Donald Trump won't denounce white supremacy. It is part of a bigger American problem
Following a hearty dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the former US President Donald Trump’s invitees came under massive scrutiny for their history of antisemitism, white supremacy and alt-right extremism. We take a quick look at how supremacist ideologies have always permeated the American landscape, as they do today.
The ex-President dined and conversed with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West, at his Mar-a-Lago resort over Thanksgiving.
Trump not only dined at his home with anti-Semite Kanye West and Nazi Nick Fuentes — in addition, admitted pedophile Milo Yiannopoulos was at that same dinner.
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) November 28, 2022
An anti-Semite, a Nazi and a pedophile. And not a word of criticism from the MAGA GOP.
Trump and Fuentes seemed to hit it off at the dinner with the two reported to have been fawning over each other, according to Axios.
Romney: I think it's been clear that there is no bottom to the degree to which president trump will degrade himself and the nation. pic.twitter.com/6Jw5vDQ6If
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 29, 2022
However, this hasn’t been the first tryst with (bad) destiny that Trump has had with Fuentes. A far more sinister event dating back to 2017, ties both of them together and is representative of why supremacist ideals will remain an inseparable part of the US socio-political outlook.
A problem: Trump’s dinner with a Holocaust-denying white supremacist.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) November 28, 2022
A bigger problem: GOP silence after Trump’s dinner with a Holocaust-denying white supremacist.
A way, way bigger problem: GOP base voters are ok with Trump’s dinner with a Holocaust-denying white supremacist.
The United States has been founded upon and governed by a social, political, historical and institutional ideology that has dominated politics and sculpted extremist mass movements that are likely to endure for years to come. An ideology that had proclaimed racial superiority over the African Americans and perpetuated slavery in America for over 250 years and that has systematically targeted non-whites even today.
The Framers of the US Constitution debated over the extent to which slavery would be included, permitted, or prohibited in the Constitution. The Constitution was deliberately ambiguous, but operationally proslavery.
- In fact, of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, over 49 per cent were slave owners and relied on them for their livelihoods. Thomas Jefferson not only inherited slaves but also multiplied them, and not until Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers had died did the slaves achieve their freedom.
Supremacist ideals were prominent before the Civil War period and persisted for decades after the Reconstruction Era. The very basis of the Civil War saw the Southern Confederacy uphold the ideals of racial superiority in order to protect the institution of slavery for personal interest and quash abolitionist efforts. However, even by the end of the war, a new form of systematic segregation known as the Jim Crow laws was enforced by the state legislatures that comprised predominantly white members.
The onset of the 1960s saw, however, a transformation of supremacist tendencies into a much more radical racial order committed to overthrowing the United States government and establishing a white homeland under a totalitarian pure-white regime. This brought into existence the idea of white nationalism, which in turn espoused the belief that the United States was a nation of the whites and no others.
White nationalists sought to:
- Ensure the survival of the white race, and the cultures of historically white states.
- Ensure white people should maintain their majority in majority-white countries,
- Ensure white people should maintain their political and economic dominance, and that their cultures should be foremost.
- Organise themselves into radical, extremist right-wing groups and consolidated their beliefs in gathering followers for their cause.
It is in the backdrop of this socio-political setting that William Pierce, an established member of one such group – the Neo-Nazi National Alliance – put to paper one of the finest works of literature in American history. The book wholly encompasses the true spirit of American culture.
Published in 1978, The Turner Diaries is one of the most widely read and cited books of the radical-right and it has explicitly influenced, among others, Brüder Schweigen (The Order), the Aryan Republican Army and the Ku Klux Klan.
The fictional diary describes a racist’s vision of a nightmare world, in which “The System” — African American enforcers led by Jewish politicians — attempt to confiscate all guns in the United States. A secretive organisation rises to take back the country for white supremacists, eventually winning an apocalyptic insurgency and nuclear war, first taking over the country and later the world. Due in part to his desire to appeal to “normal” people, as well as the novel’s limited initial circulation among neo-Nazis, Pierce assumes his readers are already racist and do not need to be recruited to that mindset.
