Trump shares social media posts with QAnon phrases and calls for jailing lawmakers, special counsel

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump shared more than a dozen posts on his social media network Wednesday that call for the trial or jailing of House lawmakers who investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol, special counsel Jack Smith and others, along with images that reference the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The former president began posting a string of messages Tuesday evening after Smith filed a new indictment against him over his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 presidential election. The new indictment keeps the same criminal charges but narrows the allegations against Trump following a Supreme Court opinion last month that extended broad immunity to former presidents.

Trump reposted a doctored image that was made to look like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in orange prison jumpsuits, among other political figures, and a lewd post about Harris and Clinton that referenced a sex act. One post seemed to suggest former President Barack Obama should be tried in a military court.

Trump has long talked about seeking retribution against perceived enemies if he wins a second term. He has publicly bristled in recent weeks at the advice of his campaign advisers to focus his message on policy around the economy and the border rather than indulge in personal attacks that were seen as distracting from the case he’s trying to make to voters.

His campaign did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday about the flurry of posts on Truth Social, the former president’s social media network where he communicates primarily to his most devoted base of supporters.

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the Republican candidate posted messages in his own words reacting to the indictment and renewing his complaints about the gag order he’s under in his New York hush money criminal case.

Trump then began sharing more than a dozen posts from other users on the network that included the calls for Smith to be prosecuted, the lawmakers on the House committee investigating the Capitol attack to be jailed, and more. One image showed Smith with devil horns and red eyes.

A spokesman for Smith declined to comment Wednesday.

James Singer, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said the posts show what Trump is offering the country: “prosecuting political opponents, using dangerous conspiracy theories to justify harmful policies, and dividing Americans against each other.”

One post featured an image of Trump and former President Barack Obama with the words, “All roads lead to Obama… retruth if you want public military tribunals.”

Some of the other posts Trump shared included phrases circulated among followers of QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, including “Nothing can stop what is coming,” “Hold the line” and “WWG1WGA”, which is an initialism for “Where we go one, we go all.”

Trump in recent years has openly embraced followers of QAnon after years of winking at the theory, centered on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals.

The former president’s indulgence of the conspiracy theory is among the ways Trump has embraced the far-right fringe of his political movement. Trump has also championed those jailed for their role in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is listed as an invited guest speaker at the J6 Awards Gala fundraiser on Sept. 5 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for defendants charged in the insurrection. The event is advertised online as intending to “honor and celebrate the twenty defendants who contributed to the powerful ‘Justice For All’ song.”

Trump has played the song — a version of the Star-Spangled Banner sung by a group of defendants jailed over their alleged roles in the 2021 violence and recorded over a jail phone line, overlaid with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance — at some of his campaign rallies in recent years.

On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign confirmed that the GOP nominee won’t be in attendance at next week’s J6 Awards Gala. Organizers for the event, which also lists Rudy Giuliani and Anthony Raimondi as speakers, did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking more details.

The former president vowed to pardon many of those convicted. He has in the past spoken at or recorded messages for groups fundraising to support the defendants, including one at his Bedminster club last year, and in March 2023 hosted a dinner for family members of the defendants.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, contributed to this report.