David Duke is biding his time before he announces his all-important endorsement in the 2016 election.
Contrary to previous reports, the former Ku Klux Klan leader was adamant in a conversation with The Daily Beast that he has yet to throw his support behind Donald Trump for president, despite calling the billionaire “the best of the lot” on his radio program.
Duke, who first asked whether I was Jewish to assess my level of objectivity before answering my questions, said he thinks Trump’s vow to address the cause of illegal immigration is vital to the country’s survival but wonders whether he is trustworthy, especially given his support of Israel.
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“I’m not endorsing Donald Trump,” Duke said. “I believe that the discussion on the immigration issue is a legitimate discussion. It’s a good thing.”
The white supremacist also questioned the legitimacy of Jorge Ramos after Trump threw the Univision anchor out of a press conference Tuesday in Iowa.
“I have not endorsed [Trump] either informally or formally, but I do endorse the conversation,” Duke added. “And I appreciate the fact that these issues are being raised.”
“Those issues” include a plan to deport all undocumented immigrants when Trump reaches the White House.
It’s difficult to keep Duke, who prefers to be called Dr. Duke on his website, on topic as he veers in and out of connecting the dots in a convoluted web that all leads back to the overpowering Zionist Jewish influence in media and government. It is ridiculous, he said, that he is referred to as a former Ku Klux Klan member while Nelson Mandela isn’t labeled a former member of the Communist Party. But mostly Duke takes issue with everyone who is not a European American infringing on the lives of European Americans.
“There is a replacement of the American elite from the people who have founded America and now it’s a Jewish elite,” Duke said. “And it’s pretty ironic that you think about this Jewish elite and they’re only 2 percent of the United States of America. There’s something wrong with this picture. That’s not diversity.”
And Duke is not certain that a President Trump would do anything to alleviate the situation.
“Trump has made it very clear that he’s 1,000 percent dedicated to Israel, so how much is left over for America?” Duke asked.
The candidate’s daughter Ivanka Trump has publicly discussed her conversion to Judaism before her marriage, and her father has been billed as the most Israel-friendly GOP candidate in this election. All this makes Trump a little too untrustworthy for Duke to come out swinging on his behalf.
“This is the reason why I have not endorsed Donald Trump, because I really have to evaluate these things,” Duke said. “But I really think the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are completely under the sway of the Zionists who are ultimately damaging America and damaging the world.”
The one thing that gives Duke any sort of hope about Trump is his firm stance on deporting all undocumented immigrants, whose presence in the United States Duke calls an “invasion.”
“He’s enduring obviously a lot of criticism,” Duke said. “It’s nothing like the criticism I got when I ran for office, but I think he’s enduring criticism because he’s—kind of, with this rhetoric—talking about America and the traditions of America and the heritage of America. You can see the composition of so many of his rallies and who they are. They are really the European American people, the non-Jewish European American people that are waking up. And I think that the Jewish elite in America fear this.
“They’re worried about Trump because there’s this big sleeping tiger which is the mass majority of European Americans. They’re afraid that they’re going to start realizing that they have a common interest, just like Jews have a common interest.”
Duke didn’t say whether he thinks the planned “Trump Wall” is practical, but he’s waiting to see if the real estate magnate will practice what he preaches.
“I don’t know if he will do any of these things,” Duke said. “I don’t know if he’s trustworthy. He’s definitely a good businessman. The American people want control over our borders. They also know that immigration is a fundamental threat to the traditional values of the United States of America and the economic interests of the American people.”
Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday evening that he “wouldn’t want” Duke’s endorsement and that he would repudiate it “if that would make you feel better.”
“I don’t need anyone’s endorsement,” he said.
