Trump Boosts Promotional Video Which Borrows White Nationalist Logo (UPDATED)

UPDATED: Mediaite posted an op-ed from an anonymous meme-maker who claims the logo is innocent. While I think it is good of Mediaite to provide a forum for a possible explanation, I don’t know enough about “Carpe Donktum” to evaluate his/her claims. I also need to add that I originally thought the ad came from the Trump campaign. However, it was produced by a supporter of Trump and retweeted by the president. I have corrected my post to reflect that.

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Somebody supporting the Trump re-election effort is too familiar with white nationalist symbols. Recently, Trump retweeted a video that ended with a lion logo surrounded by red, white, and blue which has been promoted by a white nationalist group. Watch:


As first reported by Mediaite this morning, Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski found a tweet from white nativist group VDARE using the logo in 2016 and showed it next to the final shot of the Trump/Pence video.

Note the 2016 date. The logo is the same as the one used in the Trump/Pence ad just this week.

The Lion’s Guard

The logo is also associated with a group called “The Lion’s Guard.” This group (which was promoted and praised on white supremacist site Daily Stormer in 2016) aims to provide security at Trump rallies and was removed from Twitter for awhile. They are back now with the same logo.

Note the slogan on the group’s website:

Better to be a lion for a day, than a lamb for eternity.

The slogan is a simpler version of a quote attributed to Mussolini:

It’s better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.

In 2016, Trump retweeted this quote knowing the attribution was to Mussolini:

Donald Trump and/or his social media team thought it would be a good idea to promote a symbol which communicated nativist themes. They who have eyes to see, let them see.

 

 

 

47 thoughts on “Trump Boosts Promotional Video Which Borrows White Nationalist Logo (UPDATED)”

  1. Isn’t this part of the problem? Something shows up. Someone who doesn’t know much about it claims X. People pile on. Then it turns out it might not have been X at all. But the suggestion has already been planted because it furthers a narrative.

    It seems it would have been better not to say anything at all unless something is known at least almost for sure if not absolutely for sure.

    But truth doesn’t matter much to some. At least Warren corrected it somewhat, but it would have been better to have said nothing at all.

    1. I disagree. Donald Trump, both as a private citizen and certainly as POTUS has shown that these sorts of associations are a real possibility. Asking the question is not out of bounds at all. It likely never would have been asked of Bush or Obama, because the history was not there. This president has a multitude of issues (to put it mildly) that lend him to increased scrutiny. This is no one’s fault but his own. That our discourse must now include such is just one more unfortunate byproduct of his presidency.

      However, as I explained in my response to BigK, the content of the ad was also pretty shabby and deceptive.

      1. There was no question asked. There was a straight accusation made without question or qualification. The post was based on a false premise because it fit a narrative, not because it was worth taking the time to figure out if it was true. As it turns out, the two main premises are apparently false: It wasn’t a white supremacist symbol and it wasn’t the Trump campaign.

        Sure Warren corrected it, but he left it up rather than taking it down. Why? Because apparently the suggestion is worth making even if the premises are false. Here again, the narrative that “Trump is bad” is all that matters. Facts are mostly irrelevant.

        This president does have a load of problems, but when he talks about fake news, this is what he is talking about.

        1. Yes, the logo has been used by white supremacists and those with like minds, and yes POTUS tweeted it. Again, this president has, by his own statements and actions, made it necessary to consider such associations. The “fake news” in this case was much of the contents of the video. Trump is bad because of the facts. In the whirlwind of dysfunction and outright lies that come from him and his associates, there will be errors in reporting. All things considered, I think the media in general are doing pretty good at wading through the sewage.

          That he is even attacking Fox News makes a mockery of what he calls fake news. He wants sycophants and nothing less. As for taking the post down, I don’t think Warren ever does that. Disappearing errors in the middle of the night is not his style. He keeps his mistakes open and visible.

          Edited to add:

          Warren did not make the claim that this came from the campaign itself. He said, “Somebody supporting the Trump re-election effort…” The connection to Trump is that he Tweeted it (with appreciation).

          1. The explanation is quite clear that there are other uses of the logo. The explanations seem satisfactory and plausible and the conspiracy theories that everything is white supremacy or racist is just plainly stupid. You know that, of course. But you have to defend a narrative. I don’t. I can reject Trump and his foolishness without the need for this “six degrees of connection” crap.

            Trump is bad because of facts. We should not add on to that with other stuff. People play into his hands when they do stuff like this. That he is attacking Fox News undermines the prevailing claim that Fox is in the tank for Trump. The media in general have been completely embarrassing throughout this whole presidency. So much of the

            Warren said he thought the ad came from the Trump campaign. Again, that was a major failure on the part of Warren.

          2. Oh you have a narrative you follow, and you are doing it right now. Most appropriated symbols have other uses, and again, “Somebody supporting the Trump re-election effort…” Also, one can’t watch much Fox News without experiencing blatant Trump fawning, but Trump demands total loyalty.

            But you keep on being that condescending, self-important know-it-all that likes to argue for argument’s sake. We would be shocked if you changed now. But then, “you know that of course.”

        2. I left it up because I want people to see that the incident occurred and that it was “corrected.” Also, I am not certain that it is over or that I believe the explanation given by a nameless Trump supporting mememaker. To be honest, I withhold my trust from people who are nameless anonymous people on the internet. Call me crazy but that’s how I avoid being taken in by people. This may come up later and we may find out that Carpe Donktum (just inspires confidence doesn’t it?) could have been pulling our leg.

    2. Only if you keep bending backwards to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Trump gushingly tweeted that video–he didn’t just retweet another tweet of the video–and there’s nothing in the video itself to indicate it wasn’t an official video other than the dim twitter handle overlay in the corner that you can’t click on and is obscured whenever you move the mouse.

