Anika Begay
Since the first “Q drop” in 2017, which predicted Hillary Clinton’s impending arrest, QAnon has been making predictions that certain events are about to happen. When those events don’t happen, believers come up with some elaborate explanation for why the predictions didn’t come true and move on to the next event, with many becoming even more faithful, a classic pattern among prophecy believers.
Before Trump was shot, QAnon promoter Phil Godlewski predicted on his Rumble show to 200,000 followers that there would be “a scary event” or “9/11 type event” in the coming weeks. When Trump was shot, many of Godlewski’s followers were quick to declare that his prediction had come true.
“My friend Q would call me and inform me that if it happened, I shouldn’t be afraid, because it was all part of the Plan,” says Jay, who asked to be referred to only by his first name to protect his privacy. “Once the shooting happened, my friend was quick to call me and tell me that ‘it’ had happened, the scary event. He told me it was totally staged, not to be afraid, and to trust that Phil was right, that his sources were correct.”
Jay says his friend went on to say that a global financial reset would happen soon after, before Trump was reinstated in November. “Phil has made a lot of other vague predictions that haven’t come true, but since that vague prediction came true, my friend Q has doubled down,” Jay says.
In at least one case, the shooting apparently caused a former QAnon follower to fall back into the conspiracy trap.
Amy, who asked that only her first name be used to protect her privacy, says she has known her friend Jane since they met in college 20 years ago. During Trump’s first term, Jane began posting positive messages about the former president on Facebook, and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jane delved further into QAnon conspiracies.
“His posts got wild and crazy,” Amy tells WIRED. “Deep-state conspiracy speculation. He hated Democrats, Joe Biden, and the Clintons for vast and crazy reasons.”
For the past two years, Jane had pretty much stopped posting conspiracies about Trump and the deep state, instead sharing photos and messages about her pets. Then the shooting happened.
“Completely insane posts hour after hour,” Amy says, describing Jane’s social media content. “She’s been fully and publicly supportive of Trump. She blamed the shooting on a liberal in an alt-right t-shirt. She definitely believes Joe Biden or the Democrats set it up.”
Katrina Vaillancourt, a former QAnon supporter who has written a book about her experience, says that if she were still under the spell, she thinks she would have redoubled her efforts after Trump’s shooting.
“I would have thought this was a desperate attack by the evil cabal, using its deep state tentacles, including members of the FBI and the Secret Service, and the fact that Trump survived is the closest we can get to proof that God is on Trump’s side,” Vaillancourt tells WIRED. “I would be online doing ‘research’ for at least four hours a day, and up to 10 hours a day if something really bothered me, as it did in this case.”
