Donald Trump’s belated “concession” to a peaceful and orderly transition of power after the storming of the US Capitol has provoked anger and conspiracy theories among some of his most ardent followers.
For some of those who flocked to social media channels and chatrooms like Parler and 4chan, where far-right Trumpists have gravitated, as other social media sites have increasingly shut out Trump, some were complaining of betrayal.
Trump, claiming he was “outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem” of the Capitol siege that he incited, said those who “broke the law will pay” in a move perhaps designed more to protect himself from mounting legal and political hazard than reflecting a newfound sense of contrition and integrity.
This promoted an outpouring of anger and grief and denial from his hardline acolytes. “A punch in the gut,” said one. “A stab in the back” another railed. From a third: “I feel like puking.”
A widely shared screengrab summed up the sentiment of this group. “He says it’s going to be wild and when it gets wild he calls it a heinous attack and middle-fingers to his supporters he told to be there.”
Others turned to conspiracy theories, not least in the dark corners of the online world of 4chan and Parler, where the cult of
QAnon holds sway. Many in these places saw not a Trump concession forced on him by his dangerous and insurrectionary behaviour, but either a “deep fake” video concocted by Trump’s enemies, or they scoured for evidence of secret messages that indicated Trump was still on track to deliver on QAnon’s deranged promises.
“FAK fake fake He’s been locked out of his
Twitter he can’t get into it he couldn’t get into it he couldn’t get into today it’s been closed out for ever,” opined someone called Magafree, while Brenda amplified the theory. “He has a plan here President Trump would not back down that easily. We need to stand strong, keep watch and pray. Something big is coming and Gid [God] is going to see it through.”
But the reactions of the more mainstream parts of the Trump-era echo chamber have been the most instructive. Sites such as Breitbart and the Daily Caller appear to have swung into line behind an emerging Republican consensus that has become increasingly hostile to Trump, blaming him not only for the storming of Congress, but also for delivering the presidency, the
House of Representatives, and, on Tuesday, the Senate to the Democrats.
Breitbart’s main story on Trump’s concession video was delivered in a relatively straight way, although the site tried to spin it as a Trump “change of tone”, suggesting all he had done was “return to his campaign theme of law and order”.
The comments below were, however, rather less mannered and careful. “There will NEVER be ‘reconciliation’,” wrote Freedomring17. “We have irreconcilable differences, and the fight has just begun. We need to disown the RNC until they support the Patriot party.”
For “NMP” the consequence was obvious and Trump part of the problem. “He could have declared martial law, like Flynn said, instead he got patroits [sic] to show their face and they did and now they know who they are looking for.”
For the bitter-enders, like TrumpSupporterLTD, the sentiments were much like the QAnon crowd over on 4chan – an almost metaphysical belief that Trump, despite the wealth of evidence, continues to move in mysterious ways
“Trump did not concede. He used language to buy a little extra time because the senators and congressmen who support him are being threatened with dirty bombs and their families’ lives by the Deep State and/or communist Chinese … I have it on good grounds that Trump will be moving with the military And regarding the transition to a new administration, means Trump with a new VP Pence is obviously a traitor and is ‘fired’.”
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