It feels bizarre, this far rightwing secret love affair with what sure seems to be racism. Ever since Trump's political rise, it seems that incidents of hate crimes and racism and xenophobia more generally keep spiking up. They deny it, time and time again. You'll keep hearing them suggest that there really is nothing going on, that these fears or criticisms are overblown.
Except that then, more often then not, there are very alarming signs that racism does seem to come into play.
Yet, they insist that there is nothing to see here.
So what if the first black president was vehemently criticized by the right for, among other things, wearing a tan suit and supposedly not having released his birth certificate, something which was never questioned by any president before. And never mind that some conservative Republicans made headlines by comparing Michele Obama to a primate.
Also, never mind that Trump's comments about Mexican being rapists and criminals sounds racist, or that his singling out Muslims for a travel ban seems xenophobic, not to mention unconstitutional. No, it was not weird or racist at all that Trump would publicly point out his "African-American" supporter in attendance at Trump rallies in 2016. It's just a coincidence that we went from the first black president to one who received enthusiastic support from David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacists, or white nationalists, as they seem to be known as now. They claimed that Trump's seeming struggle to criticize neo-Nazis and white supremacists after Charlotteville did not make him a racist, nor his dismissing millions of people in Africa and Central America as "shithole nations," while actively desiring tourists from countries like Norway. Let's also not make too much of the fact that the Trump 2020 campaign briefly posted a video of a supporter yelling "White Power!" before quickly taking the video down hours later during the campaign.
None of that stuff during Trump's first four years necessarily suggests some measure of racism, right?
Surely not. Heaven forbid!
It's outrageous that anyone would even suggest such a thing!
Then in 2024, with Trump on his way to the White House once again, we saw more bizarre incidents that were quickly and conveniently swept under the rug by the right. In 2023, Trump claimed that immigrants were polluting the blood of America, something which sounded eerily like what Nazis said and believed. Trump accused immigrants of eating dogs and cats during one of the debates. Tucker Carlson claimed that Kamala Harris was "low IQ" and seemed to poke fun at her mixed race identity. Steve Miller emphasized that "America is for Americans," a sentiment that might sound like it is painting those people whom white nationalists refer to as outsiders as not real Americans (I wonder how Native Americans responded to such a sentiment).
But all of these were explained away. Isolating these instances and claiming that anyone who saw a pattern of racism here were delusional or deliberately trying to stir up trouble.
Since Trump took office, there have of course been still more such bizarre incidents which, once again, supporters of Trump will quickly claim are not racist at all. Of course Elon Musk was not giving a fascist, straight-arm salute. No, the Supreme Court ruling that racial profiling is not illegal is not an example of racism.
Now, we see his supporters always growing ever bolder with what appears to be overt racism.
Yet still, they explain it away. Alex Jones, the voice of the on-air rightwing lunatic asylum on the radio, recently sported a Hitler mustache and bragged about women being irresistibly attracted to his Germanic features. Yes, the same guy who just lost his appeal of a lawsuit which he lost when claiming that the Sandy Hook school shooting was fake. He insists that there is nothing wrong at all with any of this, and his supporters agree.
In recent days, there have been still more news headlines made which sure seem to suggest the presence of serious racism on the right. Leaders of the Young Republicans had their pretty blatantly racist group chat exposed to the world. Here's a snippet from an article by Sarah Fortinsky from a The Hill article published yesterday (see link below):
“I love Hitler,” Giunta reportedly said in one of the exposed text messages, in an exchange about appealing to delegates as the “most right wing person.” He also made comments about sending opponents to the “gas chamber” if they don’t support his nomination for chair of the Young Republican National Federation, Politico reported.
How much do you want to bet that this, too, will be explained away. Just some isolated incident. Perhaps young people just joking around or something, right?
Again, nothing to see here will be the message.
Now here's yet another story coming out and making headlines. There was an American flag altered so that the stripes were made into the shape of a swastika on prominent display in the office of a Republican representative in Washington. Evidently, it was a young staff member of House member Dave Taylor of Ohio.
There have been other incidents like this, too, which surely are slipping my mind at the moment. But the end result is always the same.
Don't fixate on it. Keep moving. Nothing to see here.
Except that these things keep happening, more and more often. And it sure feels creepy. Almost like all of this is indeed proof that maybe all of the people criticizing the growing threat of racism in this country actually might have been onto something.
Here's what I know: none of this would have been considered remotely acceptable, much less become the norm, before the political rise of Donald Trump.
Let's be clear: there's a reason for that. Until we stop allowing those who seem to support it to get away with dismissing these things, they are sure to continue to happen.
Below are the links to the articles which I used in writing this particular blog entry, and from which I obtained the quote and some of the specific information used in the same:
Who are the Young Republicans in explosive group chat? by Sarah Fortinsky - 10/15/25
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5556867-young-republican-scandal-politico-who-involved/
US Capitol police investigating flag with swastika in Republican representative’s office – report Authorities reportedly looking into modified flag displayed on cubicle wall of House member Dave Taylor’s staff Marina Dunbar Wed 15 Oct 2025 17.16 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/capitol-us-flag-swastika-republican-dave-taylor
5 Times Republicans Called Michelle Obama A Primate Mary Pascaline Updated Tue, November 15, 2016 at 5:24 AM EST
https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-times-republicans-called-michelle-102442092.html
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