The president acknowledged his defeat and urged for political reconciliation. His online faithful didn’t take it well.
After years of fidelity, Donald Trump’s most ardent online fans have finally turned on him.
All it took was for the president to acknowledge the reality of his loss a little over a day after they, the MAGA faithful, stormed the Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
“People were willing to die for this man and he just threw them all under the bus. That’s the only thing that’s shameful about the events of the past 36 hours,” Nick Fuentes, the host of the America First podcast and the unofficial leader of the white nationalist Groyper Army, angrily tweeted, shortly after Trump released a video Thursday night in which he conceded that Biden would be the next president and called for political reconciliation. The day before, Fuentes had marched into the Capitol building and live-streamed from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Cassandra Fairbanks, a prominent MAGA activist, tweeted: “[He] tells angry people to march to the capitol [and then] proceeds to throw his supporters under the bus.”
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And when far-right stunt journalist and failed congressional candidate Laura Loomer posted Trump’s concession video on Parler — “It’s over,” Loomer bemoaned, “Life is about to become very hard for conservatives in America” — the people in her replies were aghast that she acknowledged Trump’s own words. “He DID NOT CONCEDE! ITS HIS NEW ADMINISTRATION that will be coming in,” one respondent wrote, a sentiment repeated ad nauseam down her feed.
The despondency among the MAGA faithful online represented perhaps the sharpest break the community has ever made with a president they’ve exalted. But it also prompted a familiar brand of skepticism that has marked the past four years: Was Trump merely trying to placate his establishment handlers? Or did he truly betray the MAGA movement, days after several of his followers died while following his instructions to storm the Capitol?
In the past, Trump had been able to keep his online devotees close by swinging back into their good graces, normally with a pot-stirring tweet or the announcement of a controversial right-wing policy. But just hours after the president released his concession video, many expressed shock that he may have closed the book on them forever.
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“People were willing to die for this man and he just threw them all under the bus."
After years of fidelity, Donald Trump's most ardent online fans have finally turned on him.https://t.co/KnI1f7NYBm
— POLITICO (@politico) January 8, 2021
Extremist forums like TheDonald/4chan are turning on the president after that video. They're extremely upset at him, Lin Wood, and Q.
This appears to be the moment they realized there was no grand plan to win back the election.
This may not be permanent, but they feel betrayed.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 8, 2021Obviously, there are conspiracy theories, too. Some can't believe the president wouldn't support the same storming of the Capitol they believe he explicitly called for, so they're saying the video is a deepfake or he's being threatened by the "deep state."https://t.co/D8I8dH9QNX
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 8, 2021
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