Trump-backing Neo-Nazis plan armed rally to intimidate Jews

The Dec. 28, 2016 article in the Daily Inter Lake, reports plans by a neo-Nazi organization to have an armed march in January through the streets of Whitefish, Mont., a resort town 30 miles from our cabin. According to the article, the plans were announced on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi blog, which called its followers “to action” to “troll” members of the Whitefish Jewish community, Whitefish businesses, and Love Lives Here, an advocacy group organized to counteract the hateful acts of neo-Nazi organizations.

White nationalist Richard Spencer is a part-time resident of Whitefish, where his mother, Sherry Spencer, lives. In a speech at a Nov. 18 white nationalists conference in Washington, D.C., he celebrated Donald Trump’s election as president by proclaiming “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” which elicited straight-arm Nazi-type salutes from members of the audience.

The Daily Stormer blog stated that the armed rally would be called off if certain demands were met. Montana’s U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (Montana has only one representative), Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Attorney General Tim Fox co-signed a letter strongly denouncing the threats and intimidation directed at the community. In an interview with the Daily Inter Lake, Sen. Tester stated, “This is not a negotiation. ... It’s discrimination and it should never be negotiable and neither is anti-Semitism.” He added that Montana’s elected officials intend to address the threats “directly and forcefully.”

In the wake of the white nationalist conference, the Trump transition team issued a statement saying that the president-elect “has continued to denounce racism of any kind and he was elected because he will be a leader for every American.”

Yet during the campaign, Mr. Trump did not hesitate to make derogatory comments about Mexicans and other groups. And his lack of respect for other people was made clear when he made fun of a reporter with a disability.

The statement that the president-elect “has continued to denounce racism of any kind” rings hollow in view of the fact that he appointed Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, to a prominent position in his administration, naming him as “chief strategist and senior counselor.”

Under Mr. Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart News gave voice to white nationalists and other far-right groups. For example, Breitbart ran an article entitled “Hoist It High and Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage” in response to the horrific murder of the pastor and eight parishioners at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2016.

Even if one accepts the Trump transition team’s assertion that Mr. Trump is not a racist, the tone which he has set provides cover for latent racism to emerge. Mr. Spencer was not speaking only for himself when he proclaimed, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” And “our people” strongly suggests that he was not speaking about all people but only about a certain group of people, all of whom happen to be white.