Which influencers and media figures played the largest role in mainstreaming QAnon after 2017?

1. Celebrities who gave QAnon cultural oxygen

Early celebrity endorsements brought QAnon language into public view: gossip columnist Liz Crokin was among the first public figures to embrace QAnon narratives and helped seed them in celebrity circles ^[1], while Roseanne Barr’s public tweets in 2018 amplified Q‑adjacent claims that helped make the lore legible to television audiences ^[2]; these celebrity endorsements functioned less as careful inquiry than as high‑reach signals that the subject was worth attention.

2. Shock media and right‑wing personalities converting curiosity into audience

Infowars founder Alex Jones repeatedly promoted Q‑adjacent material on his platform before deplatforming, and conservative broadcast figures such as Sean Hannity and other right‑wing outlets amplified Q content to large audiences in 2018 and after, materially expanding reach beyond fringe message boards ^{[4] [1]}. Their incentive structures—ratings, controversy and audience retention—meant fringe claims were recycled as content rather than rigorously vetted reportage.

3. Trump, allies and institutional conduits

Former President Trump and several associates played an outsized role in normalizing Q‑related accounts: Trump’s repeated interactions with Q‑associated accounts and allies such as Michael Flynn, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell conveyed a degree of political legitimacy to Q narratives, and figures like Kash Patel later recruited Q influencers into platforms tied to Trump circles such as Truth Social ^{[2] [3] [8]}. These moves blurred lines between political messaging and conspiratorial subculture, benefiting actors seeking influence within pro‑Trump constituencies.

4. The professionalized Q influencer ecosystem

A distinct class of influencers—interpreters, livestream hosts and Instagram personalities—translated cryptic “drops” into emotional, topical stories that fit existing audiences: examples include Jeffrey Pedersen and the MG Show, Jordan Sather, Praying Medic, and visually driven accounts such as “Little Miss Patriot” that targeted mothers and wellness communities ^{[9] [7] [3]}. Researchers and journalists documented how these creators monetized attention and migrated to less moderated platforms like Telegram and Rumble after deplatforming, turning Q into an entrepreneurial media ecosystem ^{[3] [10]}.

5. Tech intermediaries and suspected authorship that shaped credibility

Technical intermediaries and possible authors of Q posts changed the game: Ron Watkins—who operated the site that hosted Q messages and later ran for office—became a focal figure for investigators seeking to tie anonymous posts to accountable actors, which in turn reframed Q from anonymous chaos into a movement with identifiable promoters ^{[11] [5]}. Platform decisions—deplatforming and later partial reinstatements under new policies—also affected which figures stayed visible and how narratives evolved ^{[3] [8]}.

6. Motives, agendas and the shape of mainstreaming

Across these actors, motives diverged: some celebrities amplified for attention, media figures for audience growth, political actors for mobilization, and influencers for direct monetization and community building; watchdogs flag a mix of antisemitic tropes and targeted moral panics repackaged from Q rhetoric by actors such as Christopher Rufo and others who borrowed Q framing for broader cultural attacks ^{[12] [1]}. Reporting shows no single path to mainstreaming—rather a collision of cultural signaling, media incentives, partisan goals and entrepreneurial content strategies that together swept QAnon from niche boards into national politics ^{[3] [10]}.