Far-Right Internet Groups Listen for Trump’s Approval, and Often Hear It

While President Trump and his allies launched a campaign based on fear of convincing Republican voters to go to the polls, far-right communities analyzed their statements for clues.

Minutes after President Trump issued an inflammatory election campaign accusing Democrats of flooding the country with deadly immigrant smugglers, virulent racists gathered on an online forum.

"I love, we should make videos like this," said one of them. Another group endorsed the announcement with "With Open Doors", a 2015 viral video on the dangers of European immigration, hailed by prominent neo-Nazis and white nationalists, and widely condemned by anti-hate groups .

These publications, which appeared on the 4chan Policy Forum, an online discussion forum known for hosting speech images and extreme graphics, are not once. In recent weeks, as Trump and his allies launched a fear-based campaign to bring Republican voters to the polls on Tuesday, far-right Internet communities have been optimistic. He gave oxygen to his opinions. By the Republicans forward.

These activists applauded when Trump suggested that Jewish billionaire George Soros secretly fund a caravan of Latin American migrants, referring to a theory of anti-Semitic conspiracy advocated for years by neo-Nazis and white nationalists. . They shouted their approval when Mr. Trump began to fear violent and angry leftist mobs, another figure on the right. And they found traces of their ideas in Mr. Trump's rhetoric, including his concern over an obscure land rights dispute involving white farmers in South Africa and his references to migrants seeking asylum as refugees. "invaders".

George Soros, a multimillion-dollar Democratic fundraiser, has done badly in some right-wing circles. Now, conspiracy theories about him have spread to almost every corner of the Republican Party.

"Most of these plots are not new to us," said Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League Anti-Extremism Center. "I have seen white supremacists and extremists talk about these anti-Semitic and racist ideas for years, but it was still around, now you do not know where the general public starts and where the band ends."

Since the 2016 elections, these far-right communities have begun a kind of imagined dialogue with the president. They create and distribute slogans and graphics, and celebrate their appearance in Trump news or weeks on Twitter. They dissect their statements carefully, seeking indications of their influence. And when they find these clues, they take them as evidence that Mr. Trump is "/ ourguy /", a label for people that Internet extremists believe they share their opinions, but can not say directly in public.

"There is a feedback loop between Donald Trump's Twitter feed and far-right movements," said Sophie Bjork-James, assistant professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, who has studied extremism. far right. "Everyone does not support Trump, but his language gives them ideas that then circulate online in the extremist spaces of social networks."

The White House press office did not respond to several requests for comment.

Right-wing extremists, a general category for a disordered constellation of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, crypto-fascists, nihilists and trolls in search of attention, vary considerably in terms of style and ideology. Some gather outside, on forums such as 4chan and Reddit, as well as on public platforms such as Gab, the Twitter-like social network used by the suspect during the Pittsburgh synagogue fire. Others communicate on private channels on Discord, on an online chat platform, or on encrypted email applications such as Telegram or Wire. Some are strong supporters of Mr. Trump, while others oppose him because he is not extreme enough.

What they have in common is a sense of empowerment, the feeling that the limits of acceptable discourse are widening in the Trump era and the suspicion that Mr. Trump, or those who have access to him, can listen when they speak.

Even small sentences can trigger speculation. Last month, when Mr. Trump posted an unfounded accusation on Twitter that leftist protesters outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings were "paid by Soros and others," some extremists interpreted this as evidence that the President shared his opinion. a plot led by Jews from around the world led by Mr. Soros, a major donor of many liberal causes.

"Trump officially named the Jew," wrote a user on 4chan. "Trump knows it," wrote another, who said the "others" Trump was referring to in his tweet could be a sneaky reference to other obscure Jewish benefactors.

The sense of influence of these extremists is almost certainly exaggerated. Mr. Trump, who has Jewish parents, including his daughter, said nothing about Mr. Soros' religion or a larger Jewish conspiracy. And it is unlikely that the president, who said he does not use a computer, will find his way through obscure bulletin boards looking for talking points.

But that did not stop these extremists from interpreting his words as a sign that the president shares his views.

