As adherents of the conspiracy theory QAnon watched the U.S. presidential inauguration Wednesday, they were on the edge of their seats. For two weeks, the movement—now bereft of its anonymous leader and left to conjure up theories itself—had proposed that the inauguration would actually see the Space Force cut the satellite feed while secret military forces swept in to arrest Democrats and such Republicans as Mike Pence and Sen. Mitch McConnell who had supposedly betrayed Trump, leading to the announcement of President Donald Trump’s second term. Before that, QAnon supporters, like millions of other Republicans, had put their hopes on the election being overturned on Jan. 6. They had a prominent place among the mob that attacked the Capitol that day.
But after none of that happened, QAnon switched gears. Some adherents are suffering a crisis of faith— but others are renewing it. The most popular theory now circulating is that Wednesday’s inauguration was a sham or a pagan ritual, and that the true inauguration will occur on March 4—the original date in the Constitution, before it was changed to shorten the lame-duck period. The United States, this theory explains, was actually abolished in 1871, when the country was changed into a corporation controlled by the Bank of England. Trump will thus reappear and restore the true America that’s been concealed for over a century.
