Donald Trump's terrible reaction to Charlottesville has rejuvenated the alt-right

Members of the alt-right seem to view the Charlottesville response as a major success for their movement

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published August 15, 2017 8:08AM (EDT)

White nationalist demonstrators walk through town after their rally was declared illegal near Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.  (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
White nationalist demonstrators walk through town after their rally was declared illegal near Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Regardless of the widespread condemnation that has occurred in the aftermath of the white supremacist march on Charlottesville — which resulted in multiple injuries and at least one fatality — a new report indicates that many of them feel enthused about the future of the American far right.

It probably helps that President Donald Trump waited for a weekend before explicitly condemning them, delivered a very lukewarm speech when finally buckling to pressure to denounce them and shortly thereafter retweeted a post from alt-right leader Jack Posobiec comparing racist violence to inner city crime.

Posobiec has already announced that he plans on marching on Google's New York headquarters on Saturday to protest the firing of engineer James Damore, according to a report by The New York Times. Although he characterizes this as a free speech issue, Posobiec last made headlines by interrupting a performance of "Julius Caesar" he didn't like for depicting Trump as the titular tyrant.

Similarly, white supremacist leaders Matthew Heimbach and Eli Mosley are planning on holding pro-Confederate rallies in Kentucky and Virginia respectively, after what they perceive as the success of the Charlottesville protests.

As Mosley told The New York Times, "Every city needs to watch out. We are everywhere."

Regarding Trump's recent denunciation, he added that "the president is being advised by people who don’t know what’s going on. He’s essentially going off of false information. We’re not in any way worried about moving forward."

This isn't to say that the alt-right won't face pushback. White nationalist leader Richard Spencer has had a rally that helped organize the White Lives Matter protest at Texas A&M, cancelled by the school due to safety concerns.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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