Conspiracy theorists are convinced Trump was sending them coded messages.
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory appear convinced that President Donald Trump’s tariffs somehow prove the Titanic was sunk on purpose.
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In posts to the pro-QAnon forum known as The Great Awakening, users cited remarks made by Trump Wednesday where he said that the U.S. switched from relying on tariffs to an income tax in 1913.
The remark was seen as evidence among conspiracy theorists that Trump was alluding to the doomed voyage and the nonsensical claims surrounding its demise.
“I’m listening to todays speech, and Trump said multiple times ‘for some stupid reason we got rid of tariffs in 1913,’” one user on the forum wrote. “My mind instantly went to the Titanic, and I’m starting to think that was comms.”
Comms, short for communications, refers to hidden messages that QAnon followers believe are being fed to them by figures such as Trump.
Conspiracy theorists believe that the Titanic was sunk not by an iceberg but by the Rothschilds, the prominent European banking dynasty that has been the subject of antisemitic accusations for well over a century.
The purpose behind the sinking, according to the conspiracy theory, was to kill high-profile passengers who opposed both the Federal Reserve bank and the income tax. The Titanic infamously sank in 1912. Both the Fed and income tax were established the following year, in 1913.
QAnon followers on X highlighted Trump’s remarks as well alongside images of the famed vessel.
“Oh yea… Trump knows,” one QAnon promoter wrote. “America used to be very wealthy with Tariff’s on Foreign Countries.”
Back on the forum, some argued that the Titanic angle was largely unimportant and instead pointed to the income tax as the primary focus of Trump’s commentary.
“Trump continually referring to 1913 regarding the tax stuff is definitely comms,” another said. “It doesn’t have to be about the Titanic. It’s about the Fed, taxation, what money really is, etc.”
Some went further and claimed that the Titanic never actually sank. Others pushed the theory that the Olympic, a decoy boat, was placed on the ocean floor. Nevertheless, Trump’s reference to the income tax has Titanic truthers in open celebration.
“Without a doubt, it was comms,” another forum member wrote. It’s also unclear what Trump might
In reality, Trump’s claim that America did away with tariffs entirely in 1913 is entirely false.
The Tariff Act, also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, was famously introduced in 1930.
Economists largely agree that the move did not have the intended effect and instead plunged the world deeper into the Great Depression.
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