Source: Politics<\/p>\n
FLORENCE, Ariz. \u2014 Ray Kallatsa is a die-hard Trumper who \u201cdefinitely\u201d wants to see former President Donald Trump run for office again in 2024.<\/p>\n
So it was natural that he\u2019d travel from Tucson to see Trump\u2019s first rally of 2022. But as Kallatsa stood there on Saturday, pondering whom he would like to see as Trump\u2019s next veep \u2014 from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to onetime national security adviser turned ardent conspiracy theorist Mike Flynn \u2014 an unorthodox idea came to him. <\/p>\n
\u201cJFK Jr.,\u201d he said, referencing the son of the 35th president who died in a plane crash in 1999. Kallatsa realized he might have come off a bit odd with the suggestion. \u201cI don\u2019t want to sound too much like a conspiracy theorist, but he\u2019s coming back,\u201d he explained. \u201cHe\u2019s supposed to reveal himself on the 17th if he\u2019s truly alive. I think we\u2019ll see him.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Kallatsa was worried about sounding too conspiratorial, he shouldn\u2019t have been. He was not alone among the crowd in believing that JFK Jr. is not only still alive but is also a secret Trump supporter embedded far in the \u201cdeep state.\u201d One attendee was spotted wearing a red shirt with the faces of Trump, Kennedy and Kennedy Jr. in the crowd. Michael Protzman, the QAnon influencer who organized the event last year in Dallas\u2019 Dealey Plaza where he and others also believed John F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. would reappear from the dead, was spotted in the rally stands. <\/p>\n
Elsewhere were individuals in hats that read \u201cTrump Won\u201d and buttons with \u201cQ.\u201d Figures from fringe QAnon online groups, like Jim and Ron Watkins, shared their visit to the rally with online followers. And conservative activist Ali Alexander \u2014 who helped organize last year\u2019s Jan. 6 \u201cStop the Steal\u201d rally, which has led to countless arrests and fears about the erosion of American democracy \u2014 was given priority access to the event. <\/p>\n
One of the introductory speakers, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who represents the district that includes Florence, invoked a \u201cstorm coming\u201d \u2014 a phrase used by QAnon \u2014 in his speech. Another speaker was Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, who is running to be Arizona\u2019s secretary of state, has been linked to QAnon and has reportedly<\/a> discussed conspiracies about a network of elected officials involved in a network of pedophilia. Both have been endorsed by Trump. <\/p>\n Trump has always had one foot firmly in the camp with conspiracists on the right, starting with his promotion of birtherism during the Obama years. Having been ousted from power, he has continued to adopt and amplify this world and its views, effectively solidifying it as the base of the Republican Party. Figures once relegated to corners of the internet and the fringes of the party have been welcomed with open arms at Trump rallies and found some of their theories shared by the former president himself. <\/p>\n Up on stage Saturday night, Trump pushed a right-wing conspiracy suggesting that some of the people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were actually FBI informants. <\/p>\n \u201cExactly how many of those present at the Capitol complex on January 6 were FBI confidential informants agents or otherwise working directly or indirectly with an agency of the United States government? People want to hear this,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n