The Rise of Presidential Eschatology: Conspiracy Theories, Religion, and the January 6th Insurrection

Abstract

This essay argues that the insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, can be partially explained by the rise of what we call presidential eschatology, a religious master narrative that represents a historic shift from presidents appealing to God to presidents becoming a messiah figure. More specifically, we trace President Trump’s embrace of this kind of religious discourse—which we contend is a form of weaponized political communication aiming to undermine democracy—to his acceptance of a millennialist narrative fashioned by QAnon conspiracy theorists. Through a close reading of primary sources from the movement, the study illustrates how these eschatological themes surfaced in QAnon's discourse and were exploited by Trump and his allies as they sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“If You Don’t Fight Like Hell, You’re Not Going to Have a Country”: An Intersectional Settler Colonial Analysis of Trump’s “Save America” Speech and Other Messages of (Non)belonging

“…Trump's base represents a cross-section of America and can be hard to define. However, it is clear that they are Christian and White (Bond & Neville-Shepard, 2021), supporters whose beliefs intersect and reproduce U.S. hegemonies, such as whiteness, genderism, nationality, and class. While not all the insurrectionists were Christian, the rhetoric of the rioters reflected the aggressive, hypermasculine, and White supremacist fusion of God and country baked into U.S. settler American Nativism.…”

“…Thousands of supporters attended the January 6th “Save America” rally, where Trump surrogates delivered opening salvos, urging supporters to action, including Giuliani’s entreaty for a “trial by combat” (Goodman et al, 2021). Televangelist Paula White implored supporters to upend Trump’s adversaries through acts of “holy boldness” (Bond & Neville-Shepard, 2021, p.10). At noon, Trump delivered his “Save America speech,” and by 2:14 p.m., Trump’s insurrectionists breached the Capitol.…”

“…24). Trump denied any responsibility for the insurrection, whereas others suggest his speech directly incited rioters (Bond & Neville-Shepard, 2021).…”

“…Trump’s presidency was a four-year public indulgence in settler self-victimization, portraying himself as a savior to “Make America Great Again” who was subsequently “persecuted by some very bad, conflicted & corrupt people” (March 3, 2019). Positioning himself as the anti-hero, Trump vacillated between America’s savior and victim, branding which spoke directly to Christian Nationalists and evangelicals (Bond & Neville-Shepard, 2021). Victimization is core to Christian Nationalists’ “spiritual warfare” beliefs, which coalesce around the invasion of their beliefs at the hands of LGBTQ people, Black and Brown people, feminists, environmentalists, immigrants, and non-Christians (Stewart, 2020).…”

Storm the Capitol: Linking Offline Political Speech and Online Twitter Extra-Representational Participation on QAnon and the January 6 Insurrection

“…First, we combined offline speech information with Twitter data during key speech addresses leading up to the Capitol attack. Given the significant size of the data collected and the importance of QAnon in the insurrection (Bond and Neville-Shepard, 2021 ; Camille, 2021 ; Crews et al, 2021 ), we focused on this group as one of the most influential online voices during the incident. Second, we explore the link between Trump's offline speech and QAnon's hashtags across a 3-day timeframe.…”