Trump's campaign has been taking cash from neo-Nazi and white supremacist leaders

During the 2016 campaign, you may recall, there was often a notable press reluctance to acknowledge that many of Donald Trump's supporters were raging white supremacists. (The most infamous case was a PBS story profiling a Trump volunteer worker that somehow managed to avoid noting the prominent neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbols tattooed on both hands.)

Ah, the old days, when such things were even controversial. Welcome to 2020, when Donald Trump is getting campaign donations from prominent neo-Nazis and there's apparently not even a glimmer of thought that gosh, maybe Typhoid Hitler might not want to cash those particular checks.

At Popular Information, Judd Legum investigates some of the notorious white supremacists who have donated to Trump's campaign. Actual Neo-Nazi leader Morris Gulett, who believes "the Jew is the literal child of Satan," has given Trump at least $2,000. (Legum notes that Trump's campaign was asked about Gulett's donations over two years ago, but refused and refuses to respond.)

Other Trump campaign supporters include K.C. McAlpin, crackpot Peter Zieve, and (of course) rich racist Republican-backer Timothy Mellon, who's shoved $10 million at Trump's super PAC and $30 million towards getting Trump's enablers in the House and Senate reelected.

There's no chance Trump's campaign will be returning the money, of course. For starters, Donald Trump is a cheap, crooked man who goes to great lengths to avoid parting with cash. For seconders, the campaign needs the money, and if Trump's campaign of white nationalists backed down and returned money from known neo-Nazis there's no telling just how much money they'd end up having to give back. And for thirdsies, this isn't 2016. Trump's campaign isn't trying to hide their white nationalist ties. Trump himself isn't trying to hide his constant white nationalist incitements.

Trump's new "law and order" campaign theme, hastily plastered on top of the administration's massive and ongoing pandemic failures, has brought his support for white nationalism and its violence front and center. Trump's racist response to calls for police reform are now his campaign's primary message.

If anything, it's likely that Trump's embrace of prominent neo-Nazi leaders will not stop at taking their money this time around. Trump and his son Junior have been bolder in retweeting white nationalist and eliminationist themes. Trump's Fox News allies, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, have been steadily ratcheting up their defenses of vigilante violence on Trump's behalf. We may yet see Trump standing on stage with one of these militia-uniformed goons before the campaign is out.

White supremacy groups are hoping to leverage George Floyd's death into their longed-for 'race war'

The protests that have spread across the nation in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have attracted a diverse group of supporters that go beyond local Black communities and national organizations. At events in Washington, New York, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, community activists have been joined by allies, by groups supporting Latinos, Indian groups, and even groups of Mennonite farmers speaking out in support and showing up for protests.

But, with dozens of buildings burned and Donald Trump preparing to bring in the military, there’s a growing sense that the violence in many cases isn’t originating from within the local Black community. In multiple instances, there have been incidents that seemed to spring up on the periphery of peaceful protests, leading to violent confrontations and property destruction. And increasingly, there are reports that these events are not originating organically from the protests or from confrontations between protesters and the police. There is a very real feeling that white supremacists are using this moment to create incidents designed to justify still more violence and suppression.

With dozens of protests across the nation, not every event is the same. For example, it’s not hard to see what sparked this incident Atlanta, where a police officer slams a bicycle into a Black woman for having the audacity to wave a finger at him while saying “Don’t touch me.” It’s clear that the violence in this particular moment originated direct from the police.

But in some of the most publicized incidents across the nation, there seem to be a singular nature to some of those involved, as in this recording in which what appears to be a young white man in camo pants and military boots paints graffiti on a federal building.

Report: Russian intelligence services may be sponsoring neo-Nazi paramilitaries in the U.S.

David Neiwert Daily Kos

We’ve known for some time that Russia’s authoritarian regime has played a key role in spreading far-right white-nationalist ideology around the globe. We’ve also known for some time that Russian intelligence interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, mainly through disinformation campaigns.

The inevitable next step is apparently here: American intelligence officials, according to The New York Times, now believe that neo-Nazi paramilitary operations such as The Base and its Northwest-based training operations, used to plan and train for terrorist acts in the United States, including possibly during the coming election season, are being underwritten and overseen by Russian intelligence services.

The Times’ report cites seven unnamed intelligence officials who briefed the paper’s reporters on Russia’s updated tactics in interfering with the 2020 election. One of the new tactics appears to involve activating neo-Nazi terrorists, radicalized online and organized through the internet.

The FBI is currently investigating Russian intelligence ties to The Base, which began operating a paramilitary training camp in eastern Washington state last year. Several members of The Base were arrested in January just prior to a planned right-wing gun rally in Richmond, Virginia, where they reportedly intended to wreak violent havoc.

The Guardian revealed in January that the founder of The Base was a man named Rinaldo Nazzaro, originally from New Jersey, who now makes his home in Russia and appears to have at least peripheral connections to Russian intelligence. From there, he’s been able to organize The Base under the nom de plume “Norman Spear,” though he has apparently made several trips to the U.S. to secure the rural Washington property.

From a foreign-intelligence perspective, these kinds of operations are primarily intended to sow chaos and fear—to which a common human response is to embrace authoritarianism and its surety. Such responses become acute in the event of real terrorist violence.

“One of Russia’s goals is weakening institutions and the weaponization of race is a way they can do that,” Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, told the Times. “A divided America is a weaker America. When we are unable to solve our challenges together, Russia is more able to flex its power around the world.”

