The NT would have us believe this yes,but it was Paul who came up with the Christ cult much later.So this Christian baptism is retrospective.

The baptism scene in the NT is used as a link the back to the OT. So John acts as a bridge between the two testaments.The Bible is put together deliberately in a particular order to make it look like Jesus' arrival was intended from the beginning of time.
In the Christian Bible the order of the OT scriptures is different to that of the Jewish Torah, for good reasons. The Christian Bible finishes with Malachi which ends with a prophesy of a coming of a chosen messenger. John the Baptist serves as the continuation of the prophesy in the NT,announcing Jesus as gods chosen son.
In this way Christianity way hijacked the Jewish god and his covenant with the Jews ,replacing it with a general one for all mankind

The bible is a work of fiction.

Most credible historians say he did exist but certainly not as the religionist depict him. I have a degree in European (read religion) History while in Europe. I spent time going all over Europe to study the places where events actually happened. This included time in Rome. The main instructor was an Irish atheist who spoke several languages, taught Greek and Latin at UCLA and lived/worked in Rome at one of the catacombs. The famous historian/author John Dominic Crossan wrote extensively about him in his books. Many Roman reliefs depict a person leading a group of men who most feel represent Jesus.

While in the military I was stationed in Turkey and the base was located where a famous philosopher, Diogenes of Sinop lived. Diogenes is known as the father of cynic philosophy which dictates to know real life one must live in a barrel with the dogs. It is assumed that John the Baptist, Francis of Assisi and even Jesus were followers of this philosophy. Crossan point out in one of his books that the clothing worn by this leader indicated a certain following. Like gangs today people had symbols, colors or style of clothing to represent their beliefs.

I don't know I wasn't there

In Catholic school they taught that Mary was the first Christian due to her response to the Annunciation, but Jesus remained a Jew. If you're the son of Christian God I think you'd probably be exempt as a believer from your own religion, but hey, a lot of this doesn't make sense. Just my $0.02.

Jesus was meta before meta was cool.

In fact, Jesus was an apostle of John. The Gospels try to reconcile Jesus and John's relationship, but if you pay close attention, Jesus was John's disciple, and it was his connection with John that gave him credibility with the Galileans, and later Judeans. Gospel writers tried to turn that around in their attempt to deify Jesus, but a careful romp through the gospels shows that it was John who gave Jesus his prestige.