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COMMENT: Sometimes, things aren’t all that hard to figure out and don’t need a lot of explanation. The GOP, in general, has used dog whistles to energize people who normally should not vote for a party of the rich, which the Republicans most surely are.
A recent tweet by “The Donald” attacking Hillary speaks for itself. Just check this out!
This sparked an online Fuhrer, er, furor!
We already knew that Donald Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bed, according to a 1990 interview of Ivana Trump.
UPDATE#1: It is not surprising that the tweet did not originate with Trump, but with a Nazi online message board.
UPDATE#2: David Duke has endorsed Trump’s re-tweet, buttressing its anti-Semitic message.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump drew widespread rebuke on Saturday with a tweet featuring a Star of David while accusing rival Hillary Clinton of corruption.
The star, a symbol of Judaism, was on a backdrop of $100 bills and paired with a Fox News poll in which a majority of respondents described Clinton as corrupt. Next to Clinton’s face was a red Star of David bearing the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” . . . .
This filth by Drumpf while Elie Wiesel has just passed away today...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/donald-trump-getting-his-cues-hitler-how-gop-leader-following-fuhrers-recipe
Is Donald Trump Getting His Cues from Hitler? How the GOP Leader Is Following the Führer’s Recipe
That stunning but not entirely surprising revelation comes from his ex-wife Ivana, who told Vanity Fair in a 1990 interview that “from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.” The magazine said Trump confirmed he got it from a film industry friend, Marty Davis. “I thought he would find it interesting,” Davis said. “I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”
Adolf Hitler’s My New Order is not just any book. It came after Hitler’s two-volume Mein Kampf (German for My Struggle), and was published in 1925 and 1926 before the Nazi rise to national power and World War II. It is not just a collection of excerpts from speeches Hitler made between 1918 and 1941; it is profusely indexed and filled with details about the speeches’ impact on the media and political establishment.
The American literary magazine Kirkus Review, founded in 1933, puts it this way: “Paralleling actual quotations from Hitler’s own utterances, he [the editor of the English edition] includes corresponding data showing the effect on the world press, and his own commentary relating the statements to doctrines previously presented in Mein Kampf… Section after section follows pattern-background, speech, press.”
Ivana Trump told Vanity Fair that her ex-husband occasionally read it, which supports the rest of the magazine’s profile of a tycoon who loved to live in the public eye and manipulate media coverage. Trump, after confirming he had the book, later told the reporter, “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”
Nobody can know what Trump reads or does not read—or if he even reads. But it appears that one way or another, much of the content in My New Order about how Hitler says propaganda works, and how he structures his speaking style, and how Hitler targets the lowest-common denominator as his intended audience, has seeped into Trump: the way he speaks, argues, rages and responds in public. This goes beyond what has been reported in the New York Times, which analyzed 95,000 words from five months of speeches and concluded that Trump shares a style with the 20th century’s biggest demagogues.
Trump’s speeches are filled with simplistic racist attacks, first against Mexicans and more recently Muslims. He belittles and insults his competitors for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He attacks Democrats’ political “correctness” as weak. He mocks women and disabled people. He threatens to obliterate the enemies he names. He doesn’t care about facts or inconsistencies, and plays to his followers’ fears and prejudices.
All of these tactics, from the repetitive style of his speeches, to believing whatever he says is true, to his excessive and unrivaled view in his leadership, are modeled by Hitler in My New Order, according to a psychological profile of the book in the September 2013 issue of the scholarly journal, Psychiatric Quarterly. “The elements of a delusional system are there,” it states. “This is not simply to say that the man is mad and so has plunged the world into chaos; but it is to say that there is overwhelming evidence in 19 years of his speeches that Hitler himself firmly believes many of his most absurd declarations, including some which are contradictory.”
What is really stunning—whether or not he carefully read My New Order—is that Trump is channeling the very tenets about how propaganda works laid out by Hitler in his books. In addition to the collection of speeches and their impact, Mein Kampf has a chapter on the hows and whys of political propaganda. Look at these six excerpts from Ralph Manheim’s 1943 translation that have been put into a “Teachers Guide To The Holocaust” produced by the University of South Florida. Hitler wrote:
“The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses’ attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision.”
“All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be.”
