As January 6th drew closer, multiple posts on the QAnon-linked website 8kun indicated that violence was imminent. "You can go to Washington on Jan 6 and help storm the Capitol," one user wrote. This same user continued: "As many Patriots as can be. We will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents, and demand a recount."[335] Other posts on 8kun debated the politicians that users should target once they got inside the Capitol.[336]
A QAnon-inspired banner was also widely shared by groups planning events for January 5th and 6th. The top of the image read: "Operation Occupy the Capitol." The central image showed the U.S. Capitol being torn in two. In the lower left corner, there appeared a QAnon phrase: "#WeAreTheStorm."[337]
6.10 THEDONALD.WIN: “OCCUPY THE CAPITOL”
Within three minutes of President Trump's tweet, a user on TheDonald.win message board posted: "Trump Tweet. Daddy Says Be In DC on Jan. 6th."[338] Moderators pinned the post to the top of the board from December 19th until January 6th. It garnered nearly 6,000 comments and more than 24,000 upvotes during that time.[339] Many of the site's users quickly interpreted President Trump's tweet as a call for violence. For example, one user wrote, "[Trump] can't exactly openly tell you to revolt. This is the closest he'll ever get."[340] Jody Williams, the site's then-owner, testified that while users had been talking about traveling to Washington, DC since the election, after the tweet "anything else was kind of shut out, and it just was going to be the 6th."[341]
In the days that followed, users on TheDonald.win discussed: surrounding and occupying the U.S. Capitol; cutting off access tunnels used by Members of Congress; the types of weapons they should bring; and even how to build a hangman's gallows.[342] The parallels to what transpired on January 6th are obvious.
TheDonald.win and its predecessor site was a website for some of its namesake's most ardent fans. Even before President Trump was elected, his social media team monitored and interacted with the site's users. In the summer of 2016, then-candidate Trump himself engaged in a written question and answer session on TheDonald, which at the time was a forum on Reddit.[343] This online community, which had upwards of 790,000 users, was banned by Reddit in mid-2020.[344] However, the site's users migrated to another online location, becoming TheDonald.win.[345]
Dan Scavino, the President's social media guru, amplified content from this website. During the 2016 presidential campaign, "a team in the war
