display
He got it on the front pages of newspapers worldwide, but no, Jake Angeli doesn't give interviews to established media outlets such as “The Republic” - he doesn't talk to the spreaders of “fake news”, he let the US magazine open it Align the request.
So if you want to know what drives the 32-year-old, who, with his eye-catching appearance - shirtless, fur hat with horns - was one of the most conspicuous figures among the people who stormed the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, you have to go especially to the social one Research media.
There are isolated portraits, video snippets, but also verbal contributions from the well-trained tattoo fan, which at least suggest something about his motives.
display
In May, for example, he told a reporter for the "Arizona Republic" who spoke to him on the sidelines of a pro-Trump event - apparently undercover - that he wanted to support his president and protect him against criticism from the media.
Here you will find content from Twitter
In order to interact with or display content from Twitter and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
Correspondingly, Angeli says that he sees all the criticism in the media of him and of what he is doing.
But there is also another point of view.
He (Trump) should see that there are also people who support him, good people, real patriots.
So it's clear that Angeli was a “real patriot” at the pro-Trump demonstration in Washington on Wednesday, and that he even made it to the Capitol together with dozens of other demonstrators.
He's an actor, at least sometimes
display
The photos of the heavily tattooed man with the headgear (a so-called "Buffalo Cap" made of fur and with animal horns), who screamed out his triumph, went around the world - and definitely fulfilled a need of the protagonist - that for attention.
Angeli sees himself as a character from show business, he dreams of a career as an actor or singer, and he occasionally works as a voice actor, reports US media.
The headgear, the face-painting, the bare torso - all of this serves to attract attention, wrote the newspaper "Arizona Republic", with which Angeli apparently exchanged a few more sentences.
Heated exchange with the security forces
Source: AP
But in addition to narcissism and longing for the show effect, Angeli apparently also drives an ideology that is widespread in the USA.
display
Angeli is a “Qanon” supporter, so he believes in a conspiracy in the highest circles of government, in secret child molestation rings and the ominous, long refuted “pizza connection” that keeps making headlines.
At Qanon it clicked
It is this typical, toxic combination of exaggerated individualism, an exaggerated concept of freedom and conspiracy theories that so many supporters of the (still incumbent) US President Trump share.
The source of all these theories is - and Angeli confirmed this in his ultimately quite numerous statements - the Internet.
“At a certain point everything clicked somehow,” he is quoted in a portrait by “Arizona Republic”.
Then he thought: “Oh dear God.
I now see the reality of what is going on. "
The group with which Angeli entered the Capitol
Source: AP
Various key words follow in his remarks that are also popular in German unconventional thinker circles - the Illuminati, the Freemasons and the Bilderberg Group, that is, groups that would secretly control the world.
It goes without saying that there is also a healthy dose of anti-Semitism.
The self-proclaimed “Q-Shaman” has a tattoo of a rune symbol on his chest that plays with a Nazi symbol and is particularly popular with White Supremacists.
The fact that a man like Angeli posed with a bare chest and this tattoo in the Senate should be a shame that the USA will not be able to forget anytime soon - especially since he was not the only one: Also a protester with a “Camp Auschwitz ”printed shirt was sighted.
Here you will find content from Twitter
In order to interact with or display content from Twitter and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
Whether Angeli can benefit from his questionable fame in the long term is open.
In any case, financially it looks rather bleak: When he started crowdfunding weeks before the so-called "Million Maga March" on December 12th, which was supposed to reimburse him for the $ 800 travel expenses to Washington, only $ 50 came together.
Of course, the Q shaman made it to the demo anyway - whatever.