- Followers of QAnon are spreading a
conspiracy theory thatJoe Biden is a "fake president." - Images of a staging area at the White House prompted QAnon followers to call it a "movie set."
Followers of the QAnon movement have seized upon a photo of President Joe Biden's staging area for photo ops, claiming that this is evidence that he's a fake president.
QAnon influencer QAnon John posted the message on his Telegram channel, which has close to 70,000 followers.
"In case you needed ANY more proof, you are definitively WATCHING A MOVIE WITH A FAKE "PRESIDENT." Look NO further," he wrote. "I challenge you to find me ONE picture like this while Trump was at the White House…I'll wait."
However, while many followers on the platform appeared to agree with QAnon John, this conspiracy theory appeared so far-fetched that some people on the channel began to question it.
"Well if Trump is still the President who's making all the terrible decisions? If Biden is fake President?? Innocent people are dying. It's not a game," wrote a Telegram user on QAnon John's Telegram channel with the ID "Shazza."
"I just ask this. If it's REALLY fake and he's not REALLY in charge... Why are all of these bad things happening? Then they happened while on someone else's watch. I ask because I do believe he's not the president, but then I think... Why or how are all these other things happening then?" wrote another Telegram user with the username "Jason Frank."
As of Thursday night, the post had been viewed more than 20,000 times. A similar message was also spread on QAnon channels like WhipLash347, a platform with more than 250,000 subscribers, and QAnon influencer Ann VanderSteel's channel SteelTruth, which has over 31,000 subscribers.
QAnon is a baseless far-right conspiracy theory that claims former President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a "deep state" cabal of satanic pedophiles and cannibals. It has a healthy social media presence, despite efforts by tech platforms like Twitter to impose mass bans of some 70,000 QAnon-related accounts since January.
This conspiracy theory that Biden has a fake White House set has been debunked by Politifact. The set seen in that particular photo is located in the South Court Auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, and is often used for photo ops. Most recently, Biden got his COVID-19 booster shot on this set.
Politifact further noted that the backdrop was not built just for Biden to get his booster shot on September 27. It was also used for a global COVID-19 summit on September 22. Furthermore, according to reporting from The Washington Examiner, Trump himself has used the same auditorium to give announcements.