Donald Trump does not know what QAnon is, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Fox News Sunday – despite the president submitting an internship this week in the White House letter room.
The conspiracy theory – which involves Trump covering a group of ‘global elites’ engaged in human trafficking, pedophilia and the harvesting of an acceptable life-extending chemical from children’s blood – has been identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorist threat.
However, Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House have expressed sympathy with and support for QAnon and on Wednesday, during a press conference in the White House, Trump praised his followers.
“I do not know much about the movement other than I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate,” he said.
It was the president’s first public comment on QAnon, though he did retweet accounts promoting it.
A reporter pointed out that QAnon followers believe that Trump “secretly saves the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals”.
The president replied, “I have not heard that, but is that meant to be a good thing or a bad thing?”
“If I can help save the world from problems, I’m ready to do it,” he said.
Trump’s comments inspired the celebrations among QAnon followers.
Hours earlier, Facebook announced that it had reduced or restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts, linked to the right-wing conspiracy theory.
Asked again on Fox News if the president condemned the group, Meadows said: “We do not even know what it is.”
Meadows told ABC’s This Week meanwhile that he needed to “Google” QAnon to find out what it was. It was not a “top 20 priority” for the White House, he said.
“You know when we see that – there are a number of conspiracies that we need to talk about,” Meadows said.
‘We need to talk about the fact that we continue to look at why the FBI spied on the Trump campaign and what happened. That was a collaboration that was real and one that we started to look at. ‘
Most observers agree that the FBI and the Obama administration spying on the Trump campaign in 2016, enthusiastically propagated by the president, is not true.
“If you look at the top 20 priority,” Meadows said, “QAnon is not up to it. It’s probably not in the top 50. It’s time we got serious about questions and move on. I do not see that this is a central debate that one will decide who may be the next president of the United States or where we should deploy the FBI. “
This week, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a follower of QAnon, won the Republican primary for a House seat in Georgia. Their victory, along with the president’s remarks, prompted some Republicans to deny the conspiracy theory.
Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney called QAnon “dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics.”
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said, “QAnon is notes – and real leaders call collusion theories collusion theories.”
Sasse told the Washington Post: “If Democrats take the Senate, blow up the filibuster and grab the Supreme Court – soup this will be a big part of why they won.”
Asked about Taylor Greene, QAnon faction chairman Kevin McCarthy said: “I do not agree with their beliefs.”
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