[Believers Create Their Own Deceivers] How Trump Emboldened Racists in Charlottesville

From [MediaMatters] White supremacists have been engaging in violent and racist protests this weekend in Charlottesville, VA. President Donald Trump responded to the violence by issuing generic condemnations of problems "on many sides" and declining to specifically call out white supremacists. Trump's response fits a pattern: He has repeatedly enabled and emboldened the white nationalist movement and its racist media figures throughout his political rise.

White supremacists and “alt right” figures have been gathering in Charlottesville for a “Unite the Right” rally “to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.” The rally features white nationalist media figures such as Richard Spencer and Mike Enoch and was organized by racist writer Jason Kessler, who has written for The Daily Caller.

Former KKK leader David Duke, who is attending the protest, said today that the Charlottesville protests are an indication that “we are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in, that’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”

Media Matters has documented how Trump has engaged in a disturbing courtship with the racist white nationalist movement and its media figures:

White nationalist leaders are supporting Trump and see him as their “last stand.”

White nationalists praised Trump and his actions throughout the presidential campaign.

Trump and his campaign had disturbing interactions with white nationalists.

White nationalists have said Trump has helped them grow their movement.

Since Trump was elected in November, white nationalists have cheered the president’s rhetoric and the administration’s moves on appointing Stephen Bannon to a senior position; making Jeff Sessions the attorney general; attempting to ban people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States; and many others. They have also praised White House adviser Stephen Miller for his anti-immigrant rhetoric and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer for his April comments about the Holocaust.  

Trump today tweeted of Charlottesville: [MORE]