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- Justin Bieber's "the best is yet to come" comment is making the rounds in far-right online spaces.
- Numerous popular right-wing Telegram accounts questioned whether Bieber was nodding to Donald Trump.
- Trump fans and QAnon supporters use the phrase as a slogan.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Members of far-right message boards and forums are celebrating Justin Bieber for using an idiom that's become popular among supporters of former President Donald Trump.
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.
Since 2020, the common turn of phrase has become extremely popular among Trump fans, as the former president used it in multiple speeches.
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 found six far-right channels on the encrypted chat program Telegram that shared the post, which appears to have originated from a Telegram channel with over 92,500 subscribers that often shares information and slogans related to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory.
A large Telegram channel with over 241,000 subscribers that regularly shares baseless anti-vaccine theories shared that original post only four minutes after it was uploaded, amassing 31,000 views and 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. Another far-right channel with 36,000 subscribers also circulated the original post the next day.
The message was also shared on the fringe platform 8kun (formerly 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 for Bieber did not respond to a request for comment.
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