Donald J. Trump is the de facto Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
A strong assertion requires strong proof. That proof is readily available.
Donald’s father, Fred, was arrested at a rally of the Ku Klux Klan in Queens, New York in 1927. His father, with Donald’s assistance, ran a real estate empire that denied rentals to Black Americans. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Donald J. Trump promoted his racist world view with wild claims that Barack Obama was not born in America. Throughout Obama’s presidency, Trump was on a soapbox that attempted to de-legitimize Obama’s presidency.
Throughout Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and presidency, White Supremacist groups celebrated his racial and immigrant policies, and raised money using his image. David Duke, the former titular Grand Wizard of the Klan, suggested that Trump stole his ideas on immigration, and referred to him as the “Great White Hope.”
A variety of White Supremacist groups in the U.S., and around the world, look to Trump as their leader.
In March 2019, the killer of 52 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, hailed Trump in his White Supremacist manifesto. Later that year, the depraved shooter in El Paso, Texas, who targeted and killed 23 Latinos, drew inspiration from the Christchurch shooter and Donald J. Trump.
Donald J. Trump is the de facto Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
During his presidency, he accomplished everything we would expect of the Grand Dragon of the KKK: He banned all Muslims from traveling into the U.S. (creating havoc at airports); he built a Wall to prevent immigration from the Southern border. He separated immigrant children from their parents with no plan for reunification.
He reiterated the most cogent talking point of White Supremacists and the KKK: the idea that Blacks are intellectually inferior to Whites. He labeled, as “low IQ,” Maxine Waters, LeBron James and Don Lemon, among others.
By the actions of his followers, we can proclaim that Donald J. Trump is the leader of the 3 percenters, Proud Boys, and every other White Supremacist group in the U.S. and beyond.
The rabid racism of the Ku Klux Klan is not a radical fringe, it is mainstream. Our task, as Black Psychologists, is to dismantle White Supremacy. That task, due to the messianic appeal of Donald J. Trump, has become a much bigger mountain to climb.
But White Supremacy is not limited to the U.S. The recent funeral celebration of Queen Elizabeth II is a grim reminder of the worldwide potency of White Supremacy. The idea of the Royal Family is White Supremacy within White Supremacy. Leaders worldwide came to celebrate Her Majesty, and the major news media were hijacked for days at a cost of billions of dollars.
Our task, as Black Psychologists, is the illumination and liberation of the African spirit. Identifying and debunking the scope of White Supremacy is a necessary step in that direction.