“The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. And this is the best proof of the soundness or unsoundness of a propaganda campaign, and not success pleasing a few scholars or young aesthetes.”
“Once understood how necessary it is for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass, the following rule results: It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance.”
“In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”
“The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth… its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.”
Who Are Trump’s Followers?
Trump’s latest media-baiting, attention-grabbing gambit has been to call for a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the country. Even though he’s been criticized by most of the GOP (except right-wing radio hosts), as well as Democrats and foreign leaders, his popularity among Republican primary voters has gone up. Bloomberg.com reports that his Muslim-ban idea is supported by two-thirds of likely GOP primary voters, based on a Tuesday poll. RealClearPolitics.com says he has support of 30.4 percent of GOP voters nationwide, when averaging the most recent polls. That is almost double the second place holder. Trump also leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, the polling-tracking website says.
All of this raises the question, who are these people who support Trump? Or put less delicately, who is buying his vicious propagandizing? Snapshots from various media and polling firms show these sections of the electorate are disaffected, tend to be Republican, are mostly but not entirely white, are not highly educated—and crucially, according to focus groups led by Frank Luntz, a top Republican pollster cited by the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal—they are incredibly loyal to Trump, supportive of his posturing and swipes, and completely unmoved by condemnations of their candidate.
In Thursday’s Post, Luntz is quoted as saying, “I’ve never seen anything like this. There is no sign of them leaving.” In Thursday’s Journal, he lists six features of Trump’s supporters: “They have a dim view of the U.S.,” “They hate President Barack Obama.” “They hate the media, too.” “They’re suspicious of Muslims.” “They are unswervingly loyal to Mr. Trump.” “They kind of like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.”
The Los Angeles Times, in a recent deconstruction of its polling data, finds that Trump supporters increase with age. Only 15 percent are aged 18 to 29; 53 percent are age 30 to 64; and 34 percent are 65 and older. Many of them did not state their race, but of those who did, only 31 percent said they were white, while 12 percent said they were black, and another 11 percent said Latino. And they span the economic spectrum: 28 percent said they made less than $50,000 a year. The same percent said they made from between $50,000 and $100,000. And 22 percent said they made more than $100,000. This data was from the November 25 poll.
The most detailed profile might be from RealClearPolitics.com, which homed in on the personalities of people who would be drawn to Trump’s fascist presence. His backers are not particularly ideological, but mostly in the Republican camp. Only “20 percent of his supporters describe themselves as ‘liberal’ or ‘moderate.’ ” They’re also “a bit older, less educated and earn less than the average Republican. Slightly over half are women.”
On education, “One half of his voters have a high school education or less, compared to 19 percent with a college or post-graduate degree,” the website’s reporters said, adding that Trump appeals to a certain breed of southern Republican. “The Donald appears to have a special appeal to Texans: he took the highest proportion of support from Ted Cruz, then from Rick Perry,” the former governor who slammed Trump before withdrawing from the race. “Trumpism—a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense.”
The New York Times, when analyzing the content and style of the 95,000 words comprising all of Trump’s speeches in the five months between July and November, wrote his “pattern of elevating emotional appeals over rational ones is a rhetorical style that historians, psychologists and political scientists placed in the tradition of political figures like [Barry] Goldwater, George Wallace, Joseph McCarthy, Huey Long and Pat Buchanan, who used fiery language to try to win favor with struggling or scared Americans.”
They compare Trump to some of America’s worst demagogues. “Several historians watched Mr. Trump’s speeches last week, at the request of the Times, and observed techniques—like vilifying groups of people and stoking the insecurities of his audiences—that they associate with Wallace and McCarthy.”
But what the Times did not do is go far enough back in history or look at the purported reading material at Trump’s beside, where they would see the unnerving parallel with Adolph Hitler in his style, beliefs, delivery, egotism and intended audience. Trump did tell Vanity Fair’s reporter in 1990—before he tried to retract the statement—that he had been given Hitler’s My New Order by a friend, which Ivana said was kept by his bedside where he read it.
