New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Half of Trump supporters believe QAnon's imaginary claims
A full 50 percent of President Trump’s supporters now believe the bizarre, false claims of the extremist conspiracy theory known as QAnon.
www.yahoo.com
For the most part, Trump's supporters respond the same way. Even when asked for their "opinion of QAnon," very few of them — just 16 percent of those who say they've heard of the movement — are willing to call it an extremist conspiracy theory with no basis in fact. Larger numbers, meanwhile, say "it goes too far but I believe some of what I've heard" (22 percent) or that they're "not sure" what to believe (47 percent). A striking 15 percent openly say "I think it's true."
In fact, many registered voters, including those who don't support Trump, are unsure about QAnon or even accept it to some degree, with 7 percent of those who've heard of it saying it's true, 11 percent saying "it goes too far but I believe some of what I've heard," and 23 percent saying they aren't sure.
Yet when you remove "QAnon" from the question and ask solely about the conspiracy theory's underlying myth — that President Trump is secretly fighting elite child sex trafficking rings run by leading Democratic politicians — far more people say they buy into it.
Here, a staggering 50 percent of Trump supporters say they believe top Democrats are involved in elite child sex trafficking rings. Roughly the same number (52 percent) say they believe Trump is working to dismantle such rings. Another third of Trump supporters (33 percent) say they're not sure whether these rings exist — which means that just 17 percent of Trump supporters reject the imaginary claims.
Among all registered voters, a quarter (25 percent) believe top Democrats are involved in elite child sex trafficking rings; another quarter (24 percent) aren't sure. The vast majority of Joe Biden's supporters — 82 percent — correctly identify the notion as preposterous.