Is Donald Trump a racist? That’s what many are saying after he failed to repudiate the endorsement of David Duke, a white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). He claims he did so and blamed his error on a “bad earpiece.”
Whether Trump sufficiently repudiated such an endorsement or not, this is not the only connection Trump has with white supremacists. Data from over the course of one week last month showed that 62 percent of those Trump retweeted had white supremacist connections. That 13 of the 21 users Trump retweeted had used #WhiteGenocide lately.
Around that time, 1,055 have used #WhiteGenocide and evoked Trump’s name in the same tweet, and not in condemnation.
Marshall Kirkpatrick in his analysis for the Little Bird data notes that Trump can’t help white supremacists following him, and he doesn’t follow him back.
In the month that has passed since though, Trump has hardly done himself any favors. Trump isn’t just dominating the polls, but in the amount of Twitter followers, which amounts to 6.49 million.
Trump has had problematic retweets before, with less than stellar explanations after the fact. Earlier this month he retweeted a user questioning Marco Rubio’s eligibility to be president.
“@ResisTyr: Mr.Trump…BOTH Cruz AND Rubio are ineligible to be POTUS! It’s a SLAM DUNK CASE!! Check it! https://t.co/NjqWP0pP6X“
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2016