Russian intelligence operatives have been forced to adapt their tactics because social media companies are now on the lookout for the ad-fueled disinformation efforts that cropped up in 2016, according to the report. Instead, they’re now manipulating spaces that are more difficult to monitor and to mask their operations, including message boards like 4chan, private Facebook groups, and closed chat rooms.

The story cites FBI agent David Porter’s remarks at a recent election security conference: “We see Russia is willing to conduct more brazen and disruptive influence operations because of how it perceives its conflict with the West … To put it simply, in this space, Russia wants to watch us tear ourselves apart.”

American Hate Group Looks to Make Allies in Europe

Trips to Ukraine. Mixed martial arts events with a white supremacy flavor. California’s Rise Above Movement goes on the road.

by Ali Winston and A.C. Thompson

Pro Publica

Robert Rundo, a leader of the violent white supremacist group known as the Rise Above Movement, pounded the man, hitting him with a series of thudding punches — left, right, left Before traveling to Ukraine, Rundo and another RAM member, Robert Smithson, visited the German town of Ostritz to compete in a mixed martial tournament at the Shield and Sword festival, a white power convergence held on Hitler’s birthday. Attracting roughly 1,000 fascists from across the continent, the gathering was arranged by Germany’s National Democratic Party, the closest thing the country has to an openly Nazi political party. The mixed martial arts tournament held that weekend, Kampf der Nibelungen, is the largest white power combat sports event in Europe, according to researchers monitoring European extremists.— that sent his foe staggering backwards.

But this wasn’t a street brawl captured on video: It was a boxing match — complete with 12-ounce gloves, a referee, and scantily attired ring girls — and it was promoted by a white supremacist fight club in Ukraine. The event was held inside a bunker-like building in Kiev, with fighters competing inside a cage of the sort familiar to mixed martial arts fans in America.

With the skinhead subculture fading, neo-Nazi organizers in Europe have turned to promoting boxing and mixed martial arts bouts with the aim of pulling in new recruits.

Rundo’s fight in Ukraine occurred this spring, as he and two other RAM members toured Europe. In Kiev, Rundo and other RAM members hung out with Denis Nikitin, a burly Russian soccer hooligan who has become one of the most successful fight promoters in ultra-nationalist circles.

On social media the group posted video and photos from the event, which was held in May. Based in Southern California, RAM’s members were involved in political violence last year in Charlottesville and other American cities. The group says it wants to revive the “warrior spirit” of the white male, and its videos of fight-training, weight-lifting and street melees have proven popular on social media.

Observers of the far-right in Europe are concerned about the infiltration of neo-Nazis into the boxing and MMA scenes — and they’re particularly worried about Nikitin.

“He is seen as dangerous by those who monitor the far right” due to his “outright neo-Nazi ideology — preaching racial war and the need to ‘reconquer’ the ‘living space’ of the white man in Europe,” said Pavel Klymenko, a Ukrainian researcher with the FARE Network who tracks soccer hooligans.

According to Klymenko, Nikitin has taught knife-fighting techniques and hand-to-hand combat skills to extremist groups in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. In recent years he has launched a successful streetwear company called White Rex — one T-shirt design features an iron cross, an emblem used by the Nazis, and the words “YOU MUST MURDER,” while another depicts the logo of the Spanish fascist party, or Falange.

Nikitin has repackaged older white supremacist ideas for a new generation, rebranding them as “nationalist concepts,” said Karim Zidan, an independent journalist who writes on the intersection of sports and politics. “Nikitin is a massive figure in both MMA and football hooliganism. In a way, he’s weaponized both sports for his cause,” Zidan told ProPublica and Frontline.

At the Southern Poverty Law Center, Keegan Hankes, an analyst who follows RAM, said the group’s trip to Europe “signals that they aren’t just hobbyists. It’s gives them credibility” within the U.S. white power movement.

Social media postings show Rundo acquired several new tattoos on RAM’s European excursion, including an “8” on each shoulder (88 is the white supremacist code for “Heil Hitler”) and the White Rex logo (a Viking warrior) on his right shin with the word “fanatic” emblazoned below.

RAM has also begun importing White Rex T-shirts and selling its own garments as a means of funding the group. The Southern California organization operates an online store, Right Brand Clothing, which carries items from Nikitin’s clothing line as well as other brands like Svastone.

Nikitin refused to comment when contacted by ProPublica and Frontline, saying via email, “There will be no contact or information exchange with you. Just sit quietly and see us rise.”

Charlottesville: one dead after car rams counter-protesters at far-right gathering (Video)

Nineteen injured at site of planned ‘Unite the Right’ event as Trump condemns ‘violence on many sides’ and Virginia governor declares emergency


Jason Wilson in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Edward Helmore

A car rammed into a group of people peacefully protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 19.

Donald Trump condemned the “violence on many sides” in the city and the state’s governor has declared a state of emergency.

Witnesses said those hit by the car were people peacefully protesting the planned white supremacist rally and footage showed the vehicle crashing into another car, throwing people over the top of it.

The driver was later arrested, authorities said.

William Johnson: Too extreme for skinheads

Americans from many backgrounds call Los Angeles home. It is this diverse social fabric that makes the city unique. Nevertheless, this is probably not the city where many would expect to find the residence of a prominent white supremacist. Yet this is where, deep in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the law office of William Johnson, leader of the far-right American Freedom Party is located.

Johnson prefers to be called a "white nationalist" rather than a "white supremacist", and wants white people to separate from other Americans of "non-European" heritage. In the 1980s, he even proposed legislation to revoke the citizenship of non-white Americans.