Shortly after Trump was sworn in, the White House (which, remember, included two neo-Nazi affiliates—Stephen Miller, Seb Gorka—and at least one other white supremacist—Steve Bannon) tried to stop a Department of Homeland Security community-partnership program aimed at deradicalizing white supremacists. They also tried to scuttle the small unit in the FBI that was tracking potential white supremacist threats. The Republican Party has not only ignored the largest threat of terrorism that our country faces (rather, always has faced), but actively worked against efforts to stop white supremacists from recruiting (and the Democrats have caved because they didn’t want to be seen as “too partisan”). So now we have Trump and company, who are clearly (if not openly) in the tank for white supremacy.
Because it continues to not only ignore the threat, but there’s now a president who’s actively covering for it by fabricating blame elsewhere, the Republican Party has definitively embraced being the party of White Terror, whether it wants to accept that or not.
Daryl Johnson, in the Washington Post a year ago:
Eight years ago, I warned of a singular threat — the resurgence of right-wing extremist activity and associated violence in the United States as a result of the 2008 presidential election, the financial crisis and the stock market crash. My intelligence report, meant only for law enforcement, was leaked by conservative media.
A political backlash ensued because of an objection to the label “right-wing extremism.” The report also rightly pointed out that returning military veterans may be targeted for recruitment by extremists. Republican lawmakers demanded then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rescind my report. The American Legion formally requested an apology to veterans. Some in Congress called for me to be fired. Amid the turmoil, my warning went unheeded by Republicans and Democrats. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security caved to the political pressure: Work related to violent right-wing extremism was halted. Law enforcement training also stopped. My unit was disbanded. And, one-by-one, my team of analysts left for other employment. By 2010, there were no intelligence analysts at DHS working domestic terrorism threats.
Since 2008, though, the body count from numerous acts of violent right-wing terrorism continued to rise steadily with very little media interest, political discussion or concern from our national leaders. As this threat grew, government resources were scaled back, law enforcement counterterrorism training was defunded and policies to counter violent extremism narrowed to focus solely on Muslim extremism…