The FBI has warned that "conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremism," and in specific the cult-like trolling effort known as QAnon, poses an increasing domestic terror threat. This is not surprising: There are few better ways to inspire the unstable and violence-prone to extremist action than to claim to them that there are great dangerous conspiracies bubbling under the surface of everyday life that will doom the nation, their communities, or themselves unless true believers take extraordinary action. The clearly propaganda-based claim by Q advocates has already inspired violence, as one conspiracy idiot stormed a basementless pizza restaurant on the theory that he and his assault rifle would single-handedly free the supposed child sex slaves being kept in the nonexistent basement. It will almost certainly lead to more, as the group continually escalates its claims and other idiot believers begin to get more and more frustrated that the mass arrests of Democratic enemies supposedly in the works never actually come to pass.
That has not stopped top conservative names from playing footsie with those violence-provoking groups. An Atlanta-based September conference for Q-minded conspiracists is now promoting speaking appearances by ex-Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, still awaiting sentencing for lying to the FBI, and fellow former Trump aide George Papadopoulos, still on supervised release after serving a brief stint in prison for similar conduct.
Both of these people have a history of being both criminal and prone to batshit behavior. Both also appear to have already demonstrated that they would sell out their own country for a buck, so collecting money from people the FBI considers to be significant domestic extremism risks will count for them as just another Saturday night. Much of the proceeds, in fact, will allegedly going to Flynn's legal defense fund.
Taking money from domestic extremists to pay your lawyers to keep you out of prison for secretly acting as an agent of foreign governments? Now that, my friends, is dedication to the grift.
What can we even say at this point? We can't pretend to be surprised that Trump's team of bottom-feeding suction eels would stoop to such a thing; stooping to such things is what they do every day, all day, except during the exact hours they have court appearances. Within the next few years, every last Trump adviser will be on the conspiracy theory circuit, willing to say whatever an audience wants to hear in exchange for domestic extremist pocket change.