45 is the New 88: Donald Trump’s Coded Rally Cries to White Supremacists
Donald Trump’s reelection campaign unleashed yet another firestorm of controversy that, by now, we should be accustomed to. In a series of Facebook ads, the “TRUMP MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN COMMITTEE” exhorted “EVERY American” to stand by the president as he defends the United States from “dangerous MOBS of far-left groups” running rampant through American streets. It was not so much the histrionic message that sparked outrage, but rather the use of a red triangle.
Trump reaches a new low on a weekly basis. How can an exhausted public keep track of the countless affronts to decency? This isn’t just another disgusting remark, but a clear demonstration of Trump’s white supremacist worldview.
Many observers quickly noted that the symbol of the red triangle originated in 1930s Nazi Germany. Red triangles identified political concentration camp prisoners, mostly made up of leftwing and communist opponents of the Nazi regime. The symbol sealed the fate of those who were forced to wear it. It meant years of torture, agony, fear, deprivation, and the erasure of humanity. Tens of thousands perished under the red triangle.
For the Trump reelection campaign to appropriate this symbol, while dismissing the historical weight it carries, in a call for war against supposed leftist “terrorists” is horrendously despicable. But inconceivably, it gets worse. The ad ran a total of 88 times. For those unfamiliar with neo-Nazi symbols, 88 signifies “HH,” the eighth letter of the alphabet, and means “Heil Hitler.” Observers also pointed out that the first sentence contained precisely 14 words, the same number of words as an infamous white supremacists creed.
What does this latest ignominious action of the Trump campaign reveal? It is plausible that all of this is a coincidence, and that the use of a symbol, that many people have no understanding of, is just happenstance. The campaign pointed out that the red triangle was found on a website that sells merchandise with user-submitted images. Their position is that this is a notorious antifa symbol. No harm, no foul.
Pure and utter nonsense.
The professions of ignorance are dubious on the face of it, since the red triangle isn’t associated with antifa. Are we earnestly to believe that random antifa swag served as the inspiration for the president’s reelection campaign ad imagery, and the creators stumbled upon it randomly? Instead of asking Siri to show them “antifa logos,” was the red triangle the choice from the beginning? It would certainly fit a pattern, since this is not the first time the Trump administration has fanned the flames of other “coincidental” controversies.
Before public outrage forced a postponement, Trump chose June 19, 2020 for his first campaign rally since March. Occurring within a context of protests to racial injustice that erupted a few weeks ago, the choice of Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery, seemed callous. The location also caused outrage: Over the course of two days in 1921, white residents of Tulsa, OK massacred and rampaged their way through one of America’s wealthiest black neighborhoods.
Just a silly scheduling flub.
It was as coincidental as the administration’s announcement to roll back LGBTQ patient protections on June 12, 2020: the anniversary of the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL, in which 49 victims, many of whom were members of the LGBTQ community, were murdered.
Another peculiar coincidence.
Given the recurring pattern, sheepish claims of innocence are ridiculous. The simplest answer is the most likely: the Trump campaign seized on the red triangle and applied it to leftist “terrorists” intentionally, just as the Nazis did before them. The question is why?
On the one hand, it is possible this is merely disgusting trolling. It is a gleeful exercise in “owning the libs” and seeing “libtards” cry, before rushing to Fox News and breathlessly lamenting the breakdown of civil discourse and thin-skinned nature of “radical” leftists. In other words, it is a concerted strategy of signaling to Trump’s base to bolster the narrative that the “enemies of the people” in the media will attack everything the poor victimized president says or does.
#totallyunfair.
On the other hand, maybe this all reflects deliberate cruelty, and reveals the white supremacist worldviews of those in the White House.
Donald Trump certainly has a troubled past when it comes to the Holocaust, antisemitism, and Nazism. Salvaging the various pieces from beneath the mountain of outrages this presidency has produced creates a troubling picture.
Who after all remembers that as a candidate, Trump tweeted a Mussolini quote? Perhaps it is unsurprising that the banal truisms of a vainglorious fascist would appeal to the huckster snake-oil salesman from Queens. But then his ex-wife added to the mystery, when she claimed Trump kept a book of Hitler speeches on his nightstand. Who hasn’t been lulled to sleep by the comforting words of the Führer? Identifying with the sentiments of fascists is not exactly an encouraging CV line for a United States president.
