The thing we should all understand about Trump and his gang of marauding Republicans by now is that the louder they shout things at Democrats and the more they point their fingers, the more they project their own behavior onto others. So when Trump calls Rep. Ilhan Omar an "extremist" and tries to use her as a way to stain the Democratic party, he's just deflecting attention from the collective mental illness (and I do not use that term sarcastically) which has infected the Republican Party.
The QAnon conspiracy theory has taken hold of the Trumpers and enfolded them into some sort of delusional state where they truly believe with uncritical devotion that they are following clues sent by people inside the Trump administration. These clues, posted on 4Chan and 8Chan, are meant for "anons" to decode. They involve some amorphous secret plot to expose the "deep state" and a fictional network of pedophiles, which they believe are embedded in the Democratic Party and Hollywood.
It's a group delusion wrapped in a script worthy of reality TV and yet, it has ensnared educated, ordinarily sane people into the labyrinth where rationality is discarded in favor of some misplaced hero complex.
Jared Holt at Right Wing Watch noticed that Ilhan Omar's Republican challenger, Danielle Stella, has quite an active Twitter account, particularly when it comes to QAnon.
Right Wing Watch inquired further using the contact submission form on Stella’s campaign website, and we were answered by someone named Heather, who said she was an unpaid communications volunteer on Stella’s campaign. Heather told us via email that she wanted to make clear that Stella “stands 100% behind the principles of patriotism, unity/inclusiveness (WWG1WGA!) and love for country that Qanon promotes.”
For his part, Trump welcomes their chaos and delusion. Qanon promoters are seen at every rally, featured prominently, and that's just fine with him.
In the end, it's just another example of Republican projection. As long as they can dupe otherwise rational people into believing in an utterly irrational conspiracy theory, they can distract everyone from their own criminal enterprise. When Trump screams about Rep. Omar being some kind of extremist, he is really just working to get his supporters and others who aren't paying attention distracted from the inherent criminality of his administration and the Republican Party writ large.
Danielle Stella hopes to benefit personally from that projection, but it only works if we let the racist criminals win.
