>>1940496

Q,

Last October, an anonymous user, known simply as Q, started posting cryptic messages on the controversial message board 4chan—the common theme being that President Trump is a secret genius and his opponents, namely Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are evil. Q reportedly claimed to be getting this information directly from the government, thanks to top-secret, “Q-type” security clearance. There has been little—if any—hard evidence to support Q’s musings. But over time, thousands of people started to believe them—or at least, to acknowledge they might be real. And they became the foundation of a wide-ranging conspiracy theory, known as QAnon, that has been covered by the New York Times and New York Magazine, among others, and discussed in more than 130,000 videos on YouTube. One of its most prominent followers: Roseanne Barr, who tweeted several references to QAnon before being fired from her hit TV show in May. —Melissa Chan

>>1940560

President Trump,

FDR had the radio. JFK had TV. Trump has Twitter. The President rode to the office of the presidency on a 140-character soapbox (now 280) and has since turned it into the ultimate presidential bully pulpit. In the past, he singled out individuals as “weak” and “insecure,” in addition to a barrage of personalized insults; most recently, he called Congresswoman Maxine Waters “an extraordinarily low IQ person.” Sometimes, those tweets also undermine his own administration, such as when he announced a transgender military ban before the policy was implemented. And although Trump’s unorthodox stream of consciousness may generate headlines and galvanize his base, it has also raised concerns among national-security officials. That could be why a majority of respondents to an Economist/YouGov poll said Trump’s Twitter style is inappropriate. In November, one former contract employee working for Twitter appeared to be so fed up by Trump’s online presence that he suspended the President’s account on his last day of work, though he now asserts the 11-minute period where people couldn’t access @realDonaldTrump’s Twitter feed was a “mistake.” —Abby Vesoulis

>>1940910