The Trump camp is facing backlash for what critics say are increasingly fascist overtones at the Republican candidate’s events.
Examining footage from a Trump rally in Saginaw, Michigan on Oct. 4, USA Today reports that almost a dozen GOP supporters were seen holding up placards emblazoned with the slogan “Reclaim America.”
The wording is well-known in certain circles for its associations with Patriot Front, a Texan neo-Nazi organization currently facing at least two high-profile lawsuits for attacks on Black U.S. citizens.
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The group has reportedly since posted on Telegram announcing the Trump camp had “adopted” the phrase, while also somewhat paradoxically noting “it remains unclear whether the Trump campaign is aware of this connection.”
While the Republican Party has not yet commented on the placards, it comes amid a slew of other incidents in which their candidate appears to have increasingly courted white supremacist supporters.
His campaign recently announced it would be holding a rally on Oct. 27, nine days before the presidential vote is due to be held, at Madison Square Garden–a venue notorious for having once hosted more than 20,000 pro-Hitler demonstrators on the eve of the Second World War.
“Let’s be clear. Allowing Trump to hold an event at MSG is equivalent to the infamous Nazis rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939,” New York Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal posted on X in response to the announcement.
The comparison was swiftly slammed as “disgusting” by his Republican counterpart, Rob Ortt, but Hoylman-Sigal nevertheless stood by his remarks, saying “I’m not calling anyone a Nazi” and that he was only “pointing out a historic similarity.”
“I was talking about the venue and many of his followers who are white supremacists and have demonstrated hatred and vitriol toward minority groups, including jews, people of color and the LGBTQ community,” he added.
The furore over the Trump campaign’s choice of venue also followed after their candidate prompted widespread outcry on Oct. 7 for his comments suggesting undocumented migrants are genetically predisposed toward murder and other types of violent crime.
