Trump Presidency Will Be A ‘Real Opportunity’ for White Nationalists, Says Nazi Leader
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The leader of the American Nazi Party has said the election of Donald Trump as president would present “a real opportunity for people like white nationalists” to start “acting intelligently”, with the aim of building a mainstream political presence.
The effort to plant the seeds of white nationalism in the political mainstream, where they might blossom into pro-white political coalitions that appeal to a broader swath of white voters, will not be easy, according to the chairman of the American Nazi Party.
But Rocky Suhayda thinks there is one political figure who presents a “real opportunity” to lessen the load.
Who is it? Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.
“Now, if Trump does win, okay, it’s going to be a real opportunity for people like white nationalists, acting intelligently to build upon that, and to go and start — you know how you have the black political caucus and what not in Congress and everything — to start building on something like that,” Mr Suhayda declared on his radio program last month, the Independent reported on Monday.
“It doesn’t have to be anti-, like the movement’s been for decades, so much as it has to be pro-white,” he added. “You know what I’m saying? It’s kind of hard to go and call us bigots if we don’t go around and act like a bigot. That’s what the movement should contemplate. All right.”
Audio from the radio program was posted by BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, who noted that Suhayda has in the past avoided making statements about Mr. Trump out of concern that he might harm the businessman’s candidacy. Yet, Mr. Kaczynski reported, in an American Nazi Party report from September, the chairman argued that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric revealed the secret popularity of the party’s messages.
“We have a wonderful OPPORTUNITY here folks, that may never come again, at the RIGHT time,” Mr. Suhayda wrote, according to BuzzFeed. “Donald Trump’s campaign statements, if nothing else, have SHOWN that ‘our views’ are NOT so ‘unpopular’ as the Political Correctness crowd have told everyone they are!”
Mr. Suhayda is far from the first avowed white supremacist to publicize his support and enthusiasm for Trump.
Earlier this year, Rachel Pendergraft — the national organizer for the Knights Party, a standard-bearer for the Ku Klux Klan — told The Washington Post that the KKK had begun using Trump’s candidacy as a new conversation starter to recruit followers.
She said this has been discussed on a private, members-only website and in “e-news, stuff that goes out to members.”
In addition to opening “a door to conversation,” she said, Mr. Trump’s candidacy had electrified some members of the movement.
“They like the overall momentum of his rallies and his campaign,” Ms. Pendergraft said. “They like that he’s not willing to back down. He says what he believes, and he stands on that.”