As Trump’s campaign for the presidency continues, one can only wonder if he’ll be propelled by a 21st-century American version of the “good Germans,” people who are seduced by Trump’s boasts, prejudice, blaming, war-mongering and authority. As Gustave Gilbert, the prison psychiatrist at the post-WWII Nuremburg War Crimes tribunal famously said, “The perpetrators showed no great deviation from the norm.”
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including America’s retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and elections. He is the author of “Count My Vote: A Citizen’s Guide to Voting” (AlterNet Books, 2008).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-donald-trump-its-white-america-first/2016/07/15/4faa1b60-49f9-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html
For Trump, it’s (white) America First
It was just another week in Donald Trump’s (white) America First campaign.
At least twice, Trump alleged that people have called for a “moment of silence” for the madman who killed five police officers in Dallas at a Black Lives Matter protest.
It was an incendiary accusation, bound to stir racial hatred. Like Trump’s accusation that New Jersey Muslims cheered the 9/11 attacks, this, too, was categorically false. There was no sign of such calls, and a top Trump adviser couldn’t corroborate the allegation.
Yet what was remarkable about the reckless accusation was how unremarkable Trump’s appeals to racist division have become. Days before and after that remark, Trump:
●Snubbed the NAACP, saying he wouldn’t appear at the group’s convention.
Trump points out African American man at rally
Play Video2:20
Speaking at a rally in Redding, Calif., Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pointed out a man at the rally and said, “look at my African American.” Trump then mentioned an African American supporter who punched a Trump protester dressed like a Ku Klux Klan member at an Arizona rally in March. (Reuters)
●Declared in response to racial unrest that “I am the law-and-order candidate” — an echo of Richard Nixon’s response to violence following the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination.
●Spoke at a rally where, according to reports, supporters answered mentions of President Obama with “he’s a monkey” and of Hillary Clinton by saying “hang that bitch.”
●Was preceded at the lectern at one event by a speaker who asked the crowd if they would walk down a street in Washington or Baltimore on a weekend. The response, per The Post’s Jenna Johnson: “No!”
There was also the deleted tweet by prominent Trump surrogate Carl Paladino, who said of the African American attorney general: “Lynch @LorettaLynch.” Paladino said it was a mistake, and maybe it was. Republicans trying to justify their support for Trump would like to believe each incident is a misunderstanding. But they can’t all be.
As Republicans head to Cleveland to nominate Trump for the presidency, here, for easy reference, is a compilation of what they’d like to ignore.
Trump tweeted an image, previously posted to an anti-Semitic message board, of a Star of David atop paper money; he later objected to his campaign’s decision to remove the image.
Trump told Jewish Republicans, “You’re not going to support me, because I don’t want your money.”
He had supporters raise their hands in a loyalty pledge that the former head of the Anti-Defamation League called a “fascist gesture.”
He said, “I don’t have a message” for supporters of his who threatened anti-Semitic violence against a Jewish journalist. The journalist had criticized Melania Trump, who said the writer “provoked” the attacks.
His “America First” campaign slogan was the name of the isolationist, anti-Semitic organization that opposed involvement in World War II.
Trump has banned news organizations, including The Post, from covering his events but credentialed the host of a white-supremacist radio show.
He repeatedly declined to disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in a CNN interview.
The Trump campaign chose a white supremacist as a delegate, then blamed a database error.
Trump retweeted a message from @WhiteGenocideTM, phony crime statistics that originated with neo-Nazis, a quote from Mussolini and a message from a supporter who embraces a “right-wing death squad” label.
Trump’s campaign blamed an intern’s mistake for tweeting an image of Nazi soldiers superimposed on the American flag next to Trump’s likeness.
Trump said of a Black Lives Matter protester at his event: “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”
He talked of paying the legal fees of a supporter who sucker-punched a black protester at an event.
He told reporters at another event to “look at my African American over here.”
Trump launched his campaign saying Mexico was sending “rapists” across the border. He called for mass deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, “half” of whom are criminals.
He said the American-born judge presiding over a fraud case against him could not be impartial because of his Mexican ancestry.
He tweeted a photo of himself with a taco bowl and wrote “I love Hispanics!” He kicked Jorge Ramos out of a news conference and said Univision “takes its marching orders” from Mexico.
He used broken English to mock Asians. He used a fake Indian accent. He referred to Elizabeth Warren, who claimed Native American ancestry, as “Pocahontas.” He asked a Texas-born Asian American at one event: “Are you from South Korea?”
