KKK paper tacitly endorses Trump for president

A prominent paper of the Ku Klux Klan endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump for president in its recent Fall edition, publishing on its front page a lengthy defense of the controversial billionaire mogul’s “Make America Great Again” message. The ubiquitous slogan is also the title to the article.

Pastor Thomas Robb, the national director of the Knights of the KKK, wrote in the quarterly paper The Crusader that “while Trump wants to make America great again, we have to ask ourselves, ‘What made America great in the first place?’ The short answer to that is simple. America was great not because of what our forefathers did — but because of who our forefathers were.”

“America was founded as a White Christian Republic. And as a White Christian Republic it became great,” he wrote.

In a statement Tuesday, the Trump campaign said the nominee and his team “denounce[s] hate in any form. This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign.”

The Crusader calls itself “the Political Voice of White Christian America” and the “Premier Voice of the White Resistance,” sporting a well-known White Supremacist symbol on the cover. The 2016 Fall Edition features articles on the imminent danger to the Second Amendment, William Churchill and “terrorist Jews,” Bill Clinton’s supposed illegitimate child and non-White immigration in Europe.

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Robb told the Washington Post Tuesday that he and others in or affiliated with the KKK “like his nationalist views and his words about shutting down the border to illegal aliens.”

He added that the front-page piece was “not an endorsement because, like anybody, there’s things you disagree with. But he kind of reflects what’s happening throughout the world. There seems to be a surge of nationalism worldwide as nationals reclaim their borders.”

From its early days, the Trump campaign has attracted the support of white nationalists and the American Nazi Party, and the so-called “alt-right” political movement has formed a substantial chunk of Trump’s base.

In August, the chairman of the American Nazi party said the Trump candidacy offers a “real opportunity” to build the white nationalist movement.

Earlier this year, former KKK leader David Duke, an avowed racist and anti-Semite, endorsed Trump and publicly urged followers to vote from him in the presidential elections.

Over the past several months, a number of Jewish reporters were targeted with anti-Semitic messages and calls by self-described Trump supporters for being critical of the GOP nominee or his wife Melania, including Julia Ioffe, New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman and Politico reporter Hadas Gold, leading the ADL to appoint a task force on the harassment of journalists.

Earlier this month, the ADL also condemned a rash of anti-Semitic attacks levied against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after he announced his office would open an investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

JTA contributed to this report