Despite his interest in the history of World War II, the 2017 White House statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day curiously left out any explicit mention of the six million Jewish victims. Perhaps critics were exaggerating their concerns that one week into his presidency, this was a troubling sign. To allay fears, Trump duly visited the Holocaust Memorial and Museum in D.C. down the street from his home, yet signed the guestbook as if it was a high school yearbook, praising the “amazing” time he had with “all of my friends.” The only thing missing was a promise that he would call this summer, dude.
Ok, ok, our president is not an erudite scholar. Surely this is just his innate frivolity.
It is doubtful the exhibit left any lasting impression. Claiming to “never forget,” we now learn that Trump explicitly encouraged China’s Xi Jinping to build concentration camps for Muslims while his own administration locked the children of migrants into overcrowded camps at home.
All coincidences and nothing burgers.
Things get a little more troubling if we decline to chalk all of this up to mere imbecility and lack of tact. On several occasions, Trump’s speeches have included antisemitic remarks. This isn’t merely the hypersensitivity of woke liberals, as Jewish groups hear the president’s words and conclude that they are “dipping into a deep well of anti-Semitic tropes.” It is a recurring pattern.
Perhaps it was yet another innocent coincidence that 2016 ads decrying Hillary Clinton’s supposed financial corruption used a Star of David against a background of dollar bills, suggesting a link between Jews and money. For those playing at home, this is another antisemitic stereotype.
But how likely is it that Jews would be attuned to hearing antisemitic dog whistles? At best, this is all unfortunate mistakes and comments taken out of context.
It was also probably an unintended oversight that our president retweeted an account from a user named “WhiteGenocideTM.” Or that he has bought into white supremacist fairy tales of a genocide perpetrated against white farmers in South Africa. Of course, the people propagating the myths of “white replacement” and chanting “Jews will not replace us” did not move the president to condemn American fascism, but rather wax on about “very fine people.” Is it possible that the leader of the free world and American Nazis are cut from the same cloth?
Racists have lived in the White House before. Would it be surprising to find that Donald Trump is not only a racist, but a white supremacist? Given his upbringing in the house of Fred Trump, the “Old Man Trump” Woodie Guthrie immortalized in a song about racist housing practices, is it any wonder? Fred was arrested in 1927 after a riot broke out at a Klan rally. According to Trump’s biographer, it was Fred Trump who imparted to his son that the family’s success was down to superior genetic breeding, a theory the son ostensibly subscribed to. Maybe that explains the eugenicist undertone of Trump’s praise of the “good bloodlines” of Henry Ford, a noted antisemite and Nazi sympathizer. In any case, Donald Trump grew up in an incubator of racism, xenophobia, and eugenicist pseudoscientific claptrap.
Instead of grins and shoulder shrugs and “who can really know” inanities, the easiest explanation is right there in front of everyone, and has been since day one: Donald Trump is a racist, and has been his entire life.
Now, does Donald Trump direct his campaign to make exactly 88 ad buys? Does he stay up at night writing the copy for his own ads (in between reading Hitler speeches)?
Probably not. Those around him do, and they know what jazzes their Dear Leader. Is it shocking to think that an old racist has attracted other racists, who do actually know the language and the power of these symbols, and know that racist audiences will understand them too? It is helpful to remember that Stephen Miller, a key advisor to Trump and occasional speechwriter, sent hundreds of emails to Breitbart that cannot be defined as anything other than white supremacist garbage.
Stars of David, red triangles — all of this blows over the heads of most of the public, and can be quickly dismissed by the very serious people who are shocked — simply shocked — that anyone would insinuate something like this (I mean, his son-in-law is Jewish!). Meanwhile, white supremacists grin knowingly — the message has been received loud and clear. If these are racist dog whistles, they are about as loud as an air-raid siren.
And here is the ultimate reason why this matters: In the context of an anti-leftist campaign against a fabricated threat, protests in the streets, and an embattled president who already has mobilized troops once before against American citizens, the spiritual alliance between the White House and white supremacists has, as I have noted elsewhere, horrifying implications. At the very least, the continued glib way in which this administration treats the history of genocide and racism has contributed to the upsurge in antisemitism, including two shootings at synagogues.
This is more than just an errant campaign ad, or tone-deaf political messaging. Trump and his acolytes want to see this country burn, because it galvanizes the president’s base and will provide the pretext to steal the election. They are the villains that populate one of the most shameful chapters of our nation’s history. They are a mortal threat to our democracy, and the sadistic cheerleaders of hate and violence tearing this nation apart.
The fascist dreck must go in November.
