Elon Musk promotes video referencing QAnon in support of Trump
Elon Musk shared a video in support of Donald Trump that appeared to include references to the extremist QAnon ideology and footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, elevating the radicalized movement on the evening before millions of American voters cast their ballots on Election Day.
The billionaire owner of X has become one of Trump’s most vocal backers in the closing weeks of the campaign, and he has shared a blizzard of misinformation about the integrity of the U.S. electoral system. Musk has frequently appeared at campaign rallies alongside the Republican nominee, while giving over $118.5 million to his own pro-Trump group.
The one-minute video, a mashup of campaign footage and archival video set to audio of Donald Trump speaking, features the letters “PATRIQTS” flickering on-screen and phrases used online by QAnon devotees.
QAnon is a sprawling set of false claims that have coalesced into an extremist ideology that has radicalized its followers. It has incited violence and criminal acts, and the FBI has designated it a domestic terrorism threat. The movement centers on the belief that Trump is battling a secret crusade against a Satan-worshipping cabal of prominent figures controlling the U.S. government. Online, QAnon devotees previously dissected thousands of cryptic prophesies from someone known as Q, who claimed to be a top-secret government operative but was quite possibly just an administrator of a fringe message board.
The video, which was already circulating online before Musk amplified it on the eve of Election Day, also included what appeared to be imagery from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, when pro-Trump rioters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol in support of his baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
According to X’s own metrics, the video had garnered more than 23 million views by the early hours of Election Day. Since Musk took over the social media platform in 2022, he has bent the platform to his whims, making algorithmic changes that result in users seeing his tweets first even if they don’t choose to follow him. A Washington Post analysis found that right-wing tweeters are also more likely to go viral.
Musk has boosted far-right memes and bogus theories in the past, winking to QAnon prophesies even as some of his closest allies have said they doubt he believes some of the wilder things he says online.
The QAnon movement began on the fringes of the internet in 2017, and by the following year its supporters were prominently attending Trump rallies. As it grew in influence, it gained a foothold among certain members of the Republican base, culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol that for many conspiracy theorists played out a QAnon fantasy of the faithful rising up in support of Trump.
Far-right activists and conspiracy theorists have spent the years since the last presidential election shoring up an online infrastructure to spread false claims about election fraud — an effort supported by Musk in the run-up to Election Day.
In that period, American voters have grappled with an avalanche of misleading claims about nearly every aspect of their lives — from health care and education to immigration and the weather.
