Chapter 4: The Cult of Trump: Charisma, Authority, and Allegiance

This chapter examines Donald Trump and modern conservatism as a major catalyst in the rise of QAnon, as identified by SNCs across our dataset. For many posters, Trump’s ascent did not simply coincide with the growth of the movement; it enabled it. His presidency redefined what counted as acceptable political and moral expression, collapsing the distance between political spectacle and everyday speech. Through a blend of charisma, provocation, and grievance, Trump transformed long-standing frustrations with cultural change into a performative script that his supporters could inhabit and reproduce within their own social worlds.

What followed was not only the radicalisation of political discourse but also of relational life itself. Support for Trump became a moral identity, and the emotional intensity of his performance reverberated through families and communities. Yet, this transformation cannot be explained through Trump alone. His rise rested on a pre-existing moral infrastructure, the conservative traditions, evangelical currents, and racial hierarchies that had long shaped American life. For many SNCs, QAnon emerged from that terrain as a continuation of moral order recast as divine struggle, in which political loyalty was recoded as spiritual warfare.