QAnon
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TL;DR
- What it is: a conspiracy movement born on 4chan in October 2017 from posts by an anonymous "Q" claiming top-secret clearance.
- The core claim: a cabal of Satan-worshipping, child-trafficking elites runs the government and media, and Donald Trump is secretly fighting them.
- "The Storm": a promised day of mass arrests and executions of the cabal. It never came.
- The hard edge: armed standoffs, a rifle fired in a pizzeria, a father who killed his two children, and the 6 January Capitol attack.
- Still here: PRRI found 19% of Americans held QAnon beliefs in 2024, up from 14% in 2021.
- Why watch: it trains people to see opponents as child-killing devils, and devils do not get elections.
Real roots
Grew out of 2016's Pizzagate and 4chan culture.
Real slogans
"Trust the plan." "The Storm is coming." Recited by a former national security adviser.
Real violence
From the Hoover Dam to the Capitol to two murdered children.
Real limits
Not one Q prediction came true. Q went quiet in December 2020.
This page is about a conspiracy movement and its leaders and promoters. It is not about Republicans or Trump voters in general, most of whom do not hold these beliefs.
What it is
An anonymous poster, a stream of riddles, and an audience that filled in the rest.
Before Q: Pizzagate (2016)
The claim that a Washington pizzeria hid a child-abuse ring run by Democrats. In December 2016 a believer, Edgar Maddison Welch, walked in with a rifle and fired it. He found no basement and no children, and went to prison.
Comet Ping Pong, Washington, 2016. Image: Wikipedia.
📝 Oct 2017: Q appears
"Q Clearance Patriot" posts cryptic "drops" on 4chan, then moves to 8chan (later 8kun).
📣 2018: offline
Q signs and shirts appear at Trump rallies from August 2018.
🔍 Who is Q?
Linguistic studies reported by the New York Times (2022) pointed to Paul Furber, then Ron Watkins, who ran 8kun with his father. Watkins denies it.
The cabal
Democrats, Hollywood, officials and financiers named as satanic child abusers.
Antisemitic core
George Soros and the Rothschilds as puppet masters: old antisemitic tropes in new clothes.
"Adrenochrome"
The claim that elites drink a chemical harvested from children's blood: a modern blood libel.
Big tent
It absorbs other theories: vaccines, 5G, stolen elections, JFK Jr. alive.
In their own words
The slogans and the creed, as believers use them.
"Where we go one, we go all"
WWG1WGA, the movement's oath and hashtag.
"Trust the plan"
Every failed prediction is part of a secret plan you are not meant to see yet.
"The Storm is coming"
The day of mass arrests, military tribunals and executions of the cabal.
Michael Flynn's oath (July 2020)
Trump's former national security adviser posted a video of himself and family reciting an oath ending "Where we go one, we go all."
In August 2020, asked about QAnon, President Trump said: "I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much."
Michael Flynn. Image: Wikipedia.
What they have done
Documented acts by believers, with dates.
June 2018: the Hoover Dam
Matthew Wright blocked the bridge by the Hoover Dam in an armored truck with guns, holding a sign demanding a government report Q had posted about. He pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.
Hoover Dam. Image: Wikipedia.
May 2019
An FBI Phoenix field office bulletin names conspiracy-driven extremists, QAnon among them, as a domestic terrorism threat.
Jan 2021
Believers among the crowd that storms the Capitol, led for the cameras by the "QAnon Shaman."
Aug 2021
Matthew Coleman kills his two young children in Mexico, telling the FBI he was enlightened by QAnon and believed they had "serpent DNA." He was later found not competent to stand trial.
Jacob Chansley, the "QAnon Shaman"
Horned, bare-chested and carrying a spear on the Senate dais on 6 January 2021. Sentenced to 41 months. Pardoned in January 2025.
Jacob Chansley, 2023. Image: Wikipedia.
Oct 2020
The US House condemns QAnon by 371 to 18.
2020
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter start removing QAnon accounts.
Dec 2022
German police arrest Reichsbürger coup plotters steeped in QAnon-style beliefs.
2026
A British Sociological Association study documents divorce, estrangement and abuse in QAnon families.
Now, and myths online
Q stopped, the movement did not.
✖ "QAnon died in 2021"
PRRI's believers rose from 14% (2021) to 19% (2024). The ideas moved into mainstream talk without the "Q" label.
✖ "Q was a real insider"
Not one major Q prediction came true: no Storm, no mass arrests, no tribunals.
✖ "It's about saving children"
The 2020 #SaveTheChildren wave flooded real hotlines with false tips, according to anti-trafficking groups.
⚠ "Every Trump voter is Q"
No. Most are not. Believers are a minority, though a larger one among Republicans.
⚠ "It's harmless fun"
Families report lost parents and partners. The Reddit support group r/QAnonCasualties has over 287,000 members.
✔ What holds up
A growing belief in a satanic elite, a violence marker, and a record of real attacks.
Why watch
When half the country is cast as devils, losing an election is not an option and violence becomes "saving children."
😈 Opponents as devils
Political rivals become satanic child abusers. That ends compromise.
⚔️ A violence clause
The creed itself includes patriots resorting to violence.
🩸 Old hate, new skin
Blood libel and Rothschild control, the oldest antisemitic stories, repackaged for the feed.
🔁 Can't be disproved
"Trust the plan" turns every failure into proof.
🏛️ Carried into office
Candidates who once promoted Q now hold seats and posts.
Red flags to watch for
🚩 Officials using "the Storm," "trust the plan" or WWG1WGA.
🚩 Calls for military tribunals or executions of named opponents.
🚩 "Adrenochrome" or blood-harvest claims about any group.
🚩 Fake trafficking panics aimed at a business, school or library.
🚩 Election officials named as part of a satanic cabal.
🚩 A loved one cutting off family over "the plan."
Bottom line
An anonymous poster's riddles became a creed that one in five Americans now share in some form, with a satanic enemy, a day of reckoning, and violence written into the belief itself.
The Capitol, 6 January 2021. Image: Wikipedia.