Crudely written and wildly racist, the book has helped inspire dozens of armed robberies and more than 200 murders in the decades since its publication.
- The Turner Diaries exerted its most tragic influence on the mind of Timothy McVeigh. Days before he bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people and wounding 500 others, McVeigh mailed a letter to his sister warning that "something big is going to happen," followed by a second envelope with clippings from The Turner Diaries.
In 1915, the silent drama The Birth of a Nation, had an unprecedented effect on the alt-right. It was the first American motion picture to be screened in the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson. The film was controversial even before its release and has remained so ever since; it has been called "the most controversial film ever made in the United States".
In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film portrayed black men (many played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent, and sexually aggressive towards white women. It presented the Klan as a heroic force. But most importantly, the film sparked the rebirth of a new age of Klansmen.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is one of the most, if not the most, infamous hate groups in American history. The Klan has advocated extremist white nationalism, white supremacy, white militancy and other violent-sounding political stances accompanied by the prefix – white. Their primary objective was to target and eliminate African-Americans in the United States.
The Klan has existed in three distinct eras of American history, the first dating back to the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the second, willing itself back into existence as an outcome of the influence that The Birth of a Nation created amongst the radical-right upon its release.
It's here on out that we segue into contemporary American politics leading up to the Charlottesville riots. In August, 2017, members of various alt-right supremacist groups, the likes of which included the usual – a hearty helping of Klan members, a good side of Neo-Nazis and some neo-Confederates to top it off. They gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia in protest. The gathering stated goals that included unifying the American white nationalist movement and opposing the removal of the statue of Robert E Lee from Charlottesville's Lee Park. It came to be known as the 'Unite the Right' rally.
The marchers chanted racist and antisemitic slogans, carried semi-automatic rifles, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols (such as the swastika and the Iron Cross), the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus Vult crosses, flags and other symbols of various past and present anti-Muslim and antisemitic groups.
One of the seemingly less pejorative chants was "America First'', previously used by early Klansmen during their marches. Curiously (or not so curiously), a certain orange friend of ours has not shied away from using the phrase on multiple occasions during his presidential campaign.
The rally occurred against the backdrop of the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments throughout the country in response to the Charleston church shooting in 2015. The event turned violent after protesters clashed with counter-protesters, leaving over 30 injured. Later, self-identified white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters about a kilometre away from the rally site, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 other people.
However, this is where things get interesting.
As if a widespread public gathering of racist, fascist bigots and extreme violence resulting in multiple injured and one fatality were not enough, then- President Donald Trump refused to denounce the supremacist groups. Rather, he proceeded to "condemn hatred, violence and bigotry on both sides". Trump's remarks implied moral equivalence to white supremacist marchers and those who protested against them. "There were many fine people on both sides," he continued.
This is when Nick Fuentes himself gained widespread notoriety for his active participation at the “Unite the Right” rally at Charlottesville.
The former Klan Grand Wizard David Duke called the protests "a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back. We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump."
Trump’s refusal to condemn the Klan Grand Wizard’s public endorsement of him seems to be some sort of recurring theme which pops up again with his refusal to condemn the Proud Boys, instead telling them to "Stand back and stand by," during his first presidential debate.
This is a reminder that Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father, was arrested after a KKK riot in Queens, NYC, in 1927. pic.twitter.com/TURNPCp2jE
— Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 28, 2022
Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Donald Trump embraces White Supremacy. The dog whistles are all gone. The Republican Party is the Party of Racism and Antisemitism. They own it.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) November 26, 2022
The very same recurring theme makes yet another appearance now, manifesting itself in Trump’s clear inability to denounce neither a rapper-turned-antisemite, nor one of the most renowned white supremacist bigots in the US.
If you can’t even denounce Nick fucking Fuentes, you shouldn’t be trusted with any amount of political power.
— Jo 🌻 (@JoJoFromJerz) November 28, 2022
The fact remains that Trump associates with and refuses to condemn such loving public figures because he shares values with them and sees them as an important part of his path to power. A path, that might - scarily enough - lead him to power once again in a couple of years.