Donald Trump’s Wednesday night tweet instructing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (better known as the real-life inspiration for the character Nelson Muntz on The Simpsons) to look into South Africa’s non-existent war on white farmers was the latest example of Trump’s long love affair with white supremacist conspiracy theories.
While many pundits assume the president’s embrace of harebrained alt-right rumors is an unapologetic attempt to appeal to his Skoal-chomping, rosacea-collared base, the truth is, Donald Trump’s willingness to discard racist dog-whistles for bigot bullhorns is part of the president’s decades-long affinity for the fever dreams of hate groups.
And nowhere is that fact more evident than on Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Since joining the social media behemoth, Trump has repeatedly shared white nationalist fantasies with his followers. It would be impossible to list them all, but here are Donald Trump’s greatest white supremacist Twitter hits.
10. Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim
Most people are aware that Trump is one of the founding fathers of the Tango movement (The drive to use Tang mixed with mayonnaise as a skin bronzer) as well as the Birther movement. According to the Trump Twitter Archives, Trump has tweeted or shared tweets about Obama’s birth certificate at least 22 times and has tied Obama with Islam another 68 times.
Although it merged into various kooky conspiracies including the insinuation that Obama killed the official who verified his birth certificate, it all began in 2012 with these two tweets:
9. Hillary Clinton’s star
In July 2016, during the heat of the presidential campaign, Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton over a pile of money with the Jewish Star of David superimposed on the image, conjuring up an anti-semitic stereotype that appealed to the thousands of his followers who liked the photo.
He quickly deleted the tweet and replaced it with another image, but not before savvy internet sleuths tracked down the original image to an anti-semitic account that was also soon closed.
8. The Islamophobic videos series
In November 2017 Trump tweeted three successive videos warning America of the danger of Muslims. The clips were from the far-right, white nationalist group, Britain First. The videos featured Muslims allegedly pushing a man off a building in Egypt, Muslims attacking a white Dutch boy (not the paint, a person) and Muslims destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The videos were first shared by Britain First’s deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, an ultra-nationalist (which is like a white nationalist on cocaine and Red Bull) who was convicted multiple times of harassing a Muslims in the UK
7. He could have won the popular vote if it wasn’t for those meddling illegal immigrant voters.
Trump still can’t accept the fact that more people voted for Hillary Clinton than for a dim-witted dullard and his Jesus freak sidekick. So, instead of admitting that the fainting old lady kicked his ass, he spread the rumor that he would have won if not for the 3 million illegal voters no one seems to have seen except for him, one pro golfer and the people in Reddit’s alt-right room at 3 a.m.
6. But what about Chicago?
No list of white nationalist conspiracies would be complete without the inclusion of the phrase: “But what about Chicago?” No matter what atrocities white people commit, for people who have a camouflage section in their closet, it can never compare to the lawlessness and violence on Chicago streets.
According to the Rapid City Journal, Chicago has the 25th highest murder rate in the U.S.
5. The 9/11 Dance Party
Donald Trump might be the only person in the alt-right who believe Muslims committed 9/11. While his cohorts argue about whether it was the Jews, Halliburton, the Illuminati or George W. Bush, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have witnessed a Muslim celebration from the roof of his building in New Jersey on 9/11.
I saw it too. I witnessed Muslims having a Soul Train Line on 9/11 when I was at Sarah Palin’s home in Alaska. I was trying to see Russia but I was looking in the wrong direction.
4. The MS-13 Infestation
Net immigration, both legal and undocumented, has been at or below zero for years. Immigrants are less likely to commit a crime than any other group in the U.S. MS-13 is a gang that originated in Los Angeles. Those are the facts.
Yet Trump continues to promote the baseless narrative that deadly gang members are flowing into the U.S. to rob, kill and steal. The only reason Trump pushes this unfounded racist rhetoric is to garner support for his wall-building, white nationalist, ethnic cleansing plan.
And some of them, I suppose are good tweets.
3. White genocide
One of the most popular alt-right conspiracy theories is the idea of white genocide, that the combination of interracial sex, immigration, diversity efforts and the pervasive epidemic penis-size inequality will eventually lead to the elimination of the white race.
If you thought the number 3 item on the countdown would be one of Trump’s tweets about illegal immigration or the Diversity Visa program, I’m sorry. It’s hard to counter anyone who calls Trump a white supremacist when he crassly tweeted an account with the name White Genocide right in the handle!
My favorite thing about this tweet is that the person used the name “WhiteGenocideTM” to trademark the Twitter as if they were afraid someone would steal it and use it as the title of a sitcom or the name of a soft drink.
2. White and black genocide
In 2015, Donald Trump retweeted an image that was traced back to an account whose bio said: “should have listened to the Austrian chap with the little mustache.” The image was not only racist propaganda and wrong, but it echoed a theme prominent among racists: Namely that black people are murdering white people and black people at an alarming rate.
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a “thug,” a “but what about black on black crime,” a white genocide and a “fake news” all in one tweet!
1. Trump’s greatest dog whistle
The most insidious dog whistle white supremacist message Donald Trump has ever shared was not a tweet. It was not his “many sides” statement. It wasn’t even widely reported.
First, you need to know about the phrase held dear by almost every white supremacist group, known as “14 most important words”:
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the slogan was coined by white supremacist David Lane, who died in prison. The term is so popular that it is often referred to as “fourteen words” or simply “14.” In fact, the Nazi symbol 1488 is a combination of the 14 words and the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, for “Heil Hitler.”
Dylan Roof, who massacred nine parishioners at Emmanuel AME in Charleston, SC used a picture of 1488 scrawled into the ground as the cover photo for his manifesto before carrying out his 2015 church shooting. The phrase is as follows:
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
On February 15, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security released a document filled with negative facts about undocumented immigrants, crime and border crossings. It listed every negative statistic about immigration it could find. The report’s title was 14 words and sounded curiously similar to the Nazi version of... well you be the judge. The document was titled:
“We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again.”
This is our president.