Richard Spencer, the founder of a white supremacist think tank, said an event in which he shouted “Heil Trump” as participants raised their arms was not threatening but fun.
“I understand why people were offended, but they have to understand the context in which it happened. The context of fun and exuberance,” Spencer told the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Speakers at last month’s conference of the National Policy Institute quoted Nazi propaganda and said the media protects Jewish interests. Spencer is considered the founder of the “alt-right,” whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness.”
Donald Trump’s “election was not about conservatism. It was not about the religious right, and it has not been about capitalism or the constitution,” Spencer told Haaretz. “Donald Trump is a nationalist, and … it is something to be excited about, because I feel like the tide is turning in the United States.” — jta