|
| Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden 1939 |
REPORTER: Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point?He replied:
TRUMP: It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me.The ADL surveyed the reaction from those people who agree with him:
Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin was apparently thrilled by the tweets, posting on his popular Daily Stormer website: “Man, President Trump’s Twitter account has been pure fire lately. This might be the funniest thing he’s ever tweeted. This is the kind of WHITE NATIONALISM we elected him for. And we’re obviously seeing it only because there’s another election coming up. But I’ll tell you, even knowing that, it still feels so good.”
Anglin also emphasized the political implications of Mr. Trump telling people of color to “go back” to their countries: “This is what elected Trump and this is what will always be the best way for him to gain support,” and underscored the importance of these comments being directed at U.S. citizens, particularly Rep. Pressley, who was born in Cincinnati: “So this is not some half-assed anti-immigrant white nationalism. Trump is literally telling American blacks to go back to Africa.”
Meanwhile, alt right figurehead Richard Spencer acknowledged the appeal of the President’s tweets to a range of alt right activists, but also appeared to warn that Trump was bound to disappoint white supremacists (again).
White supremacist organizer and frequent political candidate Augustus Invictus seemed to praise the President’s tweets:
Matt Parrott, former head of the white supremacist Traditionalist Worker Party, appeared to acknowledge the political strategy behind the President’s comments, tweeting:
White supremacist podcaster “Sven Longshanks” primed his “Daily Nationalist” audience by praising the President: “Trump started the week in a great way today by tweeting that the four worst non-White communists in the Democrat Party should go back and fix their own countries first before trying to tell America what to do. Of course he is being accused of being ‘racist’ for pointing this out, as nobody can argue their countries of origin are not ‘the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world’.”
Another white supremacist podcaster, James Edwards of The Political Cesspool, responded to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s defense of the congresswomen with his own racist vitriol:
The President’s tweets are being celebrated elsewhere across the extremist spectrum. On Sunday, anti-Muslim bigot Pamela Geller, head of the Islamophobic American Freedom Defense Initiative/Stop Islamization of America reposted his tweets accompanied by this gleeful comment:
Right-wing Islamophobe and Freedom Center founder David Horowitz defended the President’s comments, calling the targeted congresswomen “anti-Semites, pro-terrorists… anti-Americans…” He blasted the media outlets who have criticized Trump’s tweets, calling them “shills” for Reps. Pressley, Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez.
