteous conservatives both, and to make a kind of political point.”[iv]
Trump was their God of Chaos and disruption. Author Robert Guffey and Rushkoff view the 2016 election or the ‘Great Meme war’ as it was called by alt-right trolls as the offspring of the Hippy era ‘Operation Mindfuck’. This time the roles had reversed and the anti-establishment was members of the far right and the pro-establishment was the left- these flipped roles saw trolls stage a variety of esoteric and virulent memes which kept the Clinton campaign constantly on the backfoot, fighting allegation after allegation. Much like Mindfuck- the accusations that a frog could be a symbol of white supremacy proved a dual purpose- the ridiculousness of the allegation allowed for mockery, furthering the reach.
In this crucible of isolation, anger, racism, misogyny (and presumably cheeto dust) the first bizarre and convoluted conspiracy theories on the Democrats and Trump were forged. Weeks before the 2016 election Wikileaks released emails stolen by Russian hackers from James Podesta (Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairperson) 4chan users trawled through his emails and claimed the phrase ‘cheese pizza’ were in fact code words for CP: child pornography. They claimed the popular Washington, D.C., pizzeria Comet Ping Pong was the centre of this child trafficking empire, where an elite cabal of satanic cannibals (among whom included prominent Democrats Hillary Clinton, her husband and supportive Hollywood Elites) bought
children to harvest their adrenochrome. [v]
The theory hit almost all the right notes of conspiracism, so much so that in early December a man armed with an assault rifle entered the pizzeria to "self-investigate."[vi]
Many view ‘Pizzagate’, as it was dubbed, as a precursor to the QAnon movement.
Almost a year later on October 2017 a poster on 4chan who identified themselves as ‘Q’ began posting cryptic messages. ‘Q’ claimed they were a government agent with top security clearance[vii] and their posts were secret government intel; through thousands of posts (totalling up to 100,000 words over four years)[viii] Q claimed that the government is controlled by a secretive, powerful group of paedophiles who worship Satan and control the Democratic party, the media, and Hollywood. Q’s writings were a melange of conspiracy theories referencing Icke, Cooper, the Satanic panic and included both new and old conspiracy theories ranging from ‘9/11 was an inside job’[ix] to purporting the 2020 Beirut blast was planned by the Rothschilds. [x] Analysts describe the followers of ‘Q’: QAnon, as a ‘big tent’ conspiracy theorist group that sweeps up all conspiracy theories into one grand conspiracy. QAnon has all the hallmarks of a conspiracist, and fascist cult and it is fair to liken ‘Q’ to the modern equivalent of The Protocols.
Guffey compares ‘Q’ to the modern scam of catfishing posing as someone you are not online to gain something. Reading Q’s posts, you will get a feeling of dejavu and it is clear the author has read The Protocols; the posts are a scattershot of ideas that appeal to different groups, some real grievances and others conspiratorial, one post writes:
“POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
THEY WANT YOU DIVIDED.
THEY WANT RACE WARS.
THEY WANT CLASS WARS.
THEY WANT RELIGIOUS WARS.
THEY WANT POLITICAL WARS.
THEY USE THE MEDIA.
THEY USE HOLLYWOOD.
THEY USE POLITICAL LEADERS.
THEY ARE LOUD.” [xii]
Other posts mention real conspiracies that have occurred like MKULTRA and Mockingbird though Q alleges the brainwashing experiments of MKULTRA worked and is still operational as a CIA unit. The posts of Q are often sprinkled with cryptic language, one says:
“some of us come here to drop crumbs, just crumbs”[xiii] another:
“What happens if the truth about Haiti is released?
Do D’s lose majority of the vote?
Through the looking glass.” [xiv]
This vague language is similar in method to horoscopes and fortune telling and when the prediction is wrong there can be an explanation, as Guffey argues QAnon believers might think:
“‘Wait a minute Q’s not wrong. We simply misinterpreted his predictions. We’re the ones who are wrong! Theres something wrong with us. We need to continue studying the posts until we come up with the correct interpretation…”[xv]
Similar to cults every failed prediction from Q (some of these being: Robert Mueller would team up with Trump to expose the Deep state, martial law was going to be declared in late 2017 or Hillary Clinton was going to be arrested in 2020) only led to more followers. The highwater mark of the QAnon movement so far was the January 6 United States Capitol attack in 2021 which saw thousands of right-wing protestors storm the capital building. Five people died and three years since the riot over 1200 people have been arrested, authorities were lucky to stop further violence: protestors were seen carrying zip-ties, pipe bombs were planted in the vicinity of the area, Molotov cocktails were recovered by police and a gallows was erected outside the building. All this was perceived to be ‘The Storm’ the coded term for the retribution and punishment upon political enemies and purported satanic paedophiles.[xvi]
Since leaving office former President Donald Trump has continued to embrace the symbolism and language of QAnon, he has used their music in his campaign rallies and a Media matters report found that between April 2023 to April 2024 he had reposted QAnon content over 800 times.[xvii]
So who was Q?
