QAnon

Historical perspective: This right-wing conspiracy theory began with an October 2017 post on the 4Chan and 8Chan imageboards under the name "Q" who followers believe is a high-ranking government official. According to Q, Mr. Trump is on the verge of exposing a cabal of pedophiles, globalists, and celebrities who secretly control America.

According to The Week, this bizarre pro-Trump conspiracy theory escalated in 2018 when followers of QAnon appeared front and center at President Trump’s rallies, carrying signs and wearing T-shirts and hats emblazoned with slogans like “We are Q” and “Where we go one, we go all.” The movement is obsessed with interpreting cryptic messages posted online by “Q.” Devotees believe that the Russia investigation is an elaborate hoax, and that President Trump is actually working with special counsel Robert Mueller to expose and imprison an international pedophile ring that includes Hillary Clinton, President Obama, George Soros, and other Democrats. But above all, QAnon posits this: “Everything, absolutely everything, is going just as Donald Trump intended it.”