“Donald Trump is not a racist, but Donald Trump is not afraid. Don’t vote for a Cuban, vote for Donald Trump.” This is not the first white supremacist pro-Trump robocall by a group calling itself “American National Super PAC,” but it hits the same low notes as the last one. “We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people,” said the first call, which went out to Iowa and New Hampshire voters ahead of the presidential nominating contests in those states. The group’s pre-Super Tuesday call, which has reportedly gone out in Vermont and Minnesota, says, “The white race is dying out. . . . Few schools anymore have beautiful white children as the majority.” Both calls identify the person responsible for the message as a “farmer and white nationalist,” and both end the same way: “Vote Trump . . . This call is not authorized by Donald Trump.”
Trump has no affiliation with the white supremacists making these calls on his behalf, but he’s certainly got them all excited. The racist American Freedom Party is technically running its own candidate for president on a “Stop White Genocide” ticket, but its heart is clearly with Trump. A statement from the group announcing that first round of racist robocalls in Iowa called Trump “The Great White Hope.”
Before the first votes were cast this year, Trump’s candidacy was also being hailed and welcomed by the American Nazi Party, the KKK-affiliated “Knights Party,” the skinhead and neo-Nazi online forum “The Daily Stormer” and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
Duke started praising Trump on his radio show during the summer, saying that Trump’s campaign was doing “some incredibly great things,” but he stopped short of fully endorsing Trump’s candidacy. Now, Duke is overtly calling on his supporters to join the Trump campaign: “Voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage. . . . I am telling you that it is your job now to get active. Get off your duff. Get off your rear-end that’s getting fatter and fatter for many of you every day on your chairs. When this show’s over, go out, call the Republican Party, but call Donald Trump’s headquarters, volunteer. They’re screaming for volunteers. Go in there, you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mind-set that you have.”
Candidates cannot control who endorses them, and no one should hold candidates accountable for the views and actions of their supporters unless the candidates endorse them in turn. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t notice who’s lining up behind whom.
