Additionally, Oath Keepers leaders were suspicious of elites’ economic aims: suggesting required vaccinations and the disparagement of hydroxychloroquine17 for treating COVID-1918 were ways in which the globalists could make money in the treatment of COVID-19.
Oath Keeper spokespersons noted a seeming prioritization of “globalist” aims over national freedoms in intervention efforts, pointing to an early hesitation to close international air traffic but a speedy move towards domestic lock-down.
At the onset of COVID-19, the perceived conspiracy revolved around deep-state officials downplaying the virus, encouraging Trump not to take direct action. Over time, however, the conspiracy evolved into profound overreach, accusing globalists of using the virus as a means to strip individuals of their liberty. Interestingly, Trump was not blamed directly for this overreach; rather, Oath Keeper officials queried why Trump was allowing the globalists to continue to surround him especially when his own base was against it.
Overall, Oath Keeper leadership’s understanding of the COVID-19 crisis morphed from a purposeful inaction by elites to their capitalization on the crisis by taking away personal liberties, gun rights, painting Trump in a negative light, and benefitting economically.
Past the peak: where do we go from here?
By mid-April 2020 public messaging by the Oath Keepers became a call for followers to fight back against perceived government intrusion. Although spokespersons were not arguing that the virus did not exist, they repeated Trump’s statement about the cure being worse than the virus, viewing the situation as the deep state making inroads in taking over individual liberty.
They praised local government officials who disagreed19 with federal and state mandates regarding social distancing, advertised for lockdown protests, and spoke out against social media figures20 censoring lockdown protest events.
Moreover, they disparaged local actors who implemented lockdown orders as puppets for globalist elites.
While this is in line with anti-government ideology overall, it is curiously pro-Trump. That is, when Trump did not act strongly enough in the face of COVID-19, this was perceived not as his inadequacy but rather as a complot by deep-state actors feeding him bad information about the virus’s banality. Similarly, when Trump supported increased government regulation (maligned by Oath Keepers) this was again not due to Trump’s mal intent but rather yet another deep-state plot to strip individuals of personal freedoms.
Although Trump is not blamed per se there are calls for him to intercede on behalf of citizens by removing the “deep-state elites” and changing the regulations he “let happen”—a passive framing as opposed to was actively seen as creating.
In the face of changing “facts”, the narrative remains consistent
In sum, throughout ideological contradictions and changing perception of events on the ground, the consistent thread within Oath Keepers messaging is that Trump’s positive actions– i.e., those consistent with the ideology of Oath Keepers—are a result of his personal attitudes and behaviours, while his negative actions are the consequence of deep-state plots to undermine him. Overall, Trump is praised as being the only US president not to take advantage of a crisis to centralize power21 but rather to de-regulate and de-centralize as response. While the future of COVID-19 remains uncertain, an Oath Keeper re-tweet from the end of April 2020 summarizes one individual’s views:
Jaclyn Fox is a Doctoral Fellow at CARR and doctoral candidate in international relations at American University, Washington, D.C.
1 “Oath Keepers,” Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers.
2 At the time of publication, the Oath Keepers website was de-platformed by its server provider. The group states that they intend to re-build the website, however, the articles referenced below are not currently hosted online. Citations and URLs were accurate at time of initial writing (May 2020).
3 “Oath Keepers”.
4 Stewart Rhodes, “Oath Keepers Emergency Open Letter to the State Governors on Fighting the Coronavirus,” Oath Keepers, March 11, 2020, https://oathkeepers.org/2020/03/oath-keepers-open-letter-to-the-state-governors-on-fighting-the-coronavirus/.
5 Rhodes.
6 Rhodes.
7 Rhodes.
8 Stewart Rhodes, “Oath Keepers Coronavirus Warning and Advice on How to Protect Yourself,” Oath Keepers, March 5, 2020, https://oathkeepers.org/2020/03/oath-keepers-coronavirus-warning-and-advice-on-how-to-protect-yourself/.
9 Stewart Rhodes, “Coronavirus Is AIRBORNE! You Are Not Being Told the Full Truth,” Oath Keepers, March 12, 2020, https://oathkeepers.org/2020/03/coronavirus-is-airborne-you-are-not-being-told-the-full-truth/.