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He proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States. He spoke favorably of forcing those already here to register with authorities. When a turban-wearing protester was removed from one of his events, Trump said: “He wasn’t wearing one of those hats, was he?”
Trump said last year that “I really don’t know” if Obama was born in the United States. He implied that Obama was responsible for the mass shooting in Orlando. He let stand the remark by a questioner at one of his events who called Obama a Muslim.
There are many more, but this column is 800 words — far shorter than Trump’s catalogue of racial animus.
Twitter: @Milbank
Donald Trump Just Tweeted a Campaign Ad Featuring What Look Like Nazi Soldiers
The link includes photos and tweets:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/donald-trump-campaign-ad-nazi-soldiers
The tweet is now deleted. Why did Trump delete it? Maybe it has something to with those the soldiers marching next to The Donald’s shoulder:
Yes, Trump (or his graphic design minions) apparently included a photo of soldiers from the Waffen-SS, the notorious military wing of the Nazi SS, in the image. John Schindler, who seems to know his World War II German uniforms, has been detailing the Trump campaign’s photo-research fail:
It’s not clear what the source of the photo in the Trump tweet is; the soldiers in the photo could be modern-day World War II reenactors. According to the most recent poll from Suffolk/USA Today, Trump leads the GOP field by three points.
Flynn, who was on the shortlist to be Trump’s VP and spoke during primetime at the Republican national convention last week, retweeted a post in sympathy with a Trump supporter who mocked Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which has blamed Russian hackers for the leak.
The retired army lieutenant general Michael Flynn retweeted an explicitly antisemitic message regarding the leak of thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Flynn, who was on the shortlist to be Trump’s VP and spoke during primetime at the Republican national convention last week, retweeted a post in sympathy with a Trump supporter who mocked Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which has blamed Russian hackers for the leak.
The pseudonymous Trump supporter tweeted: “CNN implicated. ‘The USSR is to blame!’ Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore.”
Donald Trump considered having General Michael Flynn as VP. He is still under consideration for a Cabinet Post or National Security Position. Flynn Tweeted a comment that was not only anti-semitic. The article did not mention that the tweet suggests a philosophy of the existence of a large Jewish power block or “a vast Jewish Conspiracy” remnant of Hitler’s regime.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/24/donald-trump-general-michael-flynn-antisemitic-tweet
Donald Trump and allies forced to answer questions about antisemitism
Retired US army lieutenant general Michael Flynn
Associations of antisemitism returned to shadow Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on Sunday, after the Republican and his allies, including a three-star general who was a vice-presidential hopeful, were forced again to answer questions about supporters with explicitly bigoted views.
The retired army lieutenant general Michael Flynn retweeted an explicitly antisemitic message regarding the leak of thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Flynn, who was on the shortlist to be Trump’s VP and spoke during primetime at the Republican national convention last week, retweeted a post in sympathy with a Trump supporter who mocked Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which has blamed Russian hackers for the leak.
The pseudonymous Trump supporter tweeted: “CNN implicated. ‘The USSR is to blame!’ Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore.”
The retired general deleted his retweet and later said “the earlier retweet was a mistake” and that he had meant to link to an article on Clinton and the DNC emails. “My sincerest apologies,” he added.
On Saturday, Trump hinted that he would consider Flynn for secretary of defense, although he is ineligible under federal law, which requires candidates to have spent at least seven years out of active service.
A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee told the Guardian: “There is no place in the Republican Party for antisemitic comments.”
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Trump had once again to answer questions about one of his loudest and most notorious supporters: David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who on Friday announced a run for Senate in Louisiana.
“I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years,” Duke said, a day after praising Trump’s platform as reflective of his own.
In February, Trump wavered on disavowing Duke’s endorsement, claiming “I know nothing about white supremacists” even though he had named Duke “a Klansman” in 2000.
On Sunday, the Republican nominee was much faster to reject Duke, saying he would potentially support a Democrat against him. “Depending on who the Democrat [were],” Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press. “But the answer would be yes.”
The candidate added: “Rebuked. Is that OK? Rebuked, done.”