      He does this repeatedly (the “second coming of God”) so you either have to assume it’s deliberate or he’s too stupid to own a Twitter account, either or which would (in normal times) disqualify someone from being president.

  2. Sometimes I wonder if the racist element in Trump’s campaign are trying to see how far they can push the envelope and still have his loyal followers continue to follow him.

    1. “It’s just some clipart…being used in many places” because the tDumpsters have chosen it as their reelection logo.

      1. Seems obvious to me and because in 2016 it was popular among people who liked the fascist side of Trump.

    2. Certainly it is available as stock art, there is a demand for it. But what is it being used to represent? What sort of views do people displaying it generally espouse? This is not only a presidential campaign, but the president of the US using this symbol. Recognizing the problems with that is nowhere near Alex Jones territory.

      1. A lot of empty questions. The point was not some phony dog whistle (if that’s all you got out of it somethings wrong) but why Trump thinks people should vote for him:

        51% Approval Rating
        94% Approval Rating among Republicans
        6 Million Jobs Added
        500,000 Manufacturing Jobs
        Lowest Unemployment since 1969
        Record Low Black, Latino, Veteran Unemployment
        Economy up 2.9%
        Dow Jones 27,359
        1.5 Trillion Tax Cuts
        First POTUS to include paid family leave in his budget
        Lowest Unemployment for Women
        3.1% Wage Growth
        2 Supreme Court Judges
        43 Court of Appeals Judges
        99 District Court Judges
        Serious Crime down
        + 9% Gang Members Removed
        1 Million Pounds of Narcotics Seized
        + 40 Illegal Aliens Removed
        Regulatory Actions Removed
        Plan Parenthood Defunded 23 Million Dollars

        1. And how do these figures compare to past presidents?

          also, when are the approval ratings from? I don’t believe they are recent numbers.

        2. Oh that makes it all better then. It’s a campaign spot, I’ll wait for the fact-check (as one must with this administration). A great deal of that is not what I (and a large percentage of the country) consider positive. This may be why he is polling badly against the Democratic challengers. Some of it has nothing to do with POTUS, good or bad. As I said, it’s a campaign spot, but whether the president of the US is reaching out to white nationalists is something I think we should be interested in knowing.

          Where are they getting that approval rating from?

          1. Probably Rasmussen. Can’t be Fox News. They’re in the doghouse for publishing polls that show Trump losing to all the top Democratic candidates, especially in the Rust Belt states, which he will need if he’s going to win. (Fox News pollsters are considered to be actually fair and balanced the pundits, as opposed to simply claiming to be.)

        3. A lot of this is smoke and mirrors. For instance on jobs, “The average monthly gain under Trump so far is 197,000 — compared with an average monthly gain of 217,000 during Obama’s second term.” Employment has been increasing since 2010, and at least in Obama’s second term, at a rate greater than under Trump. I guess he gets kudos for not screwing it up.

          A lot of these points are fact-checked here with sources, though the data is from April of this year. https://www.factcheck.org/2019/04/trumps-numbers-april-2019-update/

          One of the myriad of things we need to be concerned about is if the recent GOP tax cut plays out as they always do – a short lived bump followed by extended pain and ever exploding national debt.

          Then again, perhaps he will make the trains run on time.

    3. Wouldn’t this be more an example of going Rachel Maddow on us?

      Did I stumble onto a thread filled with people who think the Betsy Ross flag is racist? Oof da.

    1. I think that was the 26th Fighter WING of the German Air Force (providing air cover for the Deustche Afrika Korps). Since they were deployed to North Africa, they used an African LEOPARD as their wing badge; not only African, but FIERCE.

      Big Cats are a very common animal totem symbolizing FIERCNESS. And with Lions, you get the additional symbolism of Royalty and Authority as King of Beasts.

      1. We had a good #StopTheCoup rally today. Daily protests in the government quarter are planned for next week.

        HM Government (i.e. the executive) has said that what is happening is ‘normal’ (and it is ‘legal’, though maybe open to a legal challenge and a former prime minister, John Major, is sponsoring one); it is not: prorogation is usually for not more than a week, to give time for the Government to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on its programme for a forthcoming parliamentary session. There is usually also a recess in September, BUT a recess is something for which our elected representatives themselves vote. Given the projected timing of ‘Brexit’, it was highly unlikely that they would do so this year, so BJ got HM to shut them down. Quite shocking really …

        1. It seems the Queen has abrogated her role as a kind of check and balance as has our congress.

          1. She basically has to do as she is told by her prime minister, which is why we need a new elected organ of power, such as a ‘council of the union’ (which would collectively take ‘political process’ decisions on behalf of Her Majesty) with reserve powers similar to those of the (non-executive) Federal President in Germany – i.e. to defend constitutional norms, due process and fundamental human rights.

          2. I always understood that last part to be the monarch’s responsibility there. If she has no choice, what’s the point in asking?

        2. It seems the Queen has abrogated her role as a kind of check and balance as has our congress.

  3. I’m wondering if it’s because it’s an impressive logo (if a little busy) and online graphics get swiped all the time.

    There was a three-year delay between the original and the swipe, and on Internet and Social Media three WEEKS is an eternity for the original to be forgotten.

    As for that “Lion’s Guard” neo-Fascist group, the Charlotte Tiki Torches demonstrated that all Trump can see is “They’re Loyal! They Adore Me!” And the guy comes across as the sort of pointy-haired boss who’s obsessed with Loyalty and a sucker for Flattery.

    1. And to White Evangelicals (805 the Groupthink threshold) he IS the Second Coming of Christ.

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