President Donald Trump has repeatedly connected his success to his “good genes ” . He’s said that his children “don’t need adversity” to build character or skills, because they share his good genetics. In an interview once, he went so far as to compare himself to a “racehorse” and discussing his “breeding” at length.
Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon shares his disturbing views on ‘genetic superiority’
Last Novemeber New York Times published a profile on Bannon, casting him as a “combative populist.” Buried deep within the profile is an account of Bannon talking about his belief in the “genetic superiority” of certain people and his support for restricting voting rights to only property owners.
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Bannon’s musings on voting restrictions are a dog-whistle to white nationalists.
In an executive order issued Saturday, Trump added Bannon to the National Security Council, while limiting the role military and intelligence leaders play on the panel.
The director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will now only attend meetings of the National Security Council’s principals committee — the meetings of the most senior national security officials — when the business at hand directly their “responsibilities and expertise.” According to the Washington Post, both were regular attendees at all meetings of the principals committee under President Obama and President George W. Bush.
Bannon, on the other hand, will be allowed to attend all meetings of the principals committee. That gives Bannon — the former executive chairman of Breitbart, a website that promotes white nationalism — extraordinary influence over U.S. national security policy.
Bannon has a history of anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and bigoted comments, and has openly disparaged Jews and minorities and has called women “dykes.” Both the Klu Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party cheered his appointment to the White House. Bannon also reportedly had a major role in crafting key parts of Trump’s Muslim ban, including the fact that the ban also applies to people with lawful permanent residence.
The move to add Bannon to the council — and remove high-level national security officials — drew sharp criticism from Susan Rice, former National Security Adviser to President Obama, who called the move “stone cold crazy” on Twitter.
ABC News also pointed to comments Joshua Bolten, former chief of staff to George W. Bush, made at a national security forum last September. He explained why President Bush was always adamant that Karl Rove, White House adviser, not attend any meetings that dealt with national security.
“It wasn’t because he didn’t respect Karl’s advice or didn’t value his input,” Bolten said. “But the president also knew that the signal he wanted to send to the rest of his administration, the signal he wanted to send to the public, and the signal he especially wanted to send to the military is that the decisions I’m making that involve life and death for the people in uniform will not be tainted by any political decisions.”
Former KKK wizard David Duke, for example, has been proclaiming on Twitter that Trump’s election and cabinet picks are the first steps toward “taking America back” — that is, taking America “back” from anyone who isn’t descended from fair-skinned Europeans. In white nationalist ideology, only white Americans have a true right to the country — and the rights that go along with citizenship, like voting.
Meanwhile, prominent white nationalist leaders are thrilled by Trump’s victory, and with Bannon’s new high profile role as Trump’s chief strategist.
Agencies
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