A Donald Trump supporter wearing a Qanon t-shirt on July 31, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. - Chris O'Meara / AP / SIPA

[Edit July 23, 2020, 11am]: Twitter announced on Tuesday that it had deleted more than 7,000 accounts linked to the “QAnon” movement, a pro-Trump nebula conveying conspiracy theories. On this occasion, we republish the article that our correspondent in the United States devoted to this subject in August 2018.

In the middle of the classic "Make America Great Again" and "CNN sucks" signs, we saw some mysterious inscriptions during the recent meetings of the American president, in particular that in Florida, on Tuesday. The signs and t-shirts "QAnon", "We are Q", or simply "Q", do not refer to the character of James Bond but to a group of anonymous pro-Trump internet users who surf conspiracy theories wacky. Descent to the depths of the Web.

A movement born on 4Chan in October 2017

This movement emerged on 4Chan on October 29, 2017. In the / pol / section, a user identifies himself as “Q Clearance Patriot”, a reference to the “Q” security level which allows a US government employee to access top-secret information. He publishes a series of cryptic messages affirming, in summary, that Donald Trump will, with the support of the military, save America from the "Deep State", these political and financial forces which, according to him, have controlled America for dozens. years.

"The Storm" is coming

Q predicts in particular the arrival of a great "storm". He refers to the famous "Maybe the calm before the storm" released by Trump two weeks earlier at a press conference. "What storm? A journalist asked. "You'll see," the American president replied with a smile, without really knowing what he was referring to.

TRUMP: "Maybe it's the calm before the storm."
...
REPORTER: "What storm Mr. President?"
TRUMP: "You'll find out." (via Satellite News) pic.twitter.com/bWMzGrDPNa

- Kyle Griffin (@ kylegriffin1) October 5, 2017

This storm would purge Washington of corrupt elites, including the imprisonment of Hillary Clinton and a circle of Hollywood "satanist pedophiles" - a fantasy that echoes the many-time-debunked "pizzagate" conspiracy theory. The most surprising part of the story is that prosecutor Robert Mueller is presented as an agent who would not investigate Trump but Clinton and the Democrats.

Switching to the mainstream

Online, the community tries to decipher each message of the famous Q. Members are particularly convinced that the latter is close to Trump, who was on board Air Force One with the American president during his trip to Asia.

#BreakingNews: / pol / believes it can confirm #QAnon is on AF1 by using flight departure / arrival times & geological photo analysis! #TheMostTrustedNameInNews

Please note there were questions pertaining to Photoshop time stamps embedded in this photo. Any updates on this part? pic.twitter.com/fG03JS7bZe

- Centinel 📡 (@MassSpies) November 10, 2017

In just under a year, the community has grown, from a few hundred members of 4Chan and 8Chan to tens of thousands of very active people on YouTube and especially on Reddit. Their posts have caught the curiosity of a few pro-Trump stars like actress Roseanne Barr and former baseball player Curt Schilling. And in recent weeks, QAnon has appeared in Donald Trump's meetings, with supporters multiplying the references to the group, in particular with his slogan "Where we go one, we go all" stuck to Groundswell , a film by Ridley Scott from 1996, often abbreviated as QAnon by the acronym "WWG1WGA".

just some extremely normal people at an extremely normal political rally for an extremely normal president https://t.co/0Gxa9sa81B pic.twitter.com/9Z2pDX9zCg

- Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) July 31, 2018

Faced with the buzz, American journalists questioned the spokesperson for the White House. Sarah Sanders dodged, explaining that the US president "condemns any group inciting violence" - QAnon notably targeted Michael Avenatti, lawyer for pornstar Stormy Daniels, by posting the address of his California office. QAnon has probably not finished talking about him.

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