Racist remarks at Donald Trump’s October 27 Madison Square Garden rally have galvanized public attention on hate speech in the former president’s campaign.
But the expression of racist views by those close to Trump is not new. During Trump’s presidency, at least a dozen officials and advisers with ties to white supremacist groups or ideologies held appointments in his administration. Some of these figures have promoted the racial superiority of white people, helped shape national policy and remain close to Trump, raising the prospect of them joining his administration if he is elected to a second term.
Stephen Miller, who spoke at the Oct. 27 rally, was one of Trump’s most influential team members, serving as senior advisor for policy and White House director of speechwriting. Leaked emails show that Miller shared content from white nationalist websites and promoted ideas central to racist and nativist ideologies. These include the concept of “white genocide” and support for policies aimed at restricting immigration from non-white-majority countries. Miller’s influence on policies like the Muslim travel ban and family separation at the border is often seen as an extension of these views.
Miller is a key figure in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, traveling with Trump and introducing him at rallies. As founder of the group America First Legal, he is helping drive plans for a second Trump term, including dramatic changes to the government’s interpretation of civil rights-era laws to focus on “anti-white racism” rather than discrimination against people of color.
Several officials in the Trump administration worked for organizations such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Center for Immigration Studies, which have been classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They include Kellyanne Conway, who was senior counselor to the president; Kris Kobach, who served as vice-chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity; and Ian M. Smith, a Department of Homeland Security policy analyst. Smith resigned after emails were released of him engaging in friendly conversations with prominent white supremacists and racists.
Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Trump, was a sworn member of the Vitez Order, according to a leader of the group. The Vitez Order is a successor to the World War II-era Vitezi Rend, which the U.S. State Department lists as “under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany during World War II.” Gorka has also expressed support for “The Hungarian Guard,” a paramilitary force associated with the right-wing Jobbik party. It was banned in Hungary after a series of violent, racist attacks. Gorka’s wife, Katharine Gorka, in her role as a senior policy adviser in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, helped end funding for Life After Hate, a group that works to combat white supremacy by, among other things, de-radicalizing neo-Nazis.
Other figures with ties to white supremacist groups or ideologies who served in the Trump administration include:
· Ken Cuccinelli was the acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office. He was one of the founders of the nativist group State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI), which works in partnership with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR was founded by the late John Tanton, who was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement.” FAIR urged the Senate to confirm Cuccinelli as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office.
· Jon Feere served as a senior advisor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was a former legal policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies. CIS regularly circulates white nationalist and anti-Semitic writers in its weekly newsletter and has a record of publishing reports that falsely exaggerate the criminality of immigrants.
· Robert Law served as senior policy adviser to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He had previously been the lobbying director for FAIR.
· Julie Kirchner, former ombudsman of the Department of Homeland Security, worked at the FAIR for 10 years and served as its executive director for 8 years before leaving the organization in 2015 to become an immigration adviser to Trump.
· John Zadrozny, former USCIS deputy chief and former policy planning staff of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was formerly legislative counsel and government relations director for FAIR.
· Matthew Q. Gebert, a former foreign affairs officer for the Bureau of Energy Resources, was suspended after the discovery that he leads a double life as a white nationalist activist under the pseudonym Coach Finstock. He expressed on social media and podcasts his desire to “build a country for whites only.”
