More than five years ago, Phoenix native Jacob Chansley went viral as he and a horde of others stormed the U.S. Capitol shirtless and in a buffalo headdress in a conspiracy-fueled attempt to keep Donald Trump in the White House. Six months ago, Chansley thanked Trump for pardoning him for his role in that insurrection.
On Wednesday morning, in a series of now-deleted tweets, Chansley blasted Trump as a “fraud” and a “stupid piece of shit.”
Hmm, something seems to have changed.
Chansley’s first missive came at 8:40 a.m. Wednesday in a reply to a 2023 Trump X post that featured the president’s now-infamous mugshot. “Fuck this stupid piece of shit…” Chansley wrote. “What a fraud…” Less than 40 minutes later, Chansley wrote, “Oh yeah & Fuck Israel! And Fuck Donald Trump!” in another post.
Chansley, who has tried to drop “QAnon” from his persona and just go by “Shaman,” seems to have been spurred into his keyboard rage over the Trump administration’s failure to release the Epstein files, which Trump had promised to do. Part of the QAnon conspiracy theory holds that Trump was saving the world from cannibal pedophiles. Now Trump, who had a long association with now-dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and is reportedly mentioned several times in the eponymous files, is basically telling supporters to basically forget about it.
“What do you think Epstein & Israel have on Trump??” Chansley posted at 1:22 p.m. on Wednesday. In a post a minute earlier, Chansely insinuated that “in order for Trump to get BACK into the billionaire’s club… he had to fuck a corpse AGAIN.” It’s not entirely clear what that one meant. “THAT is YOUR President!” he continued. “NOT MINE!”
After backlash from MAGA and Trump supporters over his comments, Chansley briefly deleted his account. But it was back by Thursday afternoon. The crashout continued, with Chansley tweeting that Trump “lost me way back in May.”
Its time to play WHAT IF!
— Jake Angeli-Chansley (@AmericaShaman) July 23, 2025
WHAT IF...in order for Trump to get BACK into the billionaire's club...he had to fuck a corpse AGAIN...
How Many Times Did Trump File For Bankruptcy?
THAT is YOUR President! NOT MINE!
I am the President of the New Constitutional Republic of the U.S.A.
When Phoenix New Times reached out to Chansley on X to ask for clarification and comment, he asked for money.
“Sure,” he wrote to New Times. “I charge $555 per hour. Minimum of 1 hour.”
New Times doesn’t pay for interviews. And anyway, $555 an hour? In this economy?
Chansley later replied to say, “You have no idea what is going on behind the scenes & and you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” New Times has asked him to, uh, tell us. He has not responded.
Chansley has sacrificed a lot for the “fraud” he now decries. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Chansley was among the first 30 rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol. Once inside, he took pictures around the Senate floor and even sat in the chair that former Vice President Mike Pence had been in an hour earlier.
He was arrested a few days later and indicted on six charges. In November 2021, Chansley pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison and to pay $2,000 in restitution. He was released early from prison in May 2023 after he was sent to a reentry management facility in Phoenix.
In November 2023, Chansley announced a run for Congress in Arizona’s deep-red Eighth Congressional District as a Libertarian. He failed to collect enough signatures to make the ballot. When Trump took office in January, one of his first actions was to pardon Jan. 6 rioters — including Chansley. In a post on X on Jan. 20, Chansley celebrated the news, writing, “I GOT A PARDON BABY!”
“THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” he continued. “NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!”
Well, it’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. How quickly people forget a favor.
