QAnon, Epstein and Trump

In October 2017, someone calling themselves “Q” posted on the 4chan message board.

Q, who claimed to be a government official with a top security clearance, wrote that a secretive cabal of powerful pedophiles were trafficking in children.  QAnon, as it came to be known, was (and arguably still is) the most influential conspiracy theory in this Century. It would go on to acquire millions of members worldwide, spur multiple crimes, and play a considerable role in Rightist, populist politics.

Like most conspiracy theories, QAnon was batshit crazy. Its adherents believed that Donald Trump would lead the end-times battle against a coven of Satan-worshipping Leftist child molesters.

The reverse actually turned out to be true: Trump himself has been linked to a group of rich and powerful creeps who - while not necessarily Leftist or Satan-worshipping - were indeed good friends of deceased child rapist Jeffery Epstein.

No one likes to admit that QAnon was right about a shadowy circle of pedophiles - but they kind of were, and the evidence is everywhere to be seen. Scores of powerful men have been forced out of their well-appointed positions when their names appeared in Epstein-related emails, or in photographs snapped at Epstein’s many social gatherings.

Prince Andrew is no longer a Prince because of his association with Epstein. Britain’s government, led by Keir Starmer, is teetering near collapse due its links to the man. And Trump himself is rapidly losing support from members of his own party because of the perception that he is hiding Epstein-related truths.

So, QAnon wasn’t entirely wrong about a powerful pedophilic group operating in secret.  There was. But QAnon’s had another core belief, one that was and is a lie: that the cabal was Jewish.

Virtually from the outset, QAnon was avowedly antisemitic. One of the movement’s leaders, “GhostEzra,” actively promoted Adolf Hitler, called Jews “fake” and declared that only white Europeans were the true chosen people.  Another leader, “Negative48,” insisted Jews puppet masters who killed children in dark rituals. And one of its Canadian leaders, self-professed “queen” Romana Didulo, apparently believed that Jews like George Soros ran everything.

Jeffery Epstein was born to a Jewish family in New York in 1953, but there is no evidence whatsoever that he was ever a practicing Jew.  His crimes have been condemned by every Jewish leader and advocacy group in existence, in fact.

But that hasn’t stopped QAnon or the Jew-haters, of course. Antisemitic Epstein-related conspiracy theories are being increasingly mainstreamed, worried watchdogs note.

The Anti-Defamation League human rights group, for example, has said that antisemitic content has exploded online because of the ongoing Epstein scandal. “This rhetoric has surged…across the political spectrum, on both fringe and mainstream social media, streaming platforms and shows,” said one ADL spokesperson. “[There has been] a demonstrable increase in rhetoric that promoted antisemitic and anti-Israel conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein.”

Chief among these is the unproven allegation that Epstein was an operative controlled by the Israeli spy agency Mossad. That claim, incredibly, has even been referred to in the New York Times (“…the longstanding theory that Epstein was connected to Mossad”), The Times of London (“Was Epstein a Mossad agent? New files deepen mystery over Israel links”),  and - of course - Al-Jazeera (“…disgraced US financier had links to Israeli intelligence services”).

This sort of reporting and commentary isn’t just irresponsible and harmful - it is the sort of madness that also gripped the followers of QAnon. Like QAnon, some media are have attempted to weave various threads - Epstein’s Jewish birth; his relationship with former Israeli prime Minister Ehud Barak; his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of disgraced media magnate Robert Maxwell, a Jew - into a ragged new antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Extremists like Max Blementhal (on the Left) and Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson (on the Right) have thus seized on Epstein’s alleged Jewishness to promote antisemitic themes. And they’re getting traction - including at the recent conservative Turning Point conference, where J.D. Vance spoke. And where the U.S. vice-president notably refused to condemn antisemitism.

Conspiracy theorists, you see, don’t need much. If there is the tiniest grain of truth to a claim, they’ll build on it. And that is what they’re doing, now, with Jeffrey Epstein.

Q, wherever he is, would approve.