- QAnon followers believe Trump will be reinstated as president on March 4, 2021.
- Conspiracy theory is rooted in the discredited beliefs of the sovereign citizen movement.
- It gained popularity among followers of QAnon after being posted on Telegram and Gam.
- Visit the Insider Business section for more stories.
QAnon followers, unable to cope with Joe Biden’s rise to the presidency in January, have now co-opted a new belief to argue that the next legitimate tenure date will be March 4.
After President Joe Biden took office on January 20, 2021, some QAnon believers concluded that his conspiracy theory was a “lie”. But his most fervent followers were not ready to give up their conspiratorial beliefs, clinging to an absurd hope that former President Donald Trump would be sworn in later.
Using ever-changing beacons, pro-Trump conspirators now fixed their eyes on March 4, 2021.
Where does 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 citizen movement is a highly 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 in any way, resulting in the FBI designating some members as “domestic terrorists” and “anti-government extremists”.
A central principle of the movement is that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, converted “sovereign citizens” into “federal citizens”.
This belief also goes so far as to rule out the validity of any presidency after 1868, making Ulysses S. Grant the last valid president.
The ideas are esoteric and, without a doubt, meaningless.
“You really feel like you’re in an Alice in Wonderland world when you start to analyze the ideas of sovereign citizens,” Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse University, told Insider. “It’s like you’ve fallen into some kind of rabbit hole in a parallel universe.”
Some sovereign citizens also believe that an obscure 1871 law reveals that the United States has become a corporation.
The District of Columbia Organic Law established a single city government for Washington, DC. The use of the word “corporation”, referring to an incorporated district, led to the misinterpretation of this to mean that all of the United States has become a business.
“Some believe that President Joe Biden is the executive of a bankrupt company – the United States Inc.,” said Travis View, a conspiracy theory expert and host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Creating an alternate reality based on a misinterpretation of a small detail in an old law is typical of conspiracy groups, Media Matter deputy research director Stefanie Le told Insider.
“They can create elaborate mythologies based on the smallest and least significant details,” she said.
Why March 4th?
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.
Given that the followers of the sovereign citizens’ movement reject all constitutional amendments passed after the 14th amendment, they do not consider this change of date to be legitimate.
Followers of QAnon, who did not see Trump inaugurated in January, recycled the argument and reinvented the next legitimate tenure date.
They say that on March 4, 2021, Trump will succeed the last legitimate president, Grant, to become the 19th president.
Those who believe in the March 4 conspiracy think that 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 failed to come true, they are looking for explanations of other conspiracy theories.”
View said there is no clear logic to this other than the blind faith that Donald Trump is chosen to save humanity.
Joe Biden is sworn in as 46th President of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts, while Jill Biden holds the Bible during the 59th presidential inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Andrew Harnick / AP Photo
‘Maybe we should get together again and invade the Capitol on March 4’
The adoption of conspiracy theories by other groups to contribute to a specific imaginary narrative is not unexpected.
It is QAnon’s survival method “because its own predictions have broken down,” said Le.
The forums populated by QAnon supporters are now teeming with conversations about March 4.
Telegram and Gab paved the way according to a Media Matters survey seen by Insider, and is widely circulating on 4Chan and the right-wing Patriots.win forum, the researchers said. The rumors also reached TikTok, the Independent reported.
There were consequences in the real world for the March 4 rumor.
Notably, the Trump’s DC hotel raised prices for March 3 and 4. It is the only luxury hotel in the area to increase its rates for those nights.
The United States Capitol Police, fearing potentially violent clashes, ordered nearly 5,000 National Guard soldiers 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
Congressman Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, referred to the conspiracy theory during a hearing on the matter.
“Some of these people discovered that, apparently, 75 years ago, the president used to be sworn in on March 4,” he said. “OK, now why is this relevant? God knows. Anyway, now they’re thinking, ‘Maybe we should get together again and invade the Capitol on March 4’ … which is circulating online.”
A Democratic spokesman for HASC told Insider that Smith saw the reports identifying March 4 as “another tipping point” in the capital.
“The role of the Chamber’s Armed Services Committee is to validate that the military is used according to its aligned tasks and requirements,” said the spokesman.
Will QAnon ever give up?
Security should also be high throughout March to anticipate the State of the Union speech, which has not yet been scheduled.
The Capitol Police plans to maintain a high presence due to intelligence suggesting that extremists discussed plans to attack the Capitol building during the speech, Politico said.
Experts, however, do not expect the January 6 insurrectional violence to be replicated 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.
See also doubts that there will be widespread violence. “I think the January 6 events scared many followers of Q,” he told Insider.
But none of the Insider experts said they believed QAnon would be leaving anytime soon. It is commonplace for conspiracy theory groups to deal with incorrect predictions just by kicking the can down the road.
“They will build increasingly complex rationalizations that push the events they want further into the future,” Barkun told Insider.