Duke has remained unfazed by Trump’s disavowal, in June defending the businessman from accusations of racism by saying they were “very illustrative of the Jewish tribal nature”, and that Jewish people behaved “like a pack of wild dogs”.
The party’s chairman, Reince Priebus, has forcefully rebuked any hint of association with antisemitism, saying on Saturday: “David Duke [and] his hateful bigotry have no place in the Republican party and the RNC will never support his candidacy under any circumstance.”
Trump himself was accused of antisemitism earlier this month, when his campaign tweeted an image of Clinton juxtaposed with images of money, a six-pointed star and the words “most corrupt candidate ever”. The tweet was deleted, but Trump defended it and insisted it did not show a star of David, even though the image was traced to an account the regularly posts antisemitic material.
‘Revolution is coming’: ex-KKK leader David Duke to run for Senate
The businessman has also adopted the rallying cry “America First”, which became famous as a slogan of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and isolationists in the 1930s and early 1940s. Lindbergh, who was welcomed in Nazi Germany several times before the second world war, wrote about “racial strength” and said civilization depended “on a western wall of race and arms which can hold back either a Genghis Khan or the infiltration of inferior blood”.
The Anti-Defamation League asked Trump to stop using the phrase in April, but it appeared prominently throughout the Republican convention. Trump told the New York Times last week that he considers the phrase “a brand-new, modern term”.
Jewish reporters have suffered a barrage of antisemitic harassment from Trump supporters for coverage deemed negative toward the candidate. The businessman has tried to appeal to Jewish Republicans by noting that his daughter and son-in-law are Jewish.
In December he told the Republican Jewish Coalition: “Look, I’m a negotiator like you folks, we’re negotiators.”
He added: “Is there anybody who doesn’t negotiate deals in this room?”
— Ben Jacobs contributed reporting
All the Evidence We Could Find About Fred Trump’s Alleged Involvement with the KKK
March 9 , 2016
http://www.vice.com/read/all-the-evidence-we-could-find-about-fred-trumps-alleged-involvement-with-the-kkk
Late last month, in an interview with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, CNN host Jake Tapper asked the candidate whether he would disavow an endorsement from longtime Ku Klux Klan leader and white nationalist celebrity David Duke. Trump declined. “I don’t know anything about David Duke,” he said. Moments later, he added, “I know nothing about white supremacists.”
Trump has since walked back his comments, blaming his hesitance to condemn the Klan on a “bad earpiece.” The matter has now been filed away into the ever-growing archives of volatile statements Trump has made about race and ethnicity during the current election cycle—a list that includes kicking off his presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists, calling for the “ ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” and commenting that perhaps a Black Lives Matter protester at one of his rallies “should have been roughed up.”
But the particulars of the David Duke incident call to mind yet another news story, one that suggests that Trump’s father, the late New York real estate titan Fred Trump, once wore the robe and hood of a Klansman.
Versions of this story emerged last September when Boing Boing dug up an old New York Times article from May of 1927 that listed a Fred Trump among those arrested at a Klan rally in Jamaica, Queens, when “1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen staged a free-for-all,” in the streets. Donald Trump’s father would have been 21 in 1927 and had spent most of his life in Queens.
As Boing Boing pointed out, the Times account simply names Fred Trump as one of the seven individuals arrested at the rally, and it states that he was released without charges, leaving room for the possibility that he “may have been an innocent bystander, falsely named, or otherwise the victim of mistaken identity during or following a chaotic event.”
A few weeks after Boing Boing unearthed that 88-year-old scoop, the New York Times asked Donald Trump about the possibility that his father had been arrested at a Klan event. The younger Trump denied it all, telling interviewer Jason Horowitz that “it never happened” four times. When Horowitz asked if his father had lived at 175–24 Devonshire Road—the address listed for the Fred Trump arrested at the 1927 Klan rally—Donald dismissed the claim as “totally false.”
“We lived on Wareham,” he told Horowitz. “The Devonshire—I know there is a road ‘Devonshire,’ but I don’t think my father ever lived on Devonshire.” Trump went on to deny everything else in the Times’ account of the 1927 rally: “It shouldn’t be written because it never happened, number one. And number two, there was nobody charged.”
