How Donald Trump lost control of the Epstein cycle

To almost a For a decade, President Donald Trump has managed to control… Spin conspiracy theory About the disgraced financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Conspiracy theories have benefited him; They were one of the factors that propelled him to office. It’s just been the last few weeks – driven by it New Epstein documents released and the public defection of GOP lawmakers, represented by the complex web of disinformation It’s out of Trump’s control.

It all started with QAnon. It’s hard to overstate how fringe QAnon was when Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene began posting about it in November 2017, when she posted a video praising Q as a “patriot.”

The movement was led by “Q,” a person who claimed to be a government insider and posted what he claimed was top-secret information in posts, known as “drops,” on the anonymous message board 4chan. Q put forward a wild and untrue conspiracy theory that a cabal of Democratic and Hollywood elites were behind a supposed global sex trafficking ring.

Indeed, Jeffrey Epstein was among the key figures in the QAnon world.

Epstein was first mentioned just two weeks after QAnon began in late October 2017, and was referenced dozens of times in nearly 5,000 posts written by Q over the next three years. Like all good conspiracy theories, this one contains a kernel of truth: the fact that Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state-level prostitution charges meant Q’s supporters felt emboldened to believe it. Every wild claim made by Q.

I learned about QAnon in early 2018 but had not written about it until then September of that year. At the time Greene began promoting it, years before she was elected to Congress, the conspiracy was in its infancy with only a few loyal followers.

Trump was quickly portrayed as the hero of this narrative, working against the “deep state” to expose these demons and create “the storm,” which would see the cabal unmasked and everyone from Epstein to the Clintons facing public executions. (No, really.) Trump, who claimed his relationship with Epstein ended around 2004, has used the QAnon community to his advantage. Trump He famously praised his followers Before the 2020 elections, and Supported Greene’s congressional campaign after her primary win.

Epstein has become a kind of shorthand for those inside QAnon trying to explain it to outsiders. Q repeatedly returned to the subject of Epstein, claiming the disgraced financier had a “dungeon (under the temple).” On his island In addition to the “sex and torture rooms.”