The Supremes and The Extremes

In the 1960s, Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson were The Supremes. In the 2000s, Donald Trump and his MAGA fanatics became The Extremes. The rise of the far-right had been at a slow boil before the Trump era. His wink and nod acceptance became a beacon in the darkness for white supremacists and “sovereign citizens.”

The Supremes

The beginnings of this extremism can be traced easily in the modern era to the Oklahoma City bombing in April of 1995 by Michael Fortier and Timthy McVeigh. Their vague motivations were supposedly protesting US support of the United Nations and a perceived one-world government that was plotting to take away their weapons. Extremist attacks of domestic terrorism have accelerated since Oklahoma and have taken place in almost every state in the union. When Cesar Sayoc (a Florida man) mailed 16 IEDs (PVC pipe containing explosives wired to a battery and clock) he was protesting perceived enemies of Donald Trump. “In this darkness,” the lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo, “Mr. Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump.”

Most of these domestic terrorism attacks have been against minority targets and they champion an anti-government mindset. These attacks were by either lone wolf actors or small groups. Until Trump, they were leaderless. Trump provided a national platform, tacit approval of their cause, and made their views appear more mainstream.

With Trump’s acceptance, along with help from social media platforms like Facebook, X, and Truth Social, even more radicals were mobilized. After 2016, self-policing of mainstream platforms pushed some extremists to encrypted arenas like Telegram, Kik, and WhatsApp.

The Extremes are accepted outliers within the MAGA movement. Much as Hitler redefined the term Aryan to mean all German people who were not Jews, Blacks, or Roma (Gypsies), Trump has likewise coopted Ronald Reagan’s MAGA campaign slogan to include all Trump-loyal Republicans. Just as not all German “Aryans” were Nazis, not all MAGA faithful are extremists. These extremists are, however, both tolerated and welcomed under the MAGA umbrella.

Trump, with his wink and nod to the Twilight end-Zone of the far-right extremists, will still claim he is neither a racist nor an antisemite. Like others I have known who make such proclamations, they will justify their neutral status by pointing out specific examples from each group with whom they have no problem.

Trump has a Jewish son-in-law and will hire, with special effort, Jews to be his accountants or lawyers. He even made friends with Jeffrey Epstein saying, "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

Trump likewise continued his father’s policy of never renting to Blacks. He was sued in 1973 by the Department of Justice for racial discrimination against African-American renters. He signed a consent decree that, while never admitting guilt, he promised to never do it again. The Justice Department found him in violation of that consent decree in 1978 due to continued racial discrimination. It was found during these investigations that, as instructed, managers marked applications from Blacks with the letter “C” for colored. The doormen at Trump properties were told to quote outrageous prices to prospective Black renters.

In a book about Trump by John O’Donnell he quoted Trump, and Trump later in a 1997 interview with Playboy magazine acknowledged, that the statement was, “…probably true.” That quote was:

“I've got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys wearing yarmulkes.... Those are the only kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else... Besides that, I've got to tell you something else. I think that the guy's lazy. And it's probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks.”

There is a white supremacist group in southern California called RAM (Rise Above Movement) who attended a MAGA rally in Huntington Beach who fought with protesters. That RAM splinter group calls itself Truimpenkriegers which is intended to mean “Fighters for Trump.”

Trump is not wholly responsible for the rise of the far-right and its resultant violence, but he has acted as a catalyst along with help from the expansion of the Internet and social media. While Diana Ross and The Supremes sang, “You Can’t Hurry Love,” Trump and The Extremes might counter with, “You Can Hurry Hate.”

Yes, there are far-left extremist radicals. You can generally spot them throwing gluten-free zucchini muffins at the homeless.