Trump’s security was going through the crowd and making people put their hands down when they made the QAnon sign at his North Carolina rally.
Video:
When the crowd holds up their fingers again at the Trump rally tonight to give the QAnon sign, security moves through them and has them put it down. pic.twitter.com/FQVJVrJ1FX
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 24, 2022
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The message seems to be that Trump and his supporters are authoritarians, but they don’t want to look like authoritarians on TV.
Trump is not an official candidate, and his PAC hires the security, so the message that the QAnon gesture was to stop came from him or someone in his employ.
Donald Trump is under criminal investigation for everything from crimes related to his attempted coup to the mishandling of government documents, so it is not a good look for him to have his supporters looking like a domestic terror cell pledging loyalty with a fascist salute.
The failed former president has spent his political career signaling to the violent far right. The signals lose effectiveness if they are so evident that everyone can see and hear what he is trying to do.
Trump has been endlessly pandering to QAnon on his social media platform as his legal troubles have exponentially grown. His staged Q event in Ohio was the escalation of extremism, but now that he has been met with bad visuals and public backlash, he is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube by having security crackdown on the QAnon gesture.
It is too late. Trump has shown what he and his supporters are, and there is no going back.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
