The Crusader, a quarterly journal that bills itself as “The Premier Voice of the White Resistance,” issued a full-page spread supporting Trump.”Make America Great Again!’ It is a slogan that has been repeatedly used by Donald Trump in his campaign for the presidency,” the Crusader’s Pastor Thomas Robb wrote. “You can see it on the shirts, buttons, posters and ball caps such as the one being worn here by Trump speaking at a recent rally. … But can it happen? Can America really be great again? This is what we will soon find out!”
It’s worth emphasizing that Team Trump neither sought nor wants this. In fact, after learning of the KKK’s support, the Trump campaign called the paper “repulsive,” adding that the campaign “denounces hate in any form.”But that doesn’t make Trump’s support among white nationalists any easier to overlook.The Washington Post reported, for example, that this is part of a broader pattern: in January, the editor of a white nationalist magazine recorded automated robo-calls on Trump’s behalf in advance of the Iowa caucuses. A month later, after Trump was embraced by former KKK leader David Duke, the Republican presidential candidate was offered a chance to condemn Duke, but Trump instead said he didn’t know who the former KKK grand wizard was.
That same month, Rachel Pendergraft — the national organizer for the Knights Party, a standard-bearer for the Ku Klux Klan — told The Post that Trump’s campaign offered the organization a new outreach tool for recruiting new members and expanding their formerly dwindling ranks.In August, the American Nazi Party’s chairman, Rocky Suhayda, agreed, declaring on his radio show that Trump offers “real opportunity” to build the white nationalist movement.
These are also ongoing developments. Politico reported today, “Energized by Trump’s candidacy and alarmed by his warnings of a ‘rigged election,’ white nationalist, alt-right and militia movement groups are planning to come out in full force on Tuesday, creating the potential for conflict at the close of an already turbulent campaign season.”What’s more, as Rachel noted on Monday’s show, there are new white nationalist robo-calls reaching voters in Utah, where right-wing extremists hope to stop Evan McMullin from topping Trump.For voters looking for motivation to participate in this year’s election, I’m honestly not sure what more it could take.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."