Among Trump supporters, 50% believe main claims at QAnon's centre

Revelations come amid reports president’s campaign took million-dollar donation from QAnon supporters

Some 50 per cent of Donald Trump’s supporters were said to believe QAnon’s central claims about the president’s battle with deep-state Democratic paedophilia, according to a study.

QAnon, which has been labelled a domestic terror threat to the United States, alleges that president Trump was in secret combat with Democratic elites who engaged in paedophilia, amid other baseless accusations.

But, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov study published on Tuesday, some 50 per cent who supported Mr Trump said they believed claims about deep-state Democratic peadophilia, when QAnon was not named.

Asked about the accusations, 50 per cent of the president’s supporters said they believed top Democrats were involved in child-sex trafficking: a claim at QAnon’s centre.  

Roughly the same amount, at 52 per cent, said the Republican was actively working to dismantle such paedophilia and sex-trafficking operations, according to the poll, whilst 17 per cent dismissed the claims.

At the same time, some 47 per cent who knew about QAnon - and supported Mr Trump - said they were “not sure” what to believe when it came to the extremist conspiracy, when the movement was named.

Meanwhile, as many as 15 per cent told said they believed QAnon was true, whilst 22 per cent said the conspiracy’s claims went “too far but I believe some of what I’ve heard,”

Only 16 per cent who had heard about the conspiracy were willing to call it “extremist, with no basis in fact,” in the poll carried out between 18 - 16 October among Republican voters.

The poll was conducted as Mr Trump declined to denounce the QAnon movement in an NBC televised town hall last week.

QAnon’s controversial - and baseless - theories have seen right-wing Republican candidates tip-toe around an endorsement, and Mr Trump’s claim to ”know nothing about it”.

He added on Thursday that “I do know they are very much against pedophilia, they fight it very hard”.

The survey comes as the Trump campaign was reported to have accepted a $1 million donation from prominent QAnon supporters last month, MarketWatch reported.

Vice president Mike Pence had been due to attend an event organised by Caryn and Michael Borland, who donated the funds, but pulled-out over reports they shared QAnon-linked stories on social media.