Trump Campaign Accepts Donations From White Nationalist Leaders

Self-Described “Racist” Trump Donor: “Jews Have To Leave America”

The campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump accepted donations from Michael Polignano and Peter Brimelow, white nationalists who both manage virulently racist publications.

Polignano is the managing editor and webmaster for Counter-Currents, a website and publishing company that publishes white nationalist and pro-Hitler material. Polignano describes himself as a “racist” (“a badge of honor”) and has written that “Jews have to leave America” because they are a “major cause” of America’s problems; claimed there’s been “more than a century of lies about the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more than half a century of lies about the Third Reich and World War II”; claimed blacks are inferior to whites; and cited David Duke as an inspiration for his work.

Brimelow is the editor of VDare.com, a white nationalist and anti-immigrant website. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that he is “one of the leading voices in the anti-immigrant movement” and his site “publishes works by white supremacists, anti-Semites, and others on the radical right.”

Members of the “alt-right” and white nationalist movement have been heavily supporting Trump’s campaign. Trump and his campaign have engaged in a courtship with white nationalists that includes appearing on white nationalist programs, refusing to denounce them, and retweeting their accounts. Trump running mate Mike Pence recently refused to call former Klan leader David Duke “deplorable” -- a move that brought praise from white nationalists.

Polignano has donated a total of $214.12 this election cycle to Trump’s presidential campaign, according to Trump’s Federal Election Commission filing. Polignano’s ties to the white nationalist Counter-Currents are readily apparent -- Trump’s FEC report listed Polignano’s employer as “Counter-Currents Publishing” and his occupation as “managing editor” and “webmaster.”

Polignano wrote on his personal Facebook page in May that he’s “visiting Trump Tower again on Monday to purchase more Make America Great Again hats” and offered to buy the hats for his “European comrades” who could not legally purchase them because “the hats qualify as a campaign contribution”:

The Trump campaign transferred $4.80 Brimelow had donated to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee -- the joint fundraising group between the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign -- to its campaign coffers in July.

Joint fundraising committees agree to split the proceeds of donations; in other words, the $4.80 the Trump campaign received is possibly only a portion of what Brimelow donated overall. (It’s not immediately clear how much Brimelow donated, as the joint RNC-Trump committee’s quarterly deadline filing is next month.)

Brimelow is listed as being a “journalist” with News Corp. in the required FEC disclosure information. Brimelow previously worked for the News Corp.-owned financial site MarketWatch. Brimelow did not respond to email requests for comment about his donation or clarification about why he listed News Corp. as his employer.

The Trump campaign accepted a $250 donation in September from white nationalist leader William Daniel Johnson and returned it after Media Matters and People for the American Way criticized Trump. Johnson was also selected as a convention delegate by the Trump campaign but resigned following media exposure.

“Racist” Editor Michael Polignano: “Jews Have To Leave America,” “More Than Half A Century Of Lies About The Third Reich”

The Washington Post reported in March 2015 that Counter-Currents “exists to advance the books of noted neo-Nazis and the creation of an all-white nationalist state.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, wrote that Counter-Currents is a “pseudo-intellectual white nationalist website and publishing house that caters to ‘academic racists.’”

Polignano wrote in his 2010 book Taking Our Own Side that “high testosterone production also means that Black men are more prone to aggressive behavior” and “Compared to Whites, Blacks also have lower IQs and levels of empathy, weaker senses of personal efficacy and responsibility, greater propensities to sociopathy and psychosis, fewer behavioral inhibitions, greater impulsiveness, higher sexual activity and lower parental investment, etc.”

In 2003, Polignano first proposed creating “a White People’s Party,” which “would have a single goal: to protect and advance the interests of Whites in today’s multicultural, anti-White America. … The White People’s Party would not accept the membership or support of Jews and non-Whites. We would not work for their interests, and we could not expect them to sincerely work for ours.”

He wrote that he is happy to be called a racist and does “not regard this as a smear, but as a badge of honor” (emphasis in original):

“You’ll be smeared as racists.”

Of course we will. We are racists. But we do not regard this as a smear, but as a badge of honor. Race is real. Different races are genetically capable of different ways of life, just as different breeds of dog are genetically capable of different ways of life. American civilization cannot be maintained by replacing Whites with non-Whites anymore than poodles can replace sheepdogs and chihuahuas can replace sled dogs. Racism is an objective and enlightened viewpoint, and we will not apologize for it.

Polignano claimed that “Jews have to leave America” because “they are a major cause” of America’s problems:

Any organization that does not explicitly exclude Jews will end up being dominated and subverted by them. No sense letting them put their noses under the tent.

That is why Jews have to leave America. They dominate the leading institutions of our culture: the political parties, the news and entertainment media, the arts, the education system, banking and finance. And they subvert these institutions to pursue Jewish interests at the expense of White interests. They are not the sole cause of America’s problems, but they are a major cause, and there is no way to save this country without first taking them on.

Polignano wants to “end non-White immigration completely, deport all illegal non-White immigrants, and then repatriate all non-White immigrants who have arrived since 1965, as well as their descendants.” He also wants to “make sterilization, birth control, and abortion available to non-Whites free of charge” and “ensure the freedom of Whites to own guns while restricting the freedom of non-Whites.”

