Trump's MAGA supporters link Diddy’s sex trafficking arrest to Kamala Harris in smear campaign

Since his arrest on September 16, the unfolding developments in the Sean Combs (also known as Diddy) case have been widely discussed among Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) supporters. These discussions include a smear campaign targeting Kamala Harris and, among the more extreme, claims about the existence of satanic pedophile networks, with growing accusations of complicity against the Democratic candidate.

While Trump himself has amplified insinuations portraying his opponent as a "client" of the singer-producer Combs, many Harris supporters have voiced their outrage at these rumors. This politically charged episode is the latest in a series of defamatory attacks, often lacking any evidence, launched by the Trump camp against its opponents over the past eight years.

In the fall of 2016, during the U.S. election campaign, a conspiracy theory originating from far-right internet forums accused high-ranking Democratic Party members of participating in satanic pedophile orgies in the basement of a Washington pizzeria. Though entirely fabricated, the Pizzagate controversy harmed Hillary Clinton's campaign against Trump.

Pizzagate became part of a broader conspiracy mythology centered around the enigmatic figure Q and his "QAnon" followers, who claim to assist Trump in dismantling a satanic pedophile network involving Democrats, Hollywood, and global elites. This disturbing narrative was bolstered by the real scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein, the influential financier with numerous high-profile connections, who was arrested on July 6, 2019, for sex trafficking and found dead in his jail cell a month later, on August 10. The investigation uncovered an organized system of abusing teenage girls.

As a result, some Trump supporters eagerly awaited explosive revelations implicating their Democratic rivals. However, after 2020, many Trump supporters began compiling video clips of Joe Biden interacting with young girls, attempting to suggest inappropriate behavior. His vice president, Harris, has also been targeted, with doctored or AI-generated images falsely depicting her alongside Epstein.

The first complaint against Combs, alleging rape, violence, and sex trafficking, was filed on November 16, 2023. In the months that followed, nearly a dozen more complaints were added, painting a picture of a system of organized sexual violence comparable in scale to the accusations made against Epstein.