QAnon fans claim Trump spoke to them in Morse Code during his video condemning Capitol riot
On Wednesday, January 13, night, President Donald Trump released a video under severe pressure from all sides, condemning the failed insurrection attempt at Capitol Hill by his supporters the week before. The deadly riots saw pro-Trump supporters storm the Capitol building as the US Congress convened to certify the 2020 presidential election results, which saw former Vice President Joe Biden being elected to become the next President of the country. However, supporters of Trump belonging to the far-right conspiracy group QAnon, believed that Trump was sending them a secret message perhaps in the hope that the election could still be overturned.
In the video released on Wednesday, Trump, without taking any responsibility for the siege on Capitol Hill, says, "I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week," adding that, “violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement.”
He continued, "No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political opponents. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans."
The video made no mention of the House of Representatives' impeachment resolution, which passed with 10 Republicans voting to impeach the president.
About four minutes and 20 seconds into the video, Trump -- who had interlaced his hands in front of him -- moved his hands and QAnon believers think the president was signaling the Morse code for the letter Q. Vice reports that a user posting on QAnon-focused forum, Great Awakening, that Trump's hand movements represented “dash-dash-dot-dash." Since the original post, the theory has been discussed on numerous Telegram channels, where QAnon supporters have headed to along with Gab following Twitter's purge of QAnon accounts following the siege on Capitol Hill.
According to Vice, QAnon supporters believe that the president will send them a message using the Emergency Broadcast System to get around the fact that he has been banned by every major social media company, including Twitter and Facebook. Others are tracking power outages and predict that a nationwide blackout will signal the beginning of Trump's plan to overturn what they believe are deep state actors plotting against Trump.
Reddit users, however, have mocked the theory, discussing on a forum many reasons why they believe the president does not know Morse code, including, "This is the dude who suggested injecting disinfectant," "This is the dude who stared straight up at a solar eclipse without glasses," "This is the dude who wanted to nuke a hurricane," "This is the dude that said the Revolutionary Army took over the airports," and more.
The QAnon conspiracy theory has gotten widely popular over the past 12 months due to many reasons, including the pandemic, and lack of timely action by social media prior to the Capitol Hill riots. Many right-wing politicians have pushed the group's bizarre claims and have sympathized with their beliefs, including newly elected representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. While Twitter has been banning QAnon accounts following the riots, the supporters have found homes on other social networks.
