"Q has been President of what remains of the United States for fifteen years, and we still know perilously little about him. The Q regime severed all relations with the rest of the world following the nuclear destruction of Canada and Mexico, and journalism is illegal in the United States. After Canada chose to host President Kander's exile government, the Q regime blanketed the country with nuclear weapons, killing most of Canada's population. Mexico was devastated like Canada after the Mexican President declined to pay for President Q's proposed border wall. The war left the completion of the border wall project unnecessary. Q is estimated to have killed over seventy million Americans. While the United States remains closed to foreigners, tales from refugees give us some understanding of the country's workings. The Q regime is perhaps the most repressive totalitarian regime in human history. Individual identity is reportedly outlawed. All American citizens are considered to be a part of Q's hive mind, and are thus forbidden names, only receiving numbers. It is mandatory for all citizens to become Qheads - they must be tattooed with the Triple Q on their forehead. It is a capital crime to live in the United States without this tattoo. The government controls every aspect of life in the United States, from birth to death. American citizens are forcibly implanted with a microchip which makes them listen to government propaganda and hear each of Q's latest proclamations. The Q regime has cut off all trade with the rest of the world, resulting in a sharp drop in America's standard of living. Once the envy of the world, the United States now ranks in the bottom decile of countries on the human development index. The inner workings of the Q regime remain the subject of great speculation. In the early years, there were faces you could identify as government officials - Vice President Gaetz, Secretary of State Jones, Press Secretary Villa. Many suspected Gaetz of being the true mastermind behind the Q regime due to his prominence in official propaganda. However, Gaetz stopped making public appearances in 2030 and regime propaganda has not mentioned him since. It would seem that Q viewed Gaetz as a potential threat to his Presidency and had him purged. Camp David's website once listed the names and faces of several Cabinet officials. Today, it does not list any. As Q never revealed his identity, it is unclear if the original Q is even still alive - many Qologists suggest that Q has become a rotating identity that passes between squabbling bureaucrats. The Q regime once frequently issued boastful press releases to the foreign media, now it barely releases any. Regarding the Q regime's political history, there was substantial resistance to Q during the Second American Civil War even after the Nuclear Holocaust of 2025. Q's policy of mass retaliation eventually utterly crushed the rebellion. Q would further deploy nuclear weapons on American soil, wiping out New York City, Baltimore, Detroit, Tampa, and South Bend. After the former Twitter personality known as dril won the presidential nomination of what remained of the Democrats in 2028, there have been no public elections in the United States. The Q regime still maintains that there are elections and that Q is winning them, but there is no evidence that an election has occurred in the United States since 2024. There are no polling locations, no voter registrations, no ballots, no political parties, not even election results - Q is simply declared the winner. The Q regime maintains that the locations of the voting places are being held secret for national security purposes, in order to prevent agents of George Soros from sabotaging the elections. (The late George Soros, despite being dead for years, remains the favorite boogeyman of the Q regime.) It's probable that there are no secret voting places, as Q is effectively President for Life. Even as recently as this year, however, Q issued a press release on Camp David's website declaring his candidacy in the 2040 presidential elections. Global terrorism inspired by Q remains the world's most pressing security problem. The turmoil of nuclear fallout and economic upheaval following the Second Great Depression inspired many to join Q's apocalyptic death cult. Qheads have launched thousands of terrorist attacks across the world, most notably the destruction of the Vatican following the Pope's denunciation of Q as The Antichrist. Governments have taken to imposing Chinese-style internet censorship in order to curb the spread of fake news, pro-Q content, and general online extremism. The global community has taken extreme measures to ensure that a figure like Q does not rise to power in any country outside the United States. The United States has one consulate in Geneva with which it maintains contact with the outside world. Most of the American government's foreign service personnel abandoned their embassies and defected in 2025 following Q's nuclear destruction of California. The Geneva Embassy is staffed by a single man, whose name is unknown, sitting at an empty desk, staring at a blank wall. He is the last link between the United States and the outside world."
— "Whatever Happened to the United States?", published by the Guardian in 2040
