Trump rally attendee holds up sign linked to conspiracy theory

An attendee at President Trump’s rally in Florida Tuesday night held up a sign promoting the “QAnon” right-wing conspiracy theory.

Video from the rally shows an attendee near the front of the crowd raising a sign reading “We are Q,” apparently in reference to the QAnon conspiracy. The sign was visible on livestreams of the Tampa, Fla., rally.

The QAnon theory spawned from an anonymous user on online message boards 4Chan and 8Chan claiming to be a high-level government official with “Q” security clearance.

{mosads}“Q” has been responsible for the spread of several conspiracy theories, including that Trump is secretly fighting the “deep state” — a ring of government officials working to take him down.

QAnon has also been linked to the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that falsely accused Hillary Clinton and other high-ranking Democrats of involvement in a child pedophilia ring, which escalated when a gunman opened fire at a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant.

The QAnon theory has gained traction with far-right figures and has been promoted by the likes of Roseanne Barr and Alex Jones, among other conservative figures. A Florida county Republican Party earlier this month tweeted, then deleted, a YouTube video outlining the QAnon theory.

Another sign at the rally referencing QAnon also mentioned Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer who was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., last year. Right-wing conspiracy theorists claimed without evidence that Rich’s death was linked to the WikiLeaks release of hacked DNC emails.

Fox News and multiple conservative media figures are facing lawsuits from the Rich family for allegedly spreading the theory.

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