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Trump supporters aired their frustration on social media sites popular with conservatives, including Gab and MeWe, about President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.
The diehards advised against succumbing to “evil,” aka the new administration. They called the transfer of power “treason.” And some promoted new conspiracy theories that suggested the battle for the White House wasn’t over.
In short, for many Trump supporters, it was just another day online. Even in the Biden era, the alternate reality on Trump-friendly social media remains that the election was stolen and that the “deep state” is in control.
“This country is no longer yours,” said a user on Gab going by Heartiste who explored the creation of a new political party called the Patriot Party. “The sooner you can accept that, the quicker you can move on to creating something new.”
The day before the inauguration, a MeWe user going by Silence is Consent, suggested a coup was coming that would block Biden from taking office. As proof, that user shared a screenshot of a post from another forum—which one was unclear—that was supposedly authored by a National Guard member who said soldiers were sent to Washington, D.C., to “seize power for the real president.”
“The order will come in the dead of night on the 19th/20th,” the post said. “When you wake up on the 20th, we will have seized all the organs of power in DC for President Trump, and Biden and his cabinet along with tons of senators and reps will be in cuffs.”
Of course, the coup never came.
In the runup to the election, Trump supporters flocked to alternative social media services like Gab, MeWe, and Parler over complaints that Facebook and Twitter were unfairly censoring their speech The violent discussion eventually ended up getting Parler taken offline after its data hosting provider, Amazon Web Services, cut service.
After Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, mainstream social media services Twitter and Facebook banned Trump. The companies also ratcheted up a long-running but ineffective crackdown on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud as well as calls for more violence.
Still on Wednesday, vague references to coups or worse could be easily found on conservative social media. A user of Gab, for example, suggested that any “true patriots willing to fight” and “undo” the transfer of power contact him. It was unclear what the user had planned, if anything.
Meanwhile, another user on Gab, under the name Stephen Starks, said he hoped for Trump to return to office. He didn’t say how, though Trump has raised the possibility of running again (that is, if he’s isn’t barred from running by the ongoing impeachment process).
“I wanted for 65 years for a man like Trump to arrive,” the post said. “I just pray I live long enough for him to finish what he started.”
But for some, particularly those who had bought into QAnon, the false conspiracy theory that suggests high-profile Democrats are running an underground child sex ring, Wednesday was a realization that they had been bamboozled. They previously believed Trump would remain in power following an inauguration day coup and that Trump would arrest and even possibly execute Democratic opponents.
“I will not forgive Q and other conspiracy theorists for telling Trump supporters to wait,” a user going by Chris Blair posted on Gab, citing the pseudonym of the person who had started the sex ring story. “With me and several other thousands of Trump supporters, your credibility is shot.”
