Trump Team Sends Enforcers Into Rally Crowd to Shut Down QAnon Salutes – Says They Are Not Security But ‘Guest Management’
Twitter/Lisa Desjardins
Staffers for former President Donald Trump sent “guest management” — with shirts that had “security” printed on them — into a rally crowd to enforce a ban on the QAnon salutes that got so much attention last week.
The political world has been buzzing about that strange rally scene last week in which Trump’s supporters performed a one-finger salute during a trance-like portion of Trump’s speech scored to dramatic music.
Trump held another rally in Wilmington, North Carolina Friday night, where Correspondent for PBS NewsHour Lisa Desjardins spotted some of those salutes — and the aforementioned “guest management” technicians.
In an extensive thread on the rally, Desjardins posted video of the crowd, and noted “And this happened again – though less widespread.”
And this happened again – though less widespread. pic.twitter.com/GxHEv1NRZ5
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) September 24, 2022
Ms. Desjardins then confirmed the meaning of the salute — and the reason for its decreased prevalence.
“Confirmed w people at Trump rally who held 1 finger up that they meant it as a symbol of QAnon’s “Where We Go One We Go All” and further…
Security staff here fanned out and told people to take down their fingers. That is a reason why – maybe main reason – we saw fewer,” she wrote.
THIS.
Confirmed w people at Trump rally who held 1 finger up that they meant it as a symbol of QAnon’s “Where We Go One We Go All” and further…Security staff here fanned out and told people to take down their fingers. That is a reason why – maybe main reason – we saw fewer 1/
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) September 24, 2022
Trump staffers with uniforms and radios and shirts that said “security” were spotted telling irate fingerers to knock it off.
The man in this photo held up 1 finger and told me he meant it as a WWG1WGA sign – and then the security guard in the next photo told him to take it down.
He was furious “thats my Constitutional right!” the man in the crowd told me after I saw that interaction happen. pic.twitter.com/nAb6norcjT
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) September 24, 2022
But Team Trump took pains to insist they were not “security guards.”
“Addition: Trump rally staff told me the folks in the olive shirts and black pants were not security, but ‘guest management’,” Desjardins wrote, and added “In my defense, it was an easy assumption – shirts said ‘security’. But I was told it was as part the name of their company ‘Colorado Security Agency’”.
Also, the company says it provides security.
I’m not sure the word matters though – they were official staff at the event and clearly had been directed to watch for this kind of gesture and to shut it down.
And they were dressed far more like security than, say, ushers.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) September 24, 2022
Watch above via Lisa Desjardins.
