Trump's allies are baffled over his increasing support of the QAnon movement: Rolling Stone

Allies of former President Donald Trump are confused as to why he is leaning harder and harder into his support of the conspiracy-theory led movement that claims Trump is fighting a deep-state group of pedophiles.

Rolling Stone spoke to several people close to Trump who were confused as to why the former president was suddenly so vocal.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that a Trump rally in Ohio had been playing music that sounded like a Qanon song. The former president's supporters were seen pointing their fingers to the sky in a one-fingered salute, which may have been a nod to the movement's slogan, "Where we go one, we go all."

An unnamed Trump ally told Rolling Stone that they should "fuck if I know" about the former president's support for the fringe group.

Some people close to the former president thought that Trump was trying to troll his supporters by liking them.

According to a source close to Trump, he thinks some of the images and meme are funny. The source said that Trump was amused that the media would get so mad when the former president touched the Q.

A former White House official told Rolling Stone that Trump sometimes thought his followers had the right idea about their hatred for the "deep state," a term used in the movement to refer to shady, secret networks and alliances.

The source told Rolling Stone that Trump's response was similar to "there are plenty of bad and sick people in Hollywood."

The representative at the post-presidential press office did not reply immediately.

Following the FBI's raid on the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence on August 8, Trump began referring to the movement more intensely than before.

Some of the messages on Trump's Truth Social account contained baseless conspiracy theories about the FBI. The former president reposted a picture of himself with a "Q" pin along with the movement's slogan.

Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI official, said that Trump's embrace of Qanon could be his last act of desperation. According to Figliuzzi, Trump's support of QAnon was indicative of desperation which could lead to violence within the movement.