With accused child sex trafficker Matt Gaetz as one of his warm-up acts, Donald Trump has claimed to know nothing about QAnon conspiracy theorists–except that “like me very much”–but he knew enough about them to grant two QAnon social media stars press passes to cover the rally he held in Sarasota, Florida Saturday night.

According to Vice News, Trump gave QAnon adherents the cult knows as “In The Matrixx” and “Shady Grooove” were granted official press passes to the rainy rally, where they sat in the media gallery and called reporters “fake news.”

The podcasters still profess that Trump is still President of the United States (though he lost the last election), that Trump was denied the victory due to massive voter fraud (though they can’t find any evidence), and that a cabal of child sex traffickers run Washington, DC. (did I mention Matt Gaetz was a speaker?). 

This continues a tradition of the Trump campaign/administration to highlight fringe personalities who support their leader, and it’s spreading to other GOP politicians.  The previously-mentioned alleged child sex-trafficker Matt Gaetz is now pushing Newsmax.  GOP members of Congress who toured the southern border invited The Hill and a far-right vlogger who was part of the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol January 6th.  And early in the single term of Donald Trump, the White House Press Secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, would take questions from pre-designator media personalities through video calls rather than verified members of the Washington press corps.

The selection of little-known QAnon podcasters to join the press pool also exemplifies the desperation Trump is experience to get any media coverage.  Major news networks gave it little, if any airtime; only Newsmax carried the rally live.

It also demonstrates that Trump continues to embrace fringe conservatives as his base, rather than attempting to reconcile the rift in the Republican Party, something that may prove to be a weakness in upcoming elections for the GOP.