Trump’s white supremacy
Trump’s words, actions, and associates encourage white supremacist groups
Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista
The day after the Chabad of Poway was attacked, a White House spokesperson said that President Donald Trump and his entire administration “have and will continue to condemn racism, bigotry, and violence of any form.” The history of Trump’s administration, stretching back to his very first speech as a candidate, says otherwise. History indicates that the White House’s statement is a lie.
In his speech announcing his candidacy for president, Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists who were “bringing crime” and drugs into the United States. The duration of his candidacy, his time as president-elect, and his time in the Oval Office have all followed the precedent he set in that first speech.
In May of 2016, Trump claimed that a federal judge would be unable to fairly do his job due to being Mexican.
“He’s a Mexican,” Trump said of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings – rulings that people can’t even believe.” Despite being a Trump supporter, then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan denounced Trump’s remarks, calling them “sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
Latinx people are not the only group about which Trump has made racist remarks. In January of 2018, Trump asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” referencing immigrants from El Salvador and Haiti as well as various African nations. Trump also called NFL players who knelt during the national anthem in protest of police brutality “sons of bitches.” Almost all of the players who knelt were African American. There are many words for what these remarks are – disgusting, unacceptable, appalling – but the one word that must be used for Trump’s remarks is racist.
For every racist comment he has made, the worst thing Trump has said is in fact something he has never said. Throughout his entire time as a candidate, as president-elect, and as president, Donald Trump has never forcefully denounced white supremacy. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found nearly 900 “hate incidents” in the United States following Trump’s election. Among them was an incident in which white school children told their African-American classmates to sit at the back of the school bus. In 40 percent of the 900 incidents, the SPLC found that the perpetrators invoked either Trump’s name or his campaign slogans. In response, Trump minimized the events, claiming that there had only been “a very small amount” of racist incidents.
In August of 2017, white supremacists marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. A woman was killed when a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counter- protestors. The marchers chanted “Blood and soil,” a phrase with its origins in Nazi propaganda. They chanted, “Jews will not replace us,” and, “Sieg Heil.” Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.” The Nazi salute echoed through the streets of an American city, and the president called those who shouted it “very fine people.” Less than 24 hours before the shooting at the Chabad of Poway, Trump stood by those remarks.
If our actions speak louder than our words, Trump’s actions only amplify his nativist rhetoric. Trump’s rise to prominence as a candidate can in large part be attributed to his subscription to and advancement of the “birther” movement, which perpetuates the false belief that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The “birther” movement has never questioned the birthplace of a white politician, but has instead focused solely on undermining the first African-American President of the United States. Even more prominent in Trump’s campaign than his false claims about President Obama’s birthplace was his promise to build a wall along the entire length of the border between Mexico and the United States. In the years since his election, Trump’s promises to not only build a wall, but to make Mexico pay for it have changed. No longer is “the wall” necessarily a wall, but simply a physical barrier. Mexico is not going to pay for it. Trump’s wall was never about border security. Reports from the Trump administration itself suggest that a wall would not be effective in securing the border; a majority of drug smuggling takes place at established border crossings. Trump’s wall has always been a monument to nativism, a way to paint Latinx immigrants as a threat so grave that sending soldiers to defend the border was necessary.
A week into his presidency, Trump signed Executive Order 13769, titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States – the first of two so-called Muslim bans. All of the countries affected by Executive Order 13769 have a majority-Muslim population. The second Muslim ban, Executive Order 13780, was signed less than two months later, replacing Executive Order 13769. Both of these orders heavily restrict travel to the United States from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. The travel ban established by the second order has been revised, but is still in place today after being upheld by the Supreme Court last April. Both Executive Orders share the same name: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States. In this name, Trump’s intention is clear: to label all Muslims a dangerous threat to the United States.
Trump is not the only member of his administration spewing hate by word and action. Some of Trump’s closest advisors have deep and well-documented ties to white supremacy in the United States. Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and Special Counselor to the President, is the former head of Breitbart News Network, a website Bannon himself described as a “platform for the alt-right.” Breitbart has long published blatantly racist, sexist, and xenophobic articles, including some which promote the “birther” movement.
Stephen Miller, current Senior Advisor to the President, has a long history of anti-immigrant sentiment. One of Miller’s high school classmates describes him as having “an intense hatred toward people of color, especially toward Latinos.” In college, Miller was close friends with noted white supremacist Richard Spencer. Now, Miller is the chief architect of the president’s immigration policy, including the Muslim ban.
Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute, has advocated for ethnic cleansing and the creation of a “white ethno-state” in the United States. Spencer is one of many white supremacists who endorsed Trump for president, as well as David Duke, the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Regardless of whether Donald Trump is truly a white supremacist, the white supremacists clearly think he is. As Creighton University’s Dr. George McHendry, Jr. puts it, “Trump is conversant with the language of white supremacy at the same time that white supremacist agitators are increasing their visibility in American politics.” Trump has surrounded himself with white supremacist advisors, and he has adopted and advocated for the policies they promote. White supremacy is on the rise in the United States, and the president is giving it a platform to thrive.
Even still, Donald Trump is more dangerous than simply giving white supremacy a platform. Trump’s words and actions line up with the goals and ideals of white supremacy groups. White supremacist groups are excited by the fact that the White House seems to agree with their point of view. Trump’s words and actions do not overtly send the message of white supremacy. Trump’s white supremacy is not explicit, but implicit. What he has said and done mobilizes existing white supremacists and inspires new one. In Pittsburg, Christchurch, and Poway, the shooters mentioned nativist ideologies like Trump’s.
Donald Trump is not explicitly advocating for ethnic cleansing. His words and actions are in no way as extreme as those of the KKK. This does not mean that Donald Trump is not a white supremacist. Trump has promoted white supremacists to positions of great influence within the White House. Trump refers to minority groups as monoliths, and aims to demonize those minority groups. At best, Trump is soft on white supremacy to the point of being apathetic and his failure to take a hard stance against intolerance can be considered an endorsement of hate crimes and oppression. At worst, the President of the United States is a white supremacist.