How a Trump soundtrack became a QAnon phenomenon

[mahatmakanejeeves]

How a Trump soundtrack became a QAnon phenomenon

A song’s journey from a Trump video to online forums and back to Trump rallies shows the melding of the MAGA and QAnon movements.

By Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer
Updated September 23, 2022 at 10:33 a.m. EDT | Published September 23, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Earlier this week, close advisers to former president Donald Trump grappled with a question: what to do about the QAnon song. ... The melody — an orchestral theme featuring swelling strings, gentle bell tones and brooding piano harmonies — was the soundtrack to a campaign-style video Trump released in August. But it wasn’t until last Saturday’s rally in Youngstown, Ohio, when the tune closed Trump’s nearly two-hour speech, inspiring the crowd to respond with raised arms and pointed index fingers, that it broke through as a phenomenon.

The music has been widely described as an anthem for QAnon, an extremist movement that the FBI has designated as a domestic terrorism threat. The main discredited belief of QAnon revolves around the baseless claim that Trump is secretly fighting a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles. But the real story of the song is even stranger and more complicated — underscoring the increasing difficulty in parsing distinctions between the QAnon following and Trump’s own “Make America Great Again” movement.

The bottom line for Trump, according to one adviser, is that he will probably use the song again. His next rally is Friday in Wilmington, N.C.

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The origins of Trump’s decision to use the song in the first place remain murky. The piece was first released in 2019 as “Mirrors” by Will Van De Crommert, a composer who writes music for movies, TV and commercials. {snip} Van De Crommert, the composer, said he did not authorize the song’s use by Trump and is exploring legal recourse. “This individual has unlawfully distributed my music under their own name,” he said of the Spotify user. “I do not support Donald Trump, and I do not support or espouse the beliefs of QAnon.”

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By Isaac Arnsdorf
Isaac Arnsdorf is a national political reporter for The Washington Post who covers former president Donald Trump, the “Make America Great Again” political movement and the Republican Party. Twitter https://twitter.com/iarnsdorf

By Josh Dawsey
Josh Dawsey is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017 and previously covered the White House. Before that, he covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal. Twitter https://twitter.com/jdawsey1

By Michael Scherer
Michael Scherer is a national political reporter at The Washington Post. He was previously the Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, where he also served as the White House correspondent. Before joining Time, he was the Washington correspondent for Salon.com. Twitter https://twitter.com/michaelscherer

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I said those 1's in the air were probably a Qanon thing

There little slogan has a '1' in it, so ... it made sense.

I'd say this more or less confirms it.