Supporters of QAnon—the collective delusion that a covert network of satanic cannibal pedophiles secretly controls the United States government and that former President Donald Trump was sent to expose them—still refuse to believe he lost the 2020 election.
In the days after major outlets called the election for now-President Joe Biden, QAnon believers were sure Trump would expose widespread election fraud committed by Democrats, only to see these results verified by courts, state legislatures, and the electoral college.
They were certain former Vice President Mike Pence would overturn the 2020 election results at the joint session to certify Biden's victory, but despite the armed insurrection initially upending these proceedings, Biden's victory was acknowledged anyway.
On January 20—Inauguration Day—the new assertion was that Trump would contact his followers with orders through the emergency broadcast system. Biden's inauguration would be interrupted and mass arrests would occur, the satanic cannibals finally exposed.
After that didn't happen, the new date—for those who still believed—was March 4th. Their reasoning was that the U.S. secretly became a corporation in the 1870s and that all Presidents after that were illegitimate. The fantasy goes that Trump would announce the return to the "real" America on March 4—the country's original inauguration date before the passage of the 20th Amendment.
Though the theory is laughable, it was taken seriously by security officials in D.C., resulting in the suspension of House votes for the day and in escalated surveillance of the areas around the Capitol.
But as another goalpost moved, Twitter couldn't help but mock the conspiracy theorists with the #TrumpInauguration hashtag.
But the continued pervasiveness of QAnon is no laughing matter.
Trump's D.C. hotel tripled its prices for the fourth, presumably due to the Trump fanatics looking for lodging there.
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