Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is an American defense policy analyst who founded the far-right anti-Muslim group, Center for Security Policy (CSP), serving as its first president, and a former presidential appointee under President Ronald Reagan. He has been described as an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked for the federal government in multiple posts, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy from 1983 to 1987, and seven months as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan administration. He founded the CSP in 1988, serving as its president until 2023 and thereafter as executive chairman.
New Tang Dynasty Television is a multilingual American television broadcaster founded by adherents of the Falun Gong new religious movement and based in New York City. The station was founded in 2001 as a Chinese-language broadcaster, but has since expanded its language offerings; in July 2020, it launched its 24/7 English channel which now broadcasts nationwide in the U.S. and UK. It is under the Epoch Media Group, a consortium which also includes the newspaper The Epoch Times. The Epoch Media Group's news sites and YouTube channels have promoted conspiracy theories such as QAnon, anti-vaccine misinformation and false claims of fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election.
The Epoch Times is a far-right international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television. The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.
QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters is operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against president Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many different conspiracy theories and unifies them into a larger interconnected conspiracy theory. QAnon has been described as a cult.
Breitbart News Network is an American far-right syndicated news, opinion, and commentary website founded in mid-2007 by American conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. Its content has been described as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists. The site has published a number of conspiracy theories and intentionally misleading stories. Posts originating from the Breitbart News Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.
One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right, pro-Trump cable channel founded by Robert Herring Sr. and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., that launched on July 4, 2013. The network is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates news bureaus in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
Stephen Kevin Bannon is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist for the first seven months of U.S. president Donald Trump's administration, before Trump discharged him. He is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News and previously served on the board of the now-defunct data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.
Guo Wengui, also known under the Cantonese name Ho Wan Kwok (郭浩云), Miles Guo, and Miles Kwok, is a self-exiled Chinese billionaire businessman, political activist and convicted fraudster, who controls Beijing Zenith Holdings and other assets. At the height of his career, he was the 73rd richest person in China. Guo was accused of corruption and other misdeeds by the Chinese authorities and fled to the United States in late 2014, after learning he was going to be arrested under allegations of bribery, kidnapping, money laundering, fraud and rape. Guo said the charges were politically motivated and are a product of a campaign of political retribution carried out against him by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Guo is an associate of Steve Bannon and a member of former U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
According to an American political conspiracy theory, the deep state is a clandestine network of members of the federal government, working in conjunction with high-level financial and industrial entities and leaders, to exercise power alongside or within the elected United States government.
Charles J. Kirk is an American conservative political activist, radio/pod-cast talk show host, author, and YouTuber. With Bill Montgomery, he co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012, for which Kirk serves as executive director. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Turning Point Action, Turning Point Academy and Turning Point Faith, president of Turning Point Endowment, and a member of the Council for National Policy. Kirk has written four books.
Chanel Rion is an American broadcaster, political cartoonist, and children's book author. She was formerly the chief White House correspondent for One America News Network (OAN), a far-right American cable channel. She is known for promoting conspiracy theories.
The 2022 Michigan gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Michigan. Incumbent Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer ran for re-election to a second term and faced former political commentator Tudor Dixon in the general election. Whitmer defeated Dixon by a margin of roughly 10.5 percentage points, a wider margin than polls indicated as well as a wider margin than Whitmer's first victory four years prior. Whitmer won independent voters by double-digit margins, which contributed to Dixon's defeat.
GTV Media Group, Inc. is a media company formed in April 2020 by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui. The company operates GTV, a Chinese media platform.
Ronald Watkins, also known by his online pseudonym CodeMonkeyZ, is an American conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun. He has played a major role in spreading the discredited far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and has espoused conspiracy theories that widespread election fraud led to Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He is the son of Jim Watkins, the owner and operator of 8kun.
Pastel QAnon is a collection of techniques and strategies that use "soft" and feminine aesthetics – most notably pastel colors – that are used to attract women into the QAnon conspiracy theory, often using mainstream social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.
Since the movement's emergence in 2017, adherents of the QAnon far-right conspiracy theory have been involved in a number of controversial events, some of them violent, resulting in the filing of criminal charges and one conviction for terrorism.
Tudor Dixon is an American politician, businesswoman and conservative political commentator. A member of the Republican Party, Dixon was the party's nominee for Governor of Michigan in the 2022 election. She became the Michigan Republicans' first female nominee for governor. Dixon lost the election to incumbent Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer by 10.6 points.
In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials falsely claimed that public health facilities in Ukraine were "secret U.S.-funded biolabs" purportedly developing biological weapons, which was debunked as disinformation by multiple media outlets, scientific groups, and international bodies. The claim was amplified by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese state media, and was also promoted by followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory and subsequently supported by other far-right groups in the United States.
The ReAwaken America Tour is an American far-right and Christian nationalist movement launched in 2021 by Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark and former Donald Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn. Its rallies have promoted a variety of right-wing and far-right conspiracy theories, including COVID-19 misinformation, election denialism, QAnon and doomsday prophecies.
Robert J. Sigg is an American media executive and owner of Colorado-based Performance One Media, which is the holding company for Real America's Voice and WeatherNation TV. Sigg's career in media began with Turner Media Group and outdoor sports channel In Country Television.
