Neo-Nazis Lovin’ It: Emboldened by Trump’s Abysmal Response to Charlottesville Violence
Neo-Nazis – and others who support far-right white supremacist actions and beliefs – expressed joy upon seeing US President Donald Trump’s half-hearted condemnation of the tragic violence in Charlottesville on Saturday.
In refusing to explicitly condemn the aggressively hateful actions of primarily young white men who marched in the small eastern city carrying Nazi flags and chanting Nazi slogans, Trump has tacitly offered his support to a fringe group of neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members, among other more obscure but no less disaffected racist and bigoted groups in the US, according to a report from the Independent.
Speaking on a hastily erected stage at one of his golf resorts, Trump stated that he decried “violence on all sides” without specifically calling out the perpetrators of that violence, the white hate groups who instigated Saturday’s melee, which saw one person killed and many injured.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” the US President tweeted, pointedly repeating the phrase: “On many sides.”
Trump, a strikingly unpopular and polarizing figure in the US, refused to take reporters questions as to whether he would explicitly state that far-right extremism was at fault for the violence, and that the behavior of the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville was, at the very least, bad.
The US President’s remarks, as well as his non-answers, were greeted with joy by far-right social media and those who purported to be spokespeople for neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
One prominent US neo-Nazi website gleefully pointed out that Trump “outright refused to disavow” the hateful expression of the white hate groups as they marched through the small city wearing and carrying Nazi symbols and chanted Nazi slogans.
Trump “refused to even mention anything to do with us,” stated the neo-Nazi website’s social media presence, adding that, “When reporters were screaming at him about White Nationalism he just walked out of the room.”
One comment on the white supremacist website raved: “Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us.”
Trump, the commenter asserted, “said that we need to study why people are so angry, and implied that there was hate… on both sides!” cited by Gizmodo.com
“He said he loves us all,” the extremist commenter gushed, observing that the US president, “also refused to answer a question about white nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room.”
“Really, really good,” the far-right supporter enthused, adding, “God bless him.”
A former Ku Klux Klan leader, who had briefly attended the march until it was shut down by law enforcement and turned violent, stated that the rally was intended to fulfill the Donald Trump’s campaign promises.
“This represents a turning point for the people of this country,” the white supremacist stated, cited by Gizmodo.
“We are determined to take our country back, we’re going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump, and that’s what we believed in, that’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back.”
Sputniknews
