'Deranged' conspiracy cult behind Sheffield Donald Trump 'Q' signs declared domestic terror threat

Roads signs across the city and Peak District and other parts of South Yorkshire have had zeroes altered to Q’s to show support for a bizarre conspiracy theory centering on the US president.

The group’s claims – that Trump is in fact an undercover agent on a top secret mission to rid the world of evil and prevent a coup by liberal elites who also happen to be paedophiles – have been rubbished as “unhinged” and baseless.”

The QAnon cult has gathered such a following that the FBI has reportedly classed the group as a domestic terror threat.

Dozens of signs have been subtly altered with pieces of black gaffer tape over the last few months.

The far-right conspiracy theory began in October 2017 with a web post by someone using the name Q claiming to have access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States.

Q has falsely accused numerous Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians and high-ranking officials of engaging in an international child sex trafficking ring, and has claimed that Donald Trump feigned collusion with Russians in order to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the ring and preventing a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros. The world’s mainstream media is also supposedly part of the cover up.

"Q" is a reference to the top-secret Q clearance and QAnon believers commonly tag their social media posts with the hashtag #WWG1WGA, signifying the motto "where we go one, we go all."

The conspiracy theory, mainly disseminated by supporters of President Trump under the names The Storm and The Great Awakening – has been characterized as "baseless," "unhinged" and "evidence-free" while its proponents have been called "a deranged conspiracy cult.”

Believers also say Angela Merkel is Hitler’s granddaughter, Kim Jong-Un was installed by the CIA to keep the world in a permanent state of near-apocalyptic nuclear doom and that a number of Hollywood stars are paedophiles.