Did Trump’s Anti-Hillary Meme Come From a Neo-Nazi Message Thread?
Trump has a history of retweeting posts from the accounts of white supremacists.
On Saturday, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republic nominee for US President, tweeted, “Crooked Hillary - Makes History,” along with a meme that went on to be considered extremely anti-Semitic, with Neo-Nazi origins.
Multiple $100 bills formed the backdrop of the image and the meme featured the Star of David, a Jewish holy symbol, that the Nazis forced Jews who were over six years of age to sew onto their clothing. Emblazoned onto the Star of David in Trump’s meme was: “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”
Amidst uproar and outrage on social media, Trump’s team deleted the tweet and uploaded a different version of the same tweet, with a circle in place of the six-pointed star.
Mic, on Sunday, discovered that the same image had previously featured on /pol/, which is an internet message board for the alt-right, a digital movement of Neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and white supremacists, who have just been emboldened by the success of Trump’s rhetoric. The file name of the meme was HillHillary.jpg, which could also potentially be a nod to the Neo-Nazi code for “HH” or “Heil Hitler.”
The watermark on the lower left corner of the image led to a Twitter account that regularly tweeted violent, racist, xenophobic content. This Twitter account has now been deleted.
Although it is still not clear where Trump’s team originally found the meme, Trump has been criticised in the past for repeatedly retweeting posts from white supremacists’ accounts.
According to the Associate Press, Trump has failed to immediately denounce the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, has a loyal following on white supremacist message boards, and has been endorsed by several prominent white nationalist leaders who have credited him for invigorating their cause.
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