Latest news with #JacobChansley
The Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Even the ‘QAnon Shaman' has turned on Trump
Jacob Angeli Chansley, also known as the 'QAnon Shaman,' has launched a scathing verbal attack on President Trump, as the commander-in-chief continues to deal with the fallout of his administration's decision not to release the Epstein files. In 2021, the pictures of Chansley, adorned in a fur Viking horned headdress and red, white, and blue face paint, became a defining image of the Capitol riot. Four years on, Chansley's support of the president seems to be over. 'Oh yeah & F*** Israel! And F*** Donald Trump!, Angeli-Chansley wrote on X Wednesday. Chansley posted a flurry of fiery tweets about Trump, including one that has since been deleted under a Trump post featuring his mugshot. The tweet, which read 'F*** this stupid piece of s***... What a fraud,' was shared by X account Faketriots Watch. Chansley then turned his attention to Hollywood star and Trump supporter James Woods. 'Did you go to Epstein Island too James? Cuz I am beginning to look your house survive the LA fires too? Nothing about Epstein? You're not holding Trump accountable...I know the routine James...I try to give people their I'm gonna let you cook…,' Chansley wrote to the Once Upon a Time in America star. The one-time Trump superfan was sentenced to 41 months in prison in November 2021 after he was seen storming the Senate dais, taking selfies in a seat that Vice President Mike Pence had occupied an hour earlier, and scribbling 'It's Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!' on a piece of paper left on the desk. 'Mike Pence is a f***ing traitor,' he said during the raid. Chansley then called other rioters up to the dais and led them in an incantation over his bullhorn, according to the Department of Justice. He was released to a halfway house in 2023. Two years later, Trump pardoned Chansley along with over 1,500 others involved in the rioting that day. In 2021, his support for the president wavered when he offered to testify against Trump, stating that he was one of the many individuals incited by the then-former president's actions and rhetoric at The Ellipse on January 6. Ever since a n FBI memo was leaked claiming Jeffrey Epstein held 'no client list', MAGA has been split over the truth behind the matter. GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and a string of conservative pundits, including Tucker Carlson, former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, and right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro, have all taken aim at Trump over the Epstein debacle.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Just Lost One of His Most Famous Followers: the QAnon Shaman
Even Donald Trump's most sycophantic followers are turning on the president. Jacob Chansley—better known as the QAnon shaman—denounced the MAGA leader Wednesday morning, responding to a post of Trump's 2023 mugshot by decrying the president as a 'fraud.' 'Fuck this stupid piece of shit,' Chansley wrote in a since-deleted post that accrued more than 34,000 views. Chansley captured national attention when he stormed through the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an elaborate, horned fur headdress. In the aftermath of the attack, a face-painted Chansley emerged as one of the central figures of the revolt. Once at the Capitol building, Chansley was in the first group of rioters to break inside. Wielding a bullhorn, he worked to 'rile up the crowd and demand that lawmakers be brought out,' according to a sentencing memo. In late 2021, a federal judge sentenced Chansley to 41 months in prison for his role in the January 6 insurrection. But that was undone hours after Trump was inaugurated at the start of this year, when he included Chansley in a clemency order for some 1,600 of his supporters who were involved in the riot. Trump has held messiah-like status within QAnon's conspiratorial circle for years thanks to their principal belief that, despite being named and photographed as an associate of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Trump would rid the world of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run the government and media. In turn, Trump readily welcomed the cockeyed adoration. In 2020, he offered the movement plausible deniability at an executive level—claiming that while he didn't know much about QAnon, he couldn't disprove its theories. Just two years later, Trump was regularly circulating bits of the conspiracy on TruthSocial and reposting images of himself wearing Q pins emblazoned with the cult's messaging, 'A Storm Is Coming,' referring to Trump's supposed final victory, when QAnon supporters expect him to mass-execute his opponents. QAnon supporters turned out en masse in November to help Trump return to the Oval Office. But Trump's sudden backpedalling on unearthing records related to the Epstein investigation has left a bitter taste in those supporters' mouths. Their relationship was further strained when Trump referred to his Epstein-minded allies as 'stupid,' 'naive,' and 'foolish,' accusing them of being 'duped' by Democrats who he claimed invented the Epstein 'hoax.' But Trump has a well-documented history with the New York financier. Prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trump's 'closest friends.' The socialites were named and photographed together several times, Trump allegedly penned a salacious letter to Epstein for the pedophile's 50th birthday, the real estate mogul reportedly flew on Epstein's jets between Palm Beach and New York at least seven times, and the first time that Trump slept with his now-wife Melania was reportedly aboard Epstein's plane, nicknamed the 'Lolita Express.' In a 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein, Trump said he had known Epstein for 15 years and referred to him as a 'terrific guy.' 'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,' Trump said at the time.
