Can you handle his Truths?
After special counsel Jack Smith obtained a new, superseding indictment against Donald Trump for his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 election, the former president spent much of Wednesday morning firing off a barrage of posts on his Truth Social platform, including extremist memes that were notable even by the standards of the former president’s previous online behavior.
Trump’s posting spree, which lasted about four hours, began with an apparent reaction to Smith’s indictment, which became public on Tuesday afternoon. Among other things, Trump reposted messages from other users that called for his political rivals to be arrested and tried in “public military tribunals.” Trump also shared three images that prominently displayed slogans related to the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory.
The digital deluge began with a post in which Trump shared an image with text describing him as “100% INNOCENT” along with a message suggesting the new indictment is part of a partisan “Witch Hunt” against him.
“This ridiculous political HOAX, which most thought was already won by me, comes right out of the White House and DOJ, and is being pushed by Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden against their political opponent, ME,” Trump wrote, adding, “Like all of the other Witch Hunt cases, it is being mocked by legal scholars and experts as gross election interference. This shouldn’t be happening in America!”
Smith’s new indictment was crafted to address last month’s Supreme Court decision, which responded to the initial federal charges against Trump by granting presidents sweeping criminal immunity for their actions. It was a ruling that fundamentally eroded the checks and balances that have long been a cornerstone of American democracy. The new indictment largely mirrors Smith’s prior charges, while cutting out sections of the original 2023 indictment that described behavior the Court explicitly protected in its July 2024 ruling. It leaned into Trump’s efforts to convince his vice president, Mike Pence, not to certify the election, an action the Court explicitly noted could not be considered an executive branch function.
Trump followed up his claim that he is the victim of a Justice Department “With Hunt” by “retruthing” a post from another user that dubbed the special counsel “Jackal Smith.”
In total, Trump’s digital deluge contained 50 posts, including 19 written by the former president and a slew of retruths. Much of the content was explicitly conspiratorial and authoritarian. In one of his posts, Trump included what seemed to be an image of his Instagram page along with a suggestion that any social media or polling momentum his election rival, Vice President Kamala Harris (D), is enjoying is an illusion.
“IT’S ALL FAKE, IT’S ALL MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION,” Trump wrote, adding, “WE ARE DESTROYING THE DEMOCRATS ON SOCIAL MEDIA!”
Trump’s posting frenzy also included lewd comments including a reference to Harris engaging in a sex act and a video of Waffle House workers praising “Trump Daddy” and shouting “Big booty Latinas for Trump!” It was also filled with attacks on Smith. One was a “retruth” with an image of the special counsel with red eyes alongside the phrase “FIGHT LIKE HELL,” a phrase Trump memorably uttered during the speech he made on Jan. 6, 2021 as the 2020 election results were being certified, after which some of his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The violence on Jan. 6 and Trump’s efforts to overturn the election are at the center of the indictment against Trump. Trump’s promotion of false election fraud conspiracies and the violence they helped provoke caused him to be banned from many major social media platforms. Trump and his allies responded to the bans by launching Truth Social in late 2021. He has, as of this writing, over 7.6 million followers on the platform.
Some of the most extreme content in Trump’s post-indictment meltdown came via “retruths” of an account on the site named “SpiritualStreetFighter.” The page, which has about 13,700 followers, is clearly devoted to the QAnon theory and features a topline description declaring “I believe in Q, The Great Awakening and Holding the Line.” The page also prominently displays the QAnon slogan, “WWG1WGA!,” which is short for “where we go one, we go all.” Trump shared three explicitly QAnon related images from the “SpiritualStreetFighter” account, including an image depicting him holding a glowing “Q+” symbol underscored by the ominous phrase “NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT IS COMING.”
The QAnon conspiracy theory emerged from online message boards in 2017. It is a complex and evolving ideology based around the idea that there is a group inside the government waging a righteous battle against an evil cabal of elites, including Democrats and celebrities, who are murdering children and others. The theory has centered on message board posts that were made by someone who claimed, without evidence, to have a “Q” security clearance, and who hinted at the supposed struggle against the “cabal” through cryptic posts filled with rhetorical questions. QAnon adherents also believe in a coming “storm,” during which Trump and his allies will defeat and punish the evildoers. The “Q+” symbol that appeared in Trump’s retruths is shorthand for someone who is in charge of QAnon, believed by many of the group’s followers to be the former president himself.
Of the several posts Trump shared from the “SpiritualStreetFighter” account, two showed pictures of Trump alongside the “Q+” symbol and a third contained the WWG1WGA slogan. Trump also shared a post from “SpiritualStreetFighter” soliciting support for “PUBLIC MILITARY TRIBUNALS” for Democrats.
Adherents of QAnon have been a consistent presence at Trump rallies, including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump has also previously amplified their content on his social media platforms. TPM reported on an incident earlier this year in which Trump invited a boat that was flying a massive QAnon flag to dock at his private Florida beach club, Mar-a-Lago.
Spokespeople for Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment about his posts and promotion of QAnon. James Singer, an adviser to the Harris campaign, told TPM the postings were a clear indication Trump is unwell.
“Donald Trump is out of his mind. If a family member posted what Donald Trump is sharing today, Americans would rightly be concerned,” Singer said, adding, “But this is what Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda offer America: prosecuting political opponents, using dangerous conspiracy theories to justify harmful policies, and dividing Americans against each other.”
Trump returned to a more standard volume and tenor of posts Wednesday afternoon. As of this writing, he is still going.
Desperate and flailing is a look that I, for one, like on Trump.
He just becomes more and more unhinged everyday.
I can’t imagine that this behavior will net him a single additional vote.
Poor Biddy has a sad
My cat woulda hugged donnie but the kitty was too fat to managed it…
Nut is as nuts does.
Like the physical volcanoes in Iceland, Mt. Trump is erupting so often these days it’s hardly news. The current active phase should run its course by about January 20 of next year, when it will subside into a smoking crater.
Donald J. Trump: A Clear and Present Danger to the Nation