In an interview with NPR , former neo-Nazi Christian Picciolini accused U.S. President Donald Trump of being a “megaphone” for white supremacy.
“I think what President Trump is, is a megaphone,” Picciolini said. “It’s as if Trump kicked over a bucket of gasoline on all of those small fires that have existed for 400 years and created one large forest fire.”
The conversation came after Trump retweeted a video in which one of his alleged supporters yelled “white power.” Although Picciolini stopped short of saying the president amplified the message on purpose, he noted that it’s part of a larger pattern in his behavior.
“This hasn’t been the first time that the president has tweeted something that has come from a white supremacist or that has had a white supremacist message, whether it’s talking about a conspiracy theory that’s connected to white genocide or whether it’s using pejorative language to describe other people.”
As reported by Vox , Trump previously tweeted a graphic with incorrect black-on-black crime numbers that suggested this form of crime is the most likely outcome in the criminal justice system. The graphic was discovered to originate from a neo-Nazi Twitter account that praised Adolf Hitler.
Per Fast Company , Trump also tweeted a video supporting his campaign that featured a logo first used by the white nationalist website Vdare and the fascist vigilantes Lion Guard. According to writer Horace Bloom, the logo is similar to those used in Nazi Germany.
Picciolini touched on the warnings of extremism researchers, who believe that white supremacists and far-right militants are attempting to use the civil unrest in the United States to push their goals, which he called “frightening.”
“It is ingrained in their ideology that a race war will come one day,” he said.
According to Picciolini, the coronavirus pandemic, high unemployment, and the general election all create a “perfect storm” for people who have been waiting for this kind of civil unrest for decades.
As The Inquisitr reported, Trump was previously accused by former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld of wanting an Aryan nation with no immigrants. Weld pointed to Trump’s language and argued that he frequently echoed white supremacist groups when speaking on immigration. Notably, Weld pointed to Trump’s reference to bloodlines and noted its use by people who support European and white supremacy. Weld, who ran was former Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson’s running mate in 2016 and briefly ran as a Republican presidential nominee in the current primary cycle, expressed support for America’s diversity.
