Dr Dan Stone is a Senior Fellow at CARR and professor of modern history at Royal Holloway, University of London.
1 Cnaan Liphshiz, “Senior Romanian Priest Compares Jews to Coronavirus in Easter Greeting,” Jerusalem Post, April 13, 2020, https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Senior-Romanian-priest-compares-Jews-to-coronavirus-in-Easter-greeting-624482.
2 Dan Stone, “Trump Needs to Stop Speaking Like a 20th-Century Fascist,” Rantt, August 9, 2019, https://rantt.com/holocaust-historian-trump-needs-to-stop-speaking-like-a-20th-century-fascist.
3 Sabine Volk, “Germany—Is the Covid-19 Pandemic Weakening the Far Right?,” CARR Insight Blog, April 7, 2020, https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2020/04/07/Germany-is-the-covid-19-pandemic-weakening-the-far-right/.
4 Hans-Georg Betz, “Coronavirus-19’s Victims—Populism,” CARR Insight Blog, April 5, 2020, https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2020/04/05/coronavirus-19s-victims-populism/.
5 Ben Gittleson and Jordyn Phelps, “Trump’s Stunning Reversal on ‘Total’ Authority Claim over Governors,” ABC News, April 15, 2020, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-stunning-reversal-total-authority-claim-governors-analysis/story?id=70160951.
6 “Plenty of Noise on the Western Front, But Will Action Follow?,” Hungarian Spectrum, April 3, 2020, https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/04/03/plenty-of-noise-on-the-western-front-but-will-action-follow/.
7 Vinicius Bivar, “Will the Coronavirus Crisis Bring Down Hungary’s Failing Democracy?,” Fair Observer, April 14, 2020, https://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/vinicius-bivar-hungary-coronavirus-emergency-law-viktor-orban-democracy-news-19722/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=April+15%2C+2020.
8 “What Should the EU Do About Hungary?,” Politico, April 14, 2020, https://www.politico.eu/article/what-should-the-eu-do-about-hungary-coronavirus-viktor-orban/?fbclid=IwAR03yMO2npKfTkOVftRCMgNL-IX0BWYo_0HkDbL8sUlr4ARb-6IjpL00ps.
Anti-government Ideology in the Times of COVID-19
Jaclyn Fox
By mid-April 2020, protests against government-imposed lockdowns began springing up across the United States. At their centre was a pronounced distrust of the government and push-back against perceived intrusion of personal freedoms. However, as these anti-government protesters spoke out against federal and state level interventions, they simultaneously elevated the actions of the individual at the centre—President Donald Trump. Here, I explore the peculiar intersection between anti-government ideology and support for President Trump over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, I map the changing responses of the Oath Keepers1 to government intervention against their consistent narrative of deep-state actors utilizing COVID-19 to undermine Trump.2
Initial stages of the COVID-19 crisis: Anti-government for increased intervention?
Although classified as an anti-government group,3 the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis paradoxically saw Oath Keepers calling for increased government intervention at the state and federal levels.4 Indeed, Oath Keeper leadership supported shelter-in-place efforts as well as a complete shut-down of commercial air traffic (domestic and international), mass transportation, the closing of schools, and the suspending of public events.5 Further, they viewed lack of intervention as detrimental to US citizens, chastising Trump for not taking such actions as pre-emptively suspending air travel.
Not only did the Oath Keepers implore their members to self-quarantine, but they also called upon state governors to make these regulations official—declaring pandemics and requesting assistance from both state and national sources, including the US military.6 This latter step is particularly interesting for a group suspicious of federal government intervention. However, Oath Keeper leaders noted that participation by the military would allow Trump to be guided in pandemic decision-making by military personnel as opposed to “career bureaucrats”7—global elites viewed with deep suspicion by the Oath Keepers—perhaps explaining their military support.
The government’s lack of response early on was cast as a malicious project of concealment by those in power. Specifically, Oath Keepers argued that it was part of a deep-state plot to undermine Trump. Although Trump was the actor publicly downplaying COVID-19, the Oath Keepers did not place the blame on him personally. Rather, they suggested Trump was ignoring the severity of the crisis due to the “terrible advice” he was receiving from deep state8 forces including the CDC and other globalists.
Early statements from the Oath Keepers’ leadership on their official website and Twitter feeds suggested that COVID-19 was a dangerous virus whose severity was beyond that which was being shared with the general public.9 Leaders supported medical professionals10 in their assessment of the crisis and called for government intervention11 at the state and federal level. Furthermore, they cited Trump’s inaction as proof of a deep state conspiracy in which the globalist elites were misleading Trump into downplaying the severity of the virus.
Mid-way through: the reality of COVID-19 sets in
By the end of March/beginning of April 2020, Oath Keepers spokespersons shifted from a call for increasing intervention to blasting the overreach of government officials. They viewed the globalist elites as opportunists, using the crisis to encroach upon the Second Amendment