President Donald Trump was finally asked by a reporter today about the QAnon movement, the internet conspiracy that puts the president at the center of a secret movement that’s working to take down a cabal of pedophiles.
Instead of dismissing the conspiracy—which has been called a domestic terror movement by the FBI and inspired acts of violence—Trump delivered a rambling answer that can easily be construed as support.
Trump said he didn’t know much about the movement, except that it likes him and that it is gaining in popularity, before delving into a non-sequitur about Portland and New York City, saying the movement doesn’t like seeing violence in cities.
He added that they are people who “love our country.”
When pressed on the details of the conspiracy, which puts Trump as a messianic figure fighting against a cabal of deep state Democrats and has offshoots that believe celebrities drink babies blood and that John F. Kennedy Jr. is alive, Trump joked that if he were at the center of it: “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?”
Although Trump claimed that he doesn’t know much about it, he said he is “willing” to take up the fight and then added a doomsday-esque note saying that if America fell, the world would follow—the kind of language that will rile up the base of QAnon believers.
Because Trump did not outright deny it, it will be considered a ringing endorsement by Q fans, who have long believed that if a reporter pressed Trump on QAnon, he would tacitly endorse it.
