President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was largely unaware of the QAnon conspiracy theory community.
“Well I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House press conference.
A reporter asked the president whether he knew of the QAnon belief that he was saving the world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals.
“I haven’t heard that, is that supposed to be a bad thing? or a good thing?” Trump replied. “If I can help save the world from problems I’m willing to do it. I’m willing to put myself out there.”
Trump said that he heard the movement was growing during the riots in America’s major cities.
“I don’t know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me and they also would like to see problems in these areas go away,” Trump said, adding that he would continue to wage war on the radical left and other evils.
“We’re saving the world from a radical left philosophy that will destroy this country and when this country is gone the rest of the world will follow,” Trump concluded.
“QAnon” refers to an individual who, without corroboration, claims to be a high-ranking government official who has access to classified information about what truly is going on behind the scenes in the nation’s capital. This person, “Q,” purports to relay updates about secret machinations — both evil (Satanic pedophiles) and good (Trump’s administration) — through cryptic messages on anonymous message boards.
The “Q” poster has made many predictions of events that never came to pass — such as the arrests of Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, and Huma Abedin shortly after the 2016 election. After these prophesies proved false, “Q”‘s style has shifted to more obtuse and ambiguous claims about upcoming events.