A White Nationalist Talks about Trump

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Picturephoto credit: Center for Investigative Reporting

So, you say, it’s not that big of a deal that swastikas are now cool in the wake of the Trump victory. I was talking to someone recently who voted for Trump and who was ecstatic that he had won. I related to her the story I posted about the Jewish family who is planning to move to Israel because they’re so terrified of a Trump administration, one reason being that their neighbor down the street hoisted a flag with a swastika on it the day after the election. “But . . . do you really think that Trump thinks that way?” she asked. To which my reply was, “It doesn’t matter.” What matters is that he has surrounded himself with people who do believe that; he has made it safe and acceptable to parade such views. So I did a little poking around to see what someone who is unequivocally in that camp would have to say.

His name is Richard Spencer, and “the 38-year-old white nationalist heads a small organization, called the National Policy Institute, and believes people of different skin color are inherently different, hate each other and should live separately.”  Here’s part of what he had to say:

​I don’t think this was just an unusual election with an unusual candidate. I think this really was a paradigmatic shift. The new paradigm that Donald Trump brought into the world was identity politics and in particular white identity politics. And this, this question which he asked directly: “Are we a nation or are we not?”

And defining his political message not on conservatism. Because, I mean, Trump is not a conservative in the way that self-described ideological conservatives understand that term. He does not – his starting point is not freedom and liberty, his starting point is not tax cuts. His starting point is not an aggressive democracy promotion foreign policy in the Middle East. His starting point is nationalism. Are we a nation? Are we a people or are we not? ​

To be absolutely clear: “nationalism” does not in his context mean “patriotism” or “Americanism.” It means “white nationalism.” It means “white separatism.” It means, in the end. “white supremacy.”

You can listen to the audio of the entire interview or read the entire transcript here:
​“A Frank Conversation with a White Nationalist.”