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Back to the Future:
Trump to be the new 19th President?

Conspiracy groups concoct a convoluted theory to restore Trump presidency

By Byron Toben

The wildly popular 1985 movie Back to the Future starred Canadian-born Michael J. Fox as a time traveller. It generated two sequels.

Now the conspiracy group QAnon, aided and abetted by fellow group Sovereign Citizen, has used time travel as a gimmick to predict that Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 19th president on March 4, 2021. Here is the “logic” of this convoluted theory.

President Ulysses S. Grant

President Ulysses S. Grant – Image: Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president. In 1871, during his term, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Organic Act, which established the District of Columbia surrounding Federal buildings as a geographic zone taking parts of Maryland and Virginia. The conspiracy groups claim the district was converted into a secret private corporation whose shareholders are shadowy Europeans who, therefore, have “owned” the USA ever since.

Back in those days, due to slower transportation, Presidents were inaugurated on March 4. (They moved the date to January 20 in 1933.)

Since this secret corporation is now exposed, everything since 1871 is illegal and Trump’s triumphant inauguration will restore the government and the nation to its rightful owners, the people. Much of this scenario has been promulgated on sites such as Tic-Tok and Telegram.

This return to 1871 would conveniently result in the cancellation of Social Security, Women’s right to vote, income tax, gun restrictions, the Affordable Care Act and you name it.

By the way, for those choosing to witness this wondrous event, Trump International Hotel has doubled its rates for a few days surrounding March 4, as it did around January 6.

H.L. Mencken’s 1920 “glorious day” prediction and Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian Handmaid’s Tale now seem more creditable as possible scenarios.

This return to 1871 would conveniently result in the cancellation of Social Security, Women’s right to vote, income tax, gun restrictions, the Affordable Care Act and you name it.

And what if Trump is not swept in on March 4? That’s already covered… wait until March 14 (The Ides of March?) on the anniversary of which date an Obama researcher issued a report, Drain The Swamp, a phrase swiped by Trump, which may instigate other rallies.

It’s not a surprise this March 4 theory has attracted so many believers as a high percentage also believe that the mob storming the Capitol on January 6 was mostly Antifa and Black Lives Matter impersonators. If so, the impersonators should receive all kinds of theatrical acting awards for convincing portrayals.

Hopefully, someone is tracking who is funding QAnon and friends to attend these events and stay at an overpriced hotel.

Feature image: frame from Back to the Future, Universal PicturesBouton S'inscrire à l'infolettre – WestmountMag.ca

More articles from Byron Toben


Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.

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