Et tu, QAnon Shaman?

Donald Trump may have retained the loyal support of the MAGA base and those around him in his first year back in office, even as he turns his back on his previous disdain for foreign interventionism.

One man indelibly linked with the US president, though, thanks to his role in the January 6, 2021 attempts to overturn the result of the presidential election Trump lost, has turned against him. The QAnon Shaman – aka Jake Angeli, aka Jacob Chansley – now says the Trump administration is “a corrupt disaster”, is planning to run for governor in his home state of Arizona this year and has filed a $40 trillion lawsuit against a range of bodies as diverse as Trump himself, the World Bank and Warner Bros Studios.

Angeli/Chansley – the face of the Capitol riots with his bison-horned fur headdress and war paint in red, white and blue – was sentenced for 41 months for his role, but was pardoned by Trump on his first day back in office on January 20 last year.

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But he has now turned against Trump, claiming: “All warfare is based on deception and the American people have had war declared on them.” He has cited US support for Israel and Trump’s resistance to releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.

In his lawsuit – which stretches to 26 pages, written as a single paragraph – he claims he is the legitimate president of the US and is seeking $40 trillion from Trump, the Federal Reserve, the National Security Agency, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, Israel, Elon Musk’s X Corp, T-Mobile, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Warner Bros Studios, Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

According to the Times, “friends worry that he needs help with mental health issues”. Instead, this being modern America, he has become a popular guest with crackpot hard right podcast hosts.