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- QAnon supporters believe Trump will be reinstated as president on March 4, 2021.
- The conspiracy theory is rooted in the discredited beliefs of the sovereign citizen movement.
- It gained popularity with QAnon followers after it aired on Telegram and Gam.
- Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.
QAnon supporters, unable to cope with Joe Biden’s rise to the presidency in January, have now co-opted a new belief to claim that the next legitimate inauguration date will be March 4.
After President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, some QAnon believers concluded that their conspiracy theory was a “lie.” But his most ardent supporters were not ready to give up their conspiratorial beliefs, clinging to an absurd hope that former President Donald Trump will be sworn in at a later date.
Using constantly evolving goals, pro-Trump conspirators have now laid eyes on March 4, 2021.
Where does the conspiracy theory come from?
The belief that Trump will be sworn in on March 4 is rooted in theories promoted by the obscure Sovereign Citizen movement.
The Sovereign Citizens movement is a very fragmented group of Americans who believe that taxes, the US currency, and even the US government are illegitimate.
A minority of them believe that the laws do not apply to them at all, which has led the FBI to designate some members as “national terrorists” and “anti-government extremists”.
A central tenet of the movement is that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, converts “sovereign citizens” into “federal citizens”.
This belief also goes so far as to reject the validity of any presidency after 1868, making Ulysses S. Grant the last valid president.
The ideas are esoteric and, no doubt, absurd.
“It really feels like you’re in an Alice in Wonderland world when you start browsing the ideas of sovereign citizens,” Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse University, told Insider. “It’s like you’ve descended into some kind of rabbit hole in a parallel universe.”
Some sovereign citizens also believe that an obscure law of 1871 reveals that the United States has become a corporation.
The District of Columbia Organic Act established a single municipal government for Washington, DC. The use of the word “corporation”, referring to an incorporated district, has led to a misinterpretation of this to mean that the whole of the United States has become a corporation.
“Some believe that President Joe Biden is the head of a bankrupt company – the United States Inc.,” said Travis View, conspiracy theory expert and host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Creating an alternate reality based on misinterpreting a minor detail in an old law is typical of conspiratorial groups, Media Matter deputy director of research Stefanie Le told Insider.
“They can create elaborate mythologies based on the smallest and least significant details,” she said.
Why March 4?
Prior to the 20th Amendment in 1933, all Presidents were sworn in on March 4.
It was introduced to shorten the “lame duck” period between elections and the start of new administrations.
Since supporters of the sovereign citizen movement reject all constitutional amendments passed after the 14th Amendment, they do not see this date change as legitimate.
QAnon supporters, who did not see Trump inaugurated in January, recycled the argument and reimagined the next legitimate inauguration date.
They say that on March 4, 2021, Trump will succeed the last legitimate president, Grant, to become the 19th president.
Believers in the March 4 plot believe former President Donald Trump will succeed former President Ulysses S. Grant as the 19th President of the United States.
AP Images
Le told Insider, “Now that one of their most anticipated events – the January 20 inauguration – has not come true, they are looking for explanations of other conspiracy theories.”
View said there is no clear logic outside of blind faith that Donald Trump is the one to save humanity.
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Andrew Harnick / AP Photo
“ Maybe we should get together again and storm the Capitol on March 4 ”
Adopting conspiracy theories from other groups to contribute to a specific imaginary narrative is not unexpected.
This is QAnon’s method of survival “because their own predictions fell apart,” Le said.
The forums populated by QAnon members are now buzzing with discussions around March 4th.
Telegram and Gab have led the way according to Media Matters research seen by Insider, and it circulates widely on 4Chan and the right-wing Patriots.win forum, the researchers said. The rumors also reached TikTok, the Independent reported.
The rumor mill of March 4 had concrete consequences.
Notably, the Trump Hotel in DC raised its prices on March 3-4. It is the only luxury hotel in the region to increase its rates for these nights.
U.S. Capitol Police, fearing potentially violent clashes, ordered nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to remain stationed in Washington, DC on March 4.
National Guard troops are expected to remain in Washington, DC, until mid-March.
Brandon Bell / Getty Images
Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, raised the conspiracy theory during a hearing on the matter.
“Some of these people understood that apparently 75 years ago the president was inaugurated on March 4,” he said. “OK, now why is this relevant? God knows. Anyway, now they’re thinking, ‘maybe we should come together again and storm the Capitol on March 4th’… which is circulating online.”
A Democratic HASC spokesperson told Insider that Smith saw reports identifying March 4 as “another inflection point” in the capital.
“The role of the House Armed Services Committee is to validate that military personnel are used in accordance with their task and aligned requirements,” the spokesperson said.
Q Will Anon ever give up?
Security is also expected to be high throughout March in order to anticipate the always unforeseen State of the Union discourse.
Capitol Police plan to maintain a high presence due to intelligence suggesting that extremists discussed plans to attack the Capitol building during the speech, Politico reported.
Experts, however, do not expect the January 6 insurgency violence to happen again on March 4.
Barkun, who previously advised the FBI on security threats posed by extremist groups, said he was confident that sufficient attention was being paid to QAnon’s activities.
Also see the doubts that there will be widespread violence. “I think the events of January 6 scared a lot of Q-followers,” he told Insider.
But none of the Insider experts have spoken to believe that QAnon will be gone anytime soon. It’s common for conspiracy theory groups to deal with incorrect predictions by simply kicking the road.
“They will build increasingly complex rationalizations that will push the events they want further and further into the future,” Barkun told Insider.
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