Biographical records confirm that the Trump family did live on Wareham Place in Queens in the 1940s, when Donald was a kid. But according to at least one archived newspaper clip, Fred Trump also lived at 175–24 Devonshire Road: A wedding announcement in the January 22, 1936 issue of the Long Island Daily Press,places Fred Trump at that address, and refers to his wife as “Mary MacLeod,” which is Donald Trump’s mother’s maiden name.
Moreover, three additional newspaper clips unearthed by VICE contain separate accounts of Fred Trump’s arrest at the May 1927 KKK rally in Queens, each of which seems to confirm the Times account of the events that day. While the clips don’t confirm whether Fred Trump was actually a member of the Klan, they do suggest that the rally—and the subsequent arrests—did happen, and did involve Donald Trump’s father, contrary to the candidate’s denials. A fifth article mentions the seven arrestees without giving names, and claims that all of the individuals arrested—presumably including Trump—were wearing Klan attire.
The June 1, 1927, account of the May 31 Klan rally printed in a defunct Brooklyn paper called the Daily Star specifies that a Fred Trump “was dismissed on a charge of refusing to disperse.” That article lists seven total arrests, and states that four of those arrested were expected to go to court, and two were paroled. Fred Trump was the only one not held on charges.
The Klan’s reaction to the alleged police brutality at the rally was the subject of another article, published in the Queens County Evening News on June 2, 1927, and titled “Klan Placards Assail Police, As War Vets Seek Parade Control.” The piece is mainly about the Klan distributing leaflets about being “assaulted” by the “Roman Catholic police of New York City” at that same rally. The article mentions Fred Trump as having been “discharged” and gives the Devonshire Road address, along with the names and addresses of the other six men who faced charges.
Yet another account in another defunct local newspaper, the Richmond Hill Record, published on June 3, 1927, lists Fred Trump as one of the “Klan Arrests,” and also lists the Devonshire Road address.
Another article about the rally, published by the Long Island Daily Press on June 2, 1927, mentions that there were seven arrestees without listing names, and claims that all of the individuals arrested were wearing Klan attire. The story, titled “Meeting on Parade Is Called Off,” focuses on the police actions at the rally, noting criticism of the cops for brutally lashing out at the Klan supporters, who had assembled during a Memorial Day parade.
While the Long Island Daily Press doesn’t mention Fred Trump specifically, the number of arrestees cited in the report is consistent with the other accounts of the rally. Significantly, the article refers to all of the arrestees as “berobed marchers.” If Fred Trump, or another one of the attendees, wasn’t dressed in a robe at the time, that may have been a reporting error worth correcting.
According to Rory McVeigh, chairman of the sociology department at the University of Notre Dame, the version of the Klan that would have been active in Queens during the 1920s may not have necessarily participated in stereotypical KKK activities like fiery crosses and lynch mobs.
“The Klan that became very popular in the early 1920s did advocate white supremacy like the original Klan,” McVeigh told VICE in an email. “But in that respect, [its views were] not too much different from a lot of other white Americans of that time period.” In New York, McVeigh added, “the organization’s opposition to immigration and Catholics probably held the biggest appeal for most of the people who joined.”
None of the articles prove that Fred Trump was a member of the Klan, and it’s possible that he was, as Boing Boing suggested, just a bystander at the rally. But while Donald Trump is absolutely right to say that his father was not charged in the 1927 incident, the candidate’s other claims—that Fred Trump never lived at 175–24 Devonshire Road, and more importantly, that his involvement in a Klan rally “never happened”—appear to be untrue.
The Trump campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Remember when Donald Trump Jr. ‘accidentally’ gave an interview to the The Political Cesspool radio show and said he never would have done the interview had he known they were a bunch of white nationalists? Well, guess who was interviewing GOP congressmen at the Republican National Convention:
“At the GOP convention, Edwards also called it a “pleasant surprise” to see a tweet from anti-immigrant hate group Virginia Dare broadcast on the screens at Quicken Loans Arena.”
Yes, what a pleasant surprise that the RNC splashed a VDare tweet across the convention’s giant tweet ticker. Ok, maybe it isn’t surprising at this point. Or pleasant. But if you’re a white nationalist radio host like James Edwards, the whole experience of interviewing multiple congressmen at the convention and seeing a VDare tweet must have been at least a somewhat pleasant surprise. The second white nationalist tweet that was promoting right in the middle of Trump’s speech was presumably less surprising at that point. But still pleasant for the white nationalists in attendance.