It is difficult to quantify the number of right-wing extremists in the United States, many operate online anonymously or pseudonymously, and there are few real-world meetings. But some private channels for neo-Nazis and other extremist groups have thousands of members and other spaces to the right of the center, such as a pro-Trump Reddit forum, r / the_donald, which has more than 600,000 members, have amplified the messages.

Last month, r / the_donald users promoted a slogan: "Jobs, not monsters". They said that this phrase, which has historical roots in right wing fears of violent anti-fascist protest groups, would be a good final argument for Republicans. in the mid-year elections this year.

"Jobs not mobs" seems to have taken off with the help of Scott Adams, the designer of "Dilbert" and a so-called popular communication guru among the pro-Trump Internet crowd. Adams said on Twitter that this sentence would probably be convincing for voters, because it rhymed, and it "sticks to the brain, as well as the framing and contrast."

Then, the slogan became an image meme, a split-screen photo showing the factory workers in contrast to angry protesters. She was posted on the r / the_donald forum, where she received rave reviews from thousands of members. From there, he was extended to prominent conservative commentators on Twitter and Fox News, who used it to raise fears of leftist mafia violence. And on October 18, six days after #jobsnotmobs appeared in a forum on Reddit's right, Mr. Trump tweeted it.

Since then, this phrase has become a Republican mantra. He played a prominent role in campaign ads, was grafted on t-shirts and legions of images on the Internet and was sung by crowds at rallies of Republican candidates.

Mr. Trump may not consciously encourage these efforts. But experts in online extremism say their reluctance to suppress the radical elements of their base, which is perhaps best explained by the treatment of white nationalists by wearing white gloves after the murderer "Unite the Right" to Charlottesville in Virginia last year. This created an opening for spreading more extreme ideas.

Joan Donovan, researcher at the Data & Society think tank that studies right-wing extremism online, said that the right-hander angles of the Internet often serve as an ad hoc ground for political messages that shift marginal ideas to the Internet. main stream.

"They are conquering online, in YouTube videos, in articles, through influential people, and they are gradually divorcing their politicized roots," said Donovan.

Donovan cited the example of Lauren Southern, a right-wing YouTube personality, who has successfully led a campaign to get the thread out of an exaggerated story about the land grabbed by white farmers in South Africa. This story, which has long been a story of white nationalists, has been used to foment an imminent "white genocide" in the hands of black South Africans.

Ms. Southern campaigned to put the story in the right-wing media in the United States, personally speaking to key figures in the conservative media. Finally, Tucker Carlson, the Fox News commentator, covered the story in one segment, and Mr. Trump tweeted the question, mentioning Carlson and Fox News in the tweet.

The President's appearance of the question of white farmers did not escape the opinion of the extreme right. In an episode of White Rabbit Radio, a podcast promoting extremist views, an anonymous commentator said Trump's remarks legitimized a dark and obscure problem for white nationalists.

"It was the province of Stormfront five or ten years ago," said the commentator, referring to a neo-Nazi Internet forum. "Now it's the general public."

The ability of online extremists to push, adapt and amplify political messages has made them a powerful force in the age of Internet politics, as candidates and elected officials seek what is popular online to shape your own messages.

"I do not think Trump sets the agenda here," Donovan said. "He's surfing on a wave of attention that's mostly online and going online." I would not have the opportunity to launch these policies if there was not a quorum of people online who were preparing to back it up and spread those ideas across multiple platforms. "

Even when Trump denounces extremism, many of his online supporters see it as an unfortunate concession, rather than the expression of their true convictions. Last weekend, when Trump spoke of the dangers of anti-Semitism after mass shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, Internet fans ensured that Trump was always on his side.

"He has to do the rotation halfway," wrote a poster on 4chan.

"He really plays chess 5D," wrote another.

Of course, not all online activists aim to shape Mr. Trump's thinking on hot topics. For some, the only price is being noticed.

After Mr. Trump tweeted the same "jobs, not mafias", the creator of the image: a Reddit user who uses the online pen "Bryan Machiavelli" and who refused to be interviewed unless the New York Times does not pay you $ 200 an hour. for your "memetic war consultation" services - he wrote on Reddit that the president's attention was his own reward.

"I'm so excited to have achieved a goal I set for myself two years ago," he wrote, "that the president retweets a message I wrote."