Where Things Stand: Trump Shares Video With QAnon Song, Conspiracy Theorists See Writing On The Wall

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WILKES BARRE, PA - AUGUST 02: David Reinert holds up a large "Q" sign while waiting in line to see President Donald J. Trump at his rally on August 2, 2018 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pen... WILKES BARRE, PA - AUGUST 02: David Reinert holds up a large "Q" sign while waiting in line to see President Donald J. Trump at his rally on August 2, 2018 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. "Q" represents QAnon, a conspiracy theory group that has been seen at recent rallies. (Photo by Rick Loomis/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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A few hours after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort Monday night, the former president shared what appeared to be a campaign-style video on his official Truth Social page. You know, the place where he has to post all his stream-of-conscious screeds now that he’s been booted from normal social media for inciting violence and trying to do a coup.

The video is very dramatic and includes background sounds and imagery of a thunderstorm, while Trump declares that America is in “decline” and talks for four minutes about just how in “decline” America is. But the key thing that caught the attention of the media watchdog group Media Matters For America is the background music that plays on a loop after the thunderstorm noises have had their time to shine. The song is supposedly written by a QAnon artist who has released several QAnon-themed songs in the last few years.

Per Media Matters:

According to a Media Matters review using both Google’s voice assistant and Apple’s Shazam app, the music in Trump’s video is a song titled Wwg1wga, produced in 2020 by an artist using the name “Richard Feelgood” on Spotify. The acronym “wwg1wga” is a common shorthand in the QAnon community for the slogan “Where we go one, we go all.” Discussion of a supposedly imminent “storm” is also important in QAnon lore, referring to a prophesied event where Trump’s perceived enemies — who are also supposedly part of a global satanic cabal of pedophiles — would be arrested and possibly executed

The video also includes the phrase “the best is yet to come” — which, if it wasn’t already burned into your memory as it is in mine, that’s the phrase that Donald Trump’s Jr.’s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle dramatically screeched from the rafters during the Republican National Convention in 2020. Trump’s used the phrase a few times in the past as well, especially during his 2020 presidential campaign. But it’s also taken on substantial significance in the QAnon community as a slogan meant to reference the conspiracy theorists’ ongoing belief that Trump will expose all of the liberal elites as pedophiles, etc.

It’s not the first time Trump or his allies have nodded at QAnon-adjacent ideas. And it’s certainly not the first time that he’s shared QAnon content on his official Truth Social page. As is often the case when Trump winks in the direction of the conspiracy theory, the QAnon corners of the internet lit up this week, with some calling the inclusion of the song in the campaign-style video, “THE mother of all Q proofs.”

The difference this time is it was posted as Trump publicly flirts with running again in 2024 and in the wake of the FBI’s raid of his resort, reportedly as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the Trump White House’s transportation of boxes of potentially classified information to Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office. And while some Republicans may have been attempting to create some distance between the party, 2024 and Trump, news of the raid unleashed a flurry of broken-brain reactions from far-right Republicans, who are behaving more dystopian-y than ever, with some reacting by calling for the FBI to be defunded and others warning of an impending Civil War.

The Best Of TPM Today

Here’s what you should read this evening:

Senate Committee Chair Grills DHS IG Over Failure To Notify Congress of Missing Texts Scandal

More here: Five Points On What We Know About the Missing Jan. 6 Texts

The latest from Josh Kovensky on the FBI raid: It’s A Mystery What The FBI Wanted At Mar-a-Lago, But Trump Knows

And more here, too: Trump Puts MAGA Legal Talent On Display After FBI Raid

In bizarre news of the day: DOJ Charges Iranian Operative With Plot To Murder Bolton

Vos Trashes Election ‘Investigation’ He Started After Trump Stabs Him In Back

MTG Demands To Speak To The Manager After FBI Seizes Rep. Perry’s Phone

Georgia Judge Tells Giuliani: Take A Train, Bus Or Uber

Breaking earlier today: Trump Refuses To Answer NY AG’s Questions, Invokes 5th Amendment

Yesterday’s Most Read Story

Perspective and Calm in the Storm — Josh Marshall

What We Are Reading

The Obscenity Pivot — Dan Kois

Virginia Governor wants to force teachers to out students to parents — Greg Owen

As president, Trump approved a law increasing penalties for mishandling classified info. It could come back to bite him. — Tom Porter

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