- Justin Bieber’s “the best is yet to come” comment is making the rounds in far-right online spaces.
- Many Telegram accounts of right-leaning Telegram users questioned if Bieber was referring to Donald Trump.
- Trump supporters and QAnon supporters use the phrase as a slogan.
Forum members and message boards of far-right are celebrating Justin Bieber using an idiom that has become popular among Trump supporters.
Bieber said “the best is yet to come,” a popular American English phrase that’s become a slogan on the far-right over the last year, during the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on September 12.
“I just wanted to say that music is such an amazing opportunity and outlet to be able to reach people,” the “Peaches” singer said during his Artist of the Year acceptance speech. “I look around here and I see so many beautiful faces. I really do believe that the best is yet to come.”
The phrase dates back to at least 1958 when Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh released the jazz song “The Best Is Yet To Come.” Frank Sinatra covered the song in 1964 — and it was the last song that he ever sang, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Trump supporters have been using the phrase in numerous speeches since 2020.
There is no evidence that Bieber was referencing Trump by using the phrase, but a post questioning whether the artist gave “a hat tip to Trump” spread in far-right forums on September 12 and into last week, as The Daily Dot first reported.
Insider discovered six far right channels on Telegram, an encrypted chat program, that shared the post. The post appears to have been shared by a Telegram channel of over 92,500 subscribers, which often shares slogans and information about QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory.
One large Telegram channel, with more than 241,000 subscribers, shared the original post within four minutes of it being uploaded. The original post received 31,000 views and had 188 comments.
Another major channel with 122,000 subscribers, which often posts messages featuring the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA,” or “where we go one, we go all,” shared the original thread hours later, gaining over 23,500 views and 430 comments. The original post was also circulated by another far-right channel that has 36,000 subscribers.
The message was also distributed on fringe platform 8kun (previously 8chan), and a far right forum.
It also lightly circulated on Twitter, where at least three users shared the VMAs speech clip along with the same caption from the original Telegram post.
Trump has said “the best is yet to come” in at least three public appearances: during his 2020 State of the Union address, when he accepted the Republican nomination in August 2020, and during his farewell speech in January of this year after President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Former Trump advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle, a popular right-wing figure, triumphantly shouted the phrase during her speech at the Republican National Convention in August 2020.
Many Trump fans have since held onto the phrase and transformed it into a rallying cry, and it is also one of many popular slogans among supporters of QAnon.
In the past, other Trump quotes have been co-opted into slogans, including QAnon’s love for his “the calm before the storm” comment. QAnon affiliates have also hijacked the phrase “Save the Children,” which comes from the century-old humanitarian organization of the same name that works to aid children around the globe.
Representatives from Bieber have not responded to a request to comment.
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