So what’s next for the Trump campaigns white nationalist outreach efforts? How about a question and answer session with the pro-Trump “r/The_Donald” Reddit forum that’s known for being an cesspool of racists and bigots:
““Having a moderator of the largest pro-Trump subreddit promote people that Trump himself would disavow does nothing to help Trump,” the moderator wrote. “It does, however, give credibility to the left wing narrative that Trump’s campaign is built on racism.””
That’s the spin from the subreddit moderators last month when they were trying to clean up the mess “CisWhiteMaelstrom” created. And it highlights one of the more disturbing aspects of this entire election cycle: Is giving credibility to the left wing narrative that Trump’s campaign is built on racism actually hurting Trump? If so, someone might want to inform the Trump campaign about that since one of its core strategy appears to be trying to ensure everyone knows the campaign is at least very, very welcoming to racists.
Maybe the forum can ask Ann Coulter about these nuances and potential pitfalls of Trump’s campaign strategy during her upcoming scheduled Q&A event. She might have some insights regarding what Trump is thinking.
When Donald Trump started the laughable black voter “outreach” phase of his campaign last weeks it was quickly pointed out that nature of Trump’s appeal — which seemed to be designed to offend the black community by describing them all poor, unemployed and uneducated with “nothing to lose” if they vote for Trump — was actually intended as outreach towards white voters who traditionally vote GOP but may not be comfortable the level of aggressively race-baiting that’s become a trademark of the Trump campaign (these are presumably traditional GOP voters who couldn’t pick up the GOP’s traditionally loud racist dog-whistling in years past).
But it’s also worth noting that this black voter outreach ploy wasn’t just outreach for white voters uncomfortable with voting for an open racist. By framing the entire outreach effort using the worst kinds of stereotypes of the black community it was simultaneous ongoing outreach to the white nationalist voters that form the core of Trump’s base. So it was literally ‘black voter outreach’ that was on one level designed to appeal white voters uncomfortable with Alt-Right Trump, and on another level white voters most enthusiastic about Alt-Right Trump. For a campaign that’s basically running the Ann Coulter playbook this year it’s a pretty efficient strategy.
So with that strategy in mind, it’s worth noting that another kind of simultaneous outreach of that nature just took place, although it wasn’t quite as simultaneously as the above example where the exact same speech was used to convey the opposite message to two different groups. But it was close. First, we start with the Trump campaign’s latest denunciation of David Duke’s fawning support;
“Trump’s spokespeople were quick to distance the Republican presidential nominee from Duke and his call, telling Politico that the Trump campaign has “no knowledge of these calls or any related activities” and “has continued to denounce David Duke and any group or individual associated with a message of hate.””
Ok, so we had another “I don’t know anything about all this support from David Duke, but I totally denounce it” incident for the Trump campaign, albeit a little more timely this time around. And that’s a pretty clear and open denouncement of his white nationalist base, which means a white nationalist embrace must be just around the corner. And it was. It was just Donald Trump Jr. doing the white nationalist hugging on his father’s behalf:
“This retweet of Kevin MacDonald is another step further for Trump Jr. though; this is basically the equivalent of retweeting David Duke. And in fact David Duke is also a huge fan of MacDonald, praising his antisemitic books on the dangers of Jews.”
Yes, the day after Trump denounces David Duke’s support, Donald Trump Jr. retweets Kevin MacDonald. It was the kind of subtle messaging we’ve come to expect.
So, as we can see, we’ve now hit a point where blatant white nationalist dog-whistles (that aren’t really dog-whistles since everyone can hear them) are now the central message of the GOP’s ‘black voter outreach’, while retweeting white nationalist is apparently the new dog-whistle. The new shockingly loud dog-whistle.
