Trump praised QAnon followers in a White House meeting, calling them people who 'believe in good government,' report says
Tom Porter
President Donald Trump in a White House meeting praised the far-right QAnon movement, describing it as people who "believe in good government," reported The Washington Post Thursday.
The movement believes, groundlessly, that a cabal of Satanic child abusers secretly manipulates the world.
It first emerged on messaging boards, but has in recent months been embraced by some pro-Trump lawmakers, while its conspiracy theories and slogans have been used by the Trump campaign.
According to the Post, Trump was in a recent meeting with figures including chief of staff Mark Meadows and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when he brought up Marjorie Taylor Greene.
In November, Greene became the first candidate who openly advocates the conspiracy theory to win election to the US House of Representatives. She is due to take office in January.
Per the Post, Trump mispronounced QAnon as "Q-an-uhn." He is said to have told the meeting that its followers are people who "basically believe in good government."
Describing the reaction, the Post article said: "The room was silent again before Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, leaned forward to say he had never heard it described that way."
It's not the first time that Trump has offered support for the movement, which reveres him as a hero and baselessly believes that he is engaged in a mission to purge the government of corrupt "deep state" officials.
At a press conference in August, Trump tacitly praised the movement for the first time, saying "I don't know much about [QAnon] other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate."
The conspiracy theory is believed to have played a role in inspiring violent crimes across the US, and according to documents obtained by Yahoo News in 2019 the movement has been classified as a domestic terror threat by the FBI.
At the meeting where he praised QAnon, Trump was said to discussing the upcoming Senate runoffs in Georgia, which Republicans must win to retain control of the Senate.
A former Trump campaign attorney, Sidney Powell, has launched a legal challenge to the result of the presidential election in the state.
Illustrating the increasingly close ties between the movement and prominent Trump supporters, she enlisted as part of her lawsuit the testimony of prominent QAnon advocate Ron Watkins, whom some believe invented the conspiracy theory.