Nazi salutes near the White House
To anyone who hasn’t seen the video of alt-right leader Richard Spencer proclaiming “Hail Trump” as some of his fellow white nationalists give the Nazi salute, it is well worth a look. Speaking in a building named after Ronald Reagan a short distance from the White House, Spencer declares that “America was, until this past generation, a white country, designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.”
Images like this are jarring for a nation that lost 418,500 people in World War II. A nation that saved the world from fascist tyranny. A nation that has made great strides in combating racism and anti-Semitism in the years since. A nation whose strength lies in its diversity. That Spencer would so closely channel Adolf Hitler — at one point even using the German word Lügenpresse, or “lying press,” to describe reporters — is beyond chilling.
And what has Donald Trump, the object of these people’s admiration, said in response?
After The Atlantic magazine released footage of the event on Monday, the Trump transition team said the president-elect “continued to denounce racism of all kinds,” without specifically mentioning Spencer or his innocuously named National Policy Institute. At a meeting with The
New York Times on Tuesday, Trump did better, saying: “I disavow and condemn them.”
Through actions and appointments as well as words, Trump and his incoming team cannot distance themselves fast enough and far enough from these people. All presidents attract the support of fringe groups. President Obama, for instance, won the backing of the Socialist Party USA. But rarely, if ever, has there been a group that sees in the election of a president more affirmation of its cause than the National Policy Institute sees in Trump’s win.
It is easy to understand why Spencer would take this view. Trump’s inner circle of advisers includes Stephen Bannon, who, as editor of the Breitbart news site, provided a platform for altright provocateurs. And Trump’s campaign broke ugly new ground in using race, religion and ethnicity to court white voters. It hardly requires an investigation, as Trump suggested Tuesday, to find out why white supremacists are “energized” by his victory.
Trump’s behavior seems calculated to walk a fine line. On the one hand, he wants the support of voters who could be sympathetic to alt-right and white nationalist causes. On the other hand, he does not want to be too closely associated with them.
That approach is doomed to fail. Unless he actively, vehemently and repeatedly denounces the Richard Spencers of this world, they will continue to use his presidency to promote their odious agenda. And, as that plays out, the many groups that naturally take offense in their behavior will blame Trump for giving safe space to groups previously confined to the darkest corners of American politics.