In what is bound to be the first of many loathsome acts from the Republican Jewish Coalition — which has Sheldon Adelson sitting on its board — now that Donald Trump is set to thrust the nation into an era of white nationalism and the rise of the “Alt-Right”, the RJC wants the Anti-Defamation League investigated for partisanship, something that could threaten the ADL’s tax-exempt status. Why? The RJC feels the ADL could be in a “compromising position” as a result of its focus on the anti-Semitic imagery and rhetoric employed by Trump’s campaign and supporters:
“I think it bears watching...and I think that the ADL has put itself potentially in a compromising position going forward, in terms of its ability to interact with the incoming administration.”
So the Republican Jewish Coalition thinks the ADL should get investigated and possibly lose its tax-exempt status because it discovered an abundance of anti-Semitism emanating from the Trump campaign and pointed that out. Or, at a minimum, it shouldn’t point out Trump’s extensive ties to anti-Semites in the future. That’s not treacherously pathetic or anything. No, not at all.
Does Donald Trump have multiple personality disorder? If so, one of those personalities is apparently very, very, non-anti-Semitic. And also very non-racist. At least it thinks it is. And it decided to hold a press conference:
“Some of the signs you’ll see are not put up by the people that love or like Donald Trump. They’re put up by the other side and you think it’s like playing it straight, no, but you have some of those signs and some of that anger is caused by the other side...They’ll do signs and they’ll do drawings that are inappropriate. It won’t be my people. It will be the people on the other side to anger people like you.”
Wow, so Trump’s non-anti-Semitic, non-racist alternate personality just charged that any displays of anti-Semitism are actually the work of his political opponents trying to whip up anti-Trump anger. Or, to put it another way, Trump just told his legion of anti-Semitic white supremacist/Alt-Right supporters that he will blame any future displays of anti-Semitism they do on their political opponents. Or, to put it another way, Trump just publicly incentivized anti-Semites to let their anti-Semitic flags run high and proud. More so.
Some might consider providing political cover and encouragement for acts of anti-Semitism a rather anti-Semitic thing to do. But not Donald Trump. As the old adage goes, ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Maybe you should even surround yourself with them and make them your closest advisors’.
And in other totally non-anti-Semitic Trump Team news...
Following Donald Trump’s bizarre press conference last week — where a question about a wave of bomb threats against Jewish centers prompted Donald Trump to declare himself the least anti-Semitic and racist person you’ve ever seen — Trump got a do-over during a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture on explaining he’s going to do about the apparent rise in anti-Semitism since his election. He kept his answer much simpler this around, declaring anti-Semitism “horrible” and “painful” in a fairly short, stilted statement. And while this wasn’t actually progress for society in any meaningful way, he did manage to avoid going on an extended rant about himself. So it was sort of progress for Trump:
““The president’s sudden acknowledgment of anti-Semitism is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration,” said Steven Goldstein, the executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect. “When President Trump responds to anti-Semitism proactively and in real time, and without pleas and pressure, that’s when we’ll be able to say this president has turned a corner. This is not that moment.””
So will Trump’s disturbingly mild and belated condemnation of anti-Semitism end the growing concerns in the Jewish community over Trump’s enduring alliance with the Alt-Right and white supremacists? The Anne Frank Center clearly wasn’t won over and only time will tell whether or not the more Trump-friendly Jewish organizations continue to stand by Trump.
But if you listen to White House spokesman Sean Spicer, all of these concerns, especially those of the Anne Frank center, are totally misguided. Instead of questioning Trump’s affiliation with anti-Semites, according to Spicer, these groups should be praising him for his ‘leadership’:
“So I saw that statement. I wish that they had praised the President for his leadership in this area. And I think that hopefully as time continues to go by they recognize his commitment to civil rights, to voting rights, to equality for all Americans”
Why can’t everyone recognize and praise the president for his leadership on this issue, along with issues like civil rights, voting rights, and equality for all Americans? That’s what the White House would like to know. And sure, the snarky answer would be that Trump hasn’t actually shown any leadership, but that’s not remotely true. He’s shown ample leadership in these areas. It just happens to be the kind of leadership only a white nationalist could love:
“Anton apparently now occupies a central advisory role in the White House and will be helping shape American foreign policy.”
Michael Anton, a man who appears to view the world in ethno-nationalist terms, is apparently now part of Trump’s inner circle of advisors along with Steve Bannon and Steven Miller. That’s leadership. Horrible, painful leadership, that’s not going to win over Trump’s critics. But it’s definitely leadership.