Left to right: Paul Furber, Jim Watkins and his son Ron Watkins
Much like the Protocols there has been intense speculation of the identity of Q. Sleuths and investigators had long considered several of the earliest Youtubers who boosted Q’s posts, other suspects were Ron Watkins and his father Jim Watkins. Around early 2018 Q had moved from posting on 4chan to a new website 8chan (now 8kun) which Jim Watkins owned. A retired U.S army helicopter engineer who lived in the Philippines and ran a pig farm and online pornography business, Jim’s financial incentive was clear. In 2022 computer scientists used machine learning to identify with what they claim is 93% accuracy that Jim’s son Ron was likely an author of the Q posts following this switchover. Another man, South African software engineer and tech journalist Paul Furber who was an early commentor of Q’s posts was identified, something that many researchers overlooked as while other Youtubers had sought financial donations Furber had not. It seems Furber was a true believer. [xviii]
Since late 2020 ‘Q’ has all but disappeared. They resurfaced briefly in for a period in 2022 where several new posts were made (coincidentally at the same time when the alleged ‘Q’ Ron Watkins ran for Congress). Despite setbacks QAnon content is still prevalent and two U.S representatives Marjory Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert are publicly QAnon believers.
[i] He had popularised the ‘Birther’ movement of the Obama campaign, the false claim Obama was not born in the U.S
[ii] 4chan is an anonymous forum (users are described as ‘anons’ i.e. Q-anon). It is draw for some who are looking for stranger and hardcore content among its boards are anime fandom, hardcore pornography, art and photography and gaming.
[iii] A viral inside joke Kek originated from a gaming site and used like lol. Eventually users ‘made a country’ kek-istan, like central Asian countries that use the suffix ‘stan’. It’s about as smart as it sounds.
[iv] David Neiwert. What the Kek: Explaining the Alt-Right ‘Deity’ behind Their ‘Meme Magic.’Southern Poverty Law Center May 9, 2017.. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/05/08/what-kek-explaining-alt-right-deity-behind-their-meme-magic.
[v] Kaylee Fagan. #SaveTheChildren: How a fringe conspiracy theory fueled a massive child abuse panic. Media Manipulation Casebook. (2022, March 22). https://mediamanipulation.org/case-studies/savethechildren-how-fringe-conspiracy-theory-fueled-massive-child-abuse-panic#footnote15_8ozqr6z
[vi] BBC News. Pizzagate: Gunman Fires in Restaurant at Centre of Conspiracy. December 5, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38205885
[vii] The moniker seems to callback to William Cooper who in his book claimed that he had ‘Q’ clearance.
[viii] David D. Kirkpatrick. Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/technology/qanon-messages-authors.html
[ix] The claim comes from the belief that the World trade centres could not collapse in the manner they did, instead conspiracy theorists point to controlled demolitions.
[x] The blast was caused by improper storage of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer.
James Suber & Jacob Ware. Examining Extremism: QAnon. Center for International & Strategic Studies (CSIS), 2021. https://www.csis.org/blogs/examining-extremism/examining-extremism-qanon.
[xi] David D. Kirkpatrick. Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints. The New York Times, Feb. 24, 2022. Accessed 24/08/24: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/technology/qanon-messages-authors.html
[xii]Q. You have a choice. 4chan, (30 June 2018). Accessed from https://github.com/jkingsman/JSON-QAnon https://github.com/jkingsman/JSON-QAnon
[xiii]Q. Some of us come here to drop crumbs, just crumbs.4chan, (29 October 2017). Accessed from https://github.com/jkingsman/JSON-QAnon
[xiv]Q. Projection. 4chan, (30 October 2017). Accessed from https://github.com/jkingsman/JSON-QAnon
[xv] Robert Guffey. Operation Mindfuck: QAnon and the cult of Donald Trump. (OR Books, 22 July 2022) Chapter 3, Fun with adrenochrome.
[xvi] Julia Wong. QAnon explained: The Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory Gaining Traction around The World. (The Guardian. August 25, 2020). https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/25/qanon-conspiracy-theory-explained-trump-what-is
[xvii] Alex Kaplan. Trump has now amplified QAnon-promoting accounts over 800 times on Truth Social. May 23rd, 2024. Accessed from: https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/trump-has-now-amplified-qanon-promoting-accounts-over-800-times-truth
[xviii] David D. Kirkpatrick. Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints. The New York Times, Feb. 24, 2022. Accessed 24/08/24: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/technology/qanon-messages-authors.html
Comments