A Federal Way business owner and QAnon influencer led dozens of QAnon supporters to Dallas on Nov. 2 in hopes of witnessing the reappearance of John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Michael Brian Protzman, also known as Negative48 in various online communities, owns Federal Way-based Eclipse Demolition. The company has been operating for 14 years and went into administration last year, according to Vice News.
Protzman did not return the Mirror’s request for comment via email and the company’s phone voicemail box is full as of Nov. 5.
The 58-year-old’s Negative48 Telegram channel has garnered over 100,000 members and he “relies on an abstruse version of gematria, or numerology, to promote the idea that he is in direct contact with the Kennedy family,” Rolling Stone reported. Protzman is said to believe the Kennedy family are descendants of Jesus Christ and projected they would reappear on Nov. 2.
The believers flocked to Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. In 1999, JFK Jr. died at age 38 in a plane crash that also killed his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren.
Many QAnon supporters believe JFK Jr. spent the last two decades in hiding and would reappear to be reinstated as former President Donald Trump’s vice president, according to various reports.
Some members of the Tuesday crowd wore “Trump/JFK Jr. 2024” shirts and “Make America Great Again” hats, according to photos on social media.
On Nov. 1, Protzman posted a photo of himself to his Telegram channel holding a trophy inscribed with: “The Gematria General: God communicates in numbers and Trump does too.” He also uses his social media platform to spread antisemitic content, according to Vice.
Social media videos of Protzman the night before and at the rally show him talking almost incoherently, in a mix of words and numbers as supporters nearby nod in agreement.
To no one’s surprise other than believers waiting in the plaza, JFK Jr. did not show up to the Dallas rally on Nov. 2. The crowd recited the Pledge of Allegiance at 12:29 p.m., the time President JFK was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, then slowly dismantled over the next few hours.
“Frankly, I’m kind of shocked at how many people turned out for this,” Jared Holt, a resident fellow researching domestic extremism at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told The Dallas Morning News. Holt added that “[i]f they’re willing to show up to the Grassy Knoll thinking JFK Jr. is coming back, it scares me to think of what happens when they get real power.”
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