Washington Post: Johnson said he has been a leading voice of white supremacy since at least 1985, when he wrote a book proposing a constitutional amendment that would have limited U.S. citizenship to “non-Hispanic whites of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth” any other nonwhite race or ethnicity.
He proposed that some “Hispanic whites” would be eligible for U.S. citizenship provided “they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe.”
Johnson has run for Congress in Wyoming and Arizona and a judgeship in California, and he has raised money for the presidential campaign of former congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.). His campaigns have been based on “white nationalist” platforms, and he has even complained about fictional character Harry Potter kissing a “Chinese girl” in a movie, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
However, Johnson has said on his law firm’s website that he has long represented Japanese corporations doing business in the United States, and that he can “speak, read and write Japanese.” The website is written mainly in Japanese, and Johnson speaks in Japanese in a video on the site. Johnson notes that he is looking for new Chinese clients.
Johnson said he supports Trump because “he speaks his mind.”
“He won’t govern by public opinion poll; he will speak what he thinks is right,” Johnson said. “I believe Ron Paul was that way, I believe [Democratic candidate] Bernie Sanders is that way. And regardless of your political beliefs, that is a refreshing change.”
Johnson, who said his American Freedom Party has experienced an increase in recruitment because of Trump, said he likes Trump’s positions on “securing our borders and keeping the jobs back in America.”
But he said he doesn’t think that Trump supports white supremacist causes.
“I believe he does not,” Johnson said. “It’s unrequited love.”
Johnson, whose proposed 1985 constitutional amendment would have denied U.S. citizenship to anyone who was more than one-eighth “Semitic,” said he is not bothered that Trump’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism when she married an orthodox Jewish man.
“I do think it’s better for a Christian to marry a Christian,” he said. “But that’s not my say, and it’s not Donald Trump’s say. That’s his daughter’s say.”
