Trump tacitly endorses QAnon conspiracy after being asked to denounce it

President Trump has once again refused to disavow the QAnon conspiracy theory.
During his town hall event with NBC News on Thursday, moderator Savannah Guthrie explained the concept of QAnon — "Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior" — to Trump and asked him to debunk it. "I know nothing about QAnon," Trump responded, to which Guthrie made it clear, "I just told you."
But then Trump suggested he did know something about the conspiracists: "What I do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that," he said. Guthrie then tried to get him to say there wasn't any "satanic pedophile cult," and Trump simply said, "I don't know that, and neither do you know that."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
As Guthrie explained, the far-right QAnon conspiracy purports Democrats and Hollywood elites are part of a cannibalistic, pedophilic cabal and that Trump is leading a resistance against them. Trump's refusal to denounce the theory for the first time led QAnon supporters to celebrate. And NBC News' Ben Collins, who covers QAnon, suggested in a tweet that Trump's Thursday comments were "about as close to a dream scenario for QAnon followers as is humanly possible."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Will Republicans kill the filibuster to end the shutdown?
Talking Points GOP officials contemplate the ‘nuclear option’
-
Trump nominee in limbo after racist texts leak
Speed Read Paul Ingrassia lost Republican support following the exposure of past racist text messages
-
‘France may well be in store for a less than rocambolesque future’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from Louvre
Speed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 years
Speed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Fire
speed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan church
Speed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school mass
Speed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murders
speed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bail
Speed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambush
Speed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived