'Destined to flop': The People's Convoy trucker rally is returning to California after month of demonstration

• The People's Convoy, an amalgamation of truckers, has been protesting COVID rules in DC.
• One of the group's leaders announced a new plan to return to California, where they started.

The People's Convoy, an amalgamation of truckers from across the country who staged a continuous protest near Washington DC against COVID-19 restrictions, is returning to California after nearly a month of fruitless demonstration.

One of the group's organizers, Mike Landis, announced in a live streamed talk on Sunday night that the group would soon be leaving Hagerstown Speedway, the dirt track in Maryland where they've been situated the past month. The group plans to return to California, where they initially disembarked on February 23.

Despite pulling in almost $2 million in donations, the movement failed to force the government to drop its national emergency order amid the pandemic. Instead, they have spent weeks disrupting commuters while circling the Beltway surrounding Washington and sharing conspiracy theories online.

The group plans to protest COVID-19 measures and pending bills in California, which Landis told followers is "more important at this point" than their original goal. He claimed that the group could return one day to Washington to "finish this job."

Talia Jane, an internet researcher who has covered the convoy extensively, told Insider that the decision to return to California was probably related to funds depleting and said the protest "was destined to flop."

"This was, from the start, a house of cards built on the idea that 'If you build it, they will come,'" Jane said. "That baseline motivator doesn't really work when the 'it' you're building is based on a deep misunderstanding of reality."

Many of the truckers are supporters of former President Donald Trump, including some who adhere to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory or other far-right movements. The truckers organized the protest, which was inspired by the similar Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, Canada earlier this year, through social media groups and messaging platforms such as Telegram.

But while the Canadian truckers convoy became international news and threw the Canadian government into crisis, the People's Convoy has resulted in limited impact and largely been out of the media spotlight amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The convoy's decision to decamp from the Speedway came after Brian Brase, one of the convoy organizers, said on Sunday morning that he was leaving the dwindling group but "not running away," according to The Daily Beast. Prior to Brase's departure, there had also been widespread factioning and splintering inside the group.

The convoy also tended to fizzle out because participants found that people did not embrace their cause and were eager to push back, Jane said. Numerous DC residents and activists have taken action against the truckers, including one person known as "Bike Man" who went viral after single-handedly holding up the convoy by pedaling his bicycle slowly in front of them. Other people yelled at the truckers as they drove by.

"Small things, like getting heckled or soda thrown on them and normal DOT inspections, was enough to convince convoyers they wouldn't have a moment of peace," Jane said.

Despite the group's minimal impact, it has attracted attention from multiple prominent politicians. Republican Rep. Ted Cruz rode in a truck around the DC Beltway on March 10 to protest vaccine mandates with convoy members. A number of People's Convoy truckers also met on March 8 with Rep. Cruz and Ron Johnson, as well as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Thomas Massie, in talks on Capitol Hill to share their demands.

In a Telegram channel for the People's Convoy with over 44,000 followers, some have expressed frustration about the planned move to California. Many others have simply asked for information about when the convoy would be departing.