New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Half of Trump supporters believe QAnon's imaginary claims



“I know nothing about QAnon,” Trump insisted — except that “they are very strongly against pedophilia and I agree with that.”

For the most part, Trump’s supporters respond the same way. Even when asked for their “opinion of QAnon,” very few of them — just 16 percent of those who say they’ve heard of the movement — are willing to call it an extremist conspiracy theory with no basis in fact. Larger numbers, meanwhile, say “it goes too far but I believe some of what I’ve heard” (22 percent) or that they’re “not sure” what to believe (47 percent). A striking 15 percent openly say “I think it’s true.”

In fact, many registered voters, including those who don’t support Trump, are unsure about QAnon or even accept it to some degree, with 7 percent of those who’ve heard of it saying it’s true, 11 percent saying “it goes too far but I believe some of what I’ve heard,” and 23 percent saying they aren’t sure.

Yet when you remove “QAnon” from the question and ask solely about the conspiracy theory’s underlying myth — that President Trump is secretly fighting elite child sex trafficking rings run by leading Democratic politicians — far more people say they buy into it. 

Here, a staggering 50 percent of Trump supporters say they believe top Democrats are involved in elite child sex trafficking rings. Roughly the same number (52 percent) say they believe Trump is working to dismantle such rings. Another third of Trump supporters (33 percent) say they’re not sure whether these rings exist — which means that just 17 percent of Trump supporters reject the imaginary claims.

Among all registered voters, a quarter (25 percent) believe top Democrats are involved in elite child sex trafficking rings; another quarter (24 percent) aren’t sure. The vast majority of Joe Biden’s supporters — 82 percent — correctly identify the notion as preposterous.

A man wearing a QAnon vest attends a "No Mandatory Flu Shot Massachusetts" demonstration against Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's order for mandatory influenza vaccinations for all students under the age of 30, outside the State House in Boston, Mass., on Aug. 30. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Nina Jankowicz, who studies the intersection of democracy and technology as a disinformation fellow at the nonpartisan Wilson Center, said it’s “really crazy” that “such a high number” of Trump supporters believe QAnon’s core conspiracy theory.

“It seems increasingly like we’re dealing with two different sets of facts in this country, sometimes more,” Jankowicz told Yahoo News. “The fact is that QAnon is a movement, a conspiracy that has been cited by the FBI as potentially inciting terrorist and other violent extremist acts in this country. It shouldn’t be something that we’re this split [on] along partisan lines.”

Jankowicz was one of the disinformation experts who testified last week at a virtual hearing of the House Intelligence Committee about the dangers of QAnon and other sources of misinformation online, which none of the committee’s Republican members attended, citing security concerns. 

OpEd: As dumb as they are, I don't think Trumpers actually believe this Q-Anon crap but because they are depraved and even more evil than Trump they lie and say they believe it especially when responding to a poll. This proves Hillary was right when she said, 50% of Trump supporters were deplorable. I think Hillary was being kind. It's clear to me that more than 50% of them are depraved and belong in cages. The upside is most of the people dying of  COVID-19 are Trump supporters. 

The leaders of Q-Anon need to be treated like the dangerous enemies of America that they are and the same goes for Trump supporters. The rules of war need to be applied and it should be open season of Q-Anon and Trump supporters.

The rule that combatants engaged in espionage have no right to prisoner-of-war status and may be tried is a long-standing rule of customary international law already recognized in the Lieber Code, the Brussels Declaration and the Hague Regulations. [1] It is also set forth in Additional Protocol I. [2] 

The Q-Anon MAGAts are involved in espionage. There's no arguing that but while they still have the right to a trial under international law, they can still be "shot while trying to escape". This would be an effective way of neutralizing the MAGAt problem. The ones who surrender should be executed after they are convicted.