He also wrote that there’s been “more than half a century of lies about the Third Reich and World War II” and that his proposed “White People’s Party” would accept the support of Nazis and Klansmen:

The party I propose would not be affiliated with any other pro-White group, including National Socialist and Klan groups. We would neither endorse nor condemn such groups, and we would gladly accept their support, as we would gladly accept the support of all pro-White individuals and organizations.

It is hard enough to persuade people that the White race is in danger and that Whites must rally to protect themselves. It would be harder still to combat more than a century of lies about the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more than half a century of lies about the Third Reich and World War II. Fortunately, it is not necessary.

But we’ll still be smeared as Nazis and Klansmen. Our enemies will call us every name in the book. But, unlike conservative and libertarian cowards, we’ll make no special effort to avoid or refute such smears. Such efforts are pointless, because our enemies will not be concerned with justice or accuracy. Besides, those who hesitate to defend ideas merely because they are shared by unfashionable individuals clearly lack courage and conviction.

Our standard response to all attempts to discredit us in the public mind by linking us to Nazis, the KKK, and other demonized groups would be: “To the extent that Nazis and Klansmen support our pro-White agenda, that is to their credit.” We will never apologize for pursuing what is right and good.

Polignano wrote in the preface of his book that one of the high points of his life “was when David Duke invited me to speak at the International European American Unity and Leadership Conference held in New Orleans on Memorial Day weekend, 2004.” Polignano also thanked Duke and other white nationalists for having “helped make these essays and this book possible.”

The Polignano-managed Counter-Currents publishes content that celebrates Hitler and Nazis. It distributes the work of the late William Pierce; The New York Times wrote that Pierce “built an organization of young supporters for George Wallace for president into the nation's largest neo-Nazi group.” Counter-Currents distributes the work of Savitri Devi, who “devoted her life to Nazism” and Holocaust denialism. 

Counter-Currents Editor-in-Chief Greg Johnson is a neo-Nazi. In an essay headlined “The Burden of Hitler, 2014,” he lionized Hitler for having fought “for our race as a whole”:

It is contemptible, because it is essentially an attempt to curry favor with our enemies and pander to ignoramuses and fools by throwing a loyal white man under the bus. And make no mistake: Adolf Hitler, whatever his faults, was a loyal white man who fought and died not just for Germany, but for our race as a whole.

[…]

Jews are promoting conditions that are leading to the genocide of the white race. They are not doing this out of “self-defense” against Hitler’s aggression, since they were doing it when Hitler was just a common soldier in the Great War. Indeed, the truth is that Hitler did whatever he did in self-defense against Jewish aggression — the same Jewish aggression that we are suffering today in a much intensified form.

Peter Brimelow: The White Nationalist Leader Behind Anti-Immigrant Website VDare

The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that Brimelow’s site VDare.com is “an immigrant-bashing hate site that regularly publishes works by white supremacists, anti-Semites, and others on the radical right.” SPLC added that Brimelow is “himself an immigrant (from England), a fact that he regularly brings up when he worriedly notes that his son, with his ‘blue eyes’ and ‘blond hair,’ could grow up in an America in which whites have lost their population majority. For Brimelow, immigration itself is not the problem — it's the influx of non-whites that is destroying America.” From the group’s profile of Brimelow:

A former editor at Forbes magazine and past columnist at the conservative National Review, Peter Brimelow is one of the leading voices in the anti-immigrant movement. Interestingly, he is himself an immigrant (from England), a fact that he regularly brings up when he worriedly notes that his son, with his “blue eyes” and “blond hair,” could grow up in an America in which whites have lost their population majority. For Brimelow, immigration itself is not the problem — it's the influx of non-whites that is destroying America.

Brimelow's racial views about America first gained attention in 1995, when he published Alien Nation, a book that argued that America is historically white-dominated and should stay that way. The book was written in a genial style and was careful to treat black Americans as part of the polity. Although the book was well reviewed in some places, it included strong veins of racism and xenophobia. Brimelow described the role of race as “elemental, absolute, fundamental.” He said that white Americans should demand that U.S. immigration quotas be changed to allow in mostly whites. He argued that spending tax dollars on anything related to multiculturalism was “subversive.” He called foreign immigrants “weird aliens with dubious habits.” At one point, he wrote that if one enters an Immigration and Naturalization Service waiting room, just like walking into a New York City subway, “you find yourself in an underworld that is not just teeming but also almost entirely colored.” By 1997, Brimelow was warning that by 2008 the GOP would no longer be able to compete in presidential elections because the racial makeup of the electorate would be changed by non-white immigration.

Brimelow has repeatedly praised Trump throughout the presidential campaign. He applauded the Trump campaign for hiring Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon, stating that “Breitbart emerged as a nationalist site and [has] done great stuff on immigration in particular.” After Trump attacked an American-born judge for his Mexican heritage, Brimelow wrote: “Diversity is not strength, and it above all is not an impartial judiciary.”

In December, he wrote a fundraising appeal praising Trump for running “on the patriotic immigration reform issue.” Brimelow wrote that VDare has “defended Trump on Hispanic rapists (they are a problem), black-on-white crime (he's right), ending Muslim immigration (it's legal), ending birthright citizenship (it's legal too), etc. etc.”