Trump backers seek clues in speech
WASHINGTON — Shortly after President Donald Trump was impeached a second time, he shared a five-minute video on YouTube.
From the Oval Office, Trump “unequivocally” condemned the attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying “violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement.”
As the clip coursed through farright channels, Trump’s biggest supporters struggled to make sense of the comments. “No mention of Biden’s transition,” one user wrote in a QAnon forum, suggesting that meant Trump would remain in office after Jan. 20.
Another, hearing an echo in the recording, speculated that the president was preparing for a military takeover from a bunker.
For most of Trump’s presidency, social media served as his megaphone, allowing him to spread his message. But since Trump was barred from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for his role in the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, he has communicated only sparingly with his supporters.
Now, with Trump muted, they’ve taken to parsing Trump’s limited remarks for clues about what to expect on Inauguration Day, and how the president plans to remain in power.
Since last week, Trump supporters have searched for signs that the president had moved to an alternate online platform, such as Gab, favored by some on the far right. Some flocked to the messaging app Telegram, which announced Tuesday that it had added 25 million new users in the previous 72 hours.
They recirculated old tweets, searching for new clues about Trump’s intentions, as well as about world leaders willing to back his crusade against Silicon Valley. Paul Burton, an Atlantabased follower of QAnon, explained in a phone interview that he was focused on Trump’s tweet announcing that he would not attend the inauguration, which Burton took to mean that there would be no inauguration Wednesday.
Soon after his remarks in Texas on Tuesday, Trump’s followers appended a rallying cry, “Refuse to be silenced,” to a notice for Sunday mobilizations in Washington and in state capitals across the country. The FBI has warned that these “armed protests” were being planned nationwide for the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
While Trump was unambiguous last week as he encouraged his allies to march on the Capitol, he sought to distance himself from the riotous scene in his recorded comments Wednesday.
“No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag,” Trump said. “No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans. … If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you are attacking it.”
Soon after, pro-Trumpers gathered online to discuss signs that the president had a plan to remain in power and overturn Biden’s victory.
Others expressed fear that the president “sounds defeated.”