Out of the closet

He's been strongly hinting, and now he's out.

On Monday, after addressing unemployment and taxes, among other topics, Trump declared himself "nationalist" who is fending off "corrupt, power-hungry globalists".

[...]

"You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It's called a nationalist," he continued. "And I say really, we're not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I am a nationalist. Use that word."

[...]

In North America and Europe, far-right and ultra-nationalist groups have routinely disparaged their political opponents as "globalists", a term that researchers and experts describe as a dog-whistle with thinly-veiled anti-Semitic undertones.

While some right-wing politicians and commentators use globalism interchangeably with globalisation, the term now refers more commonly to a far-right conspiracy theory that alleges that the world is controlled by a shadowy group of economic elites.

Monday was not the first time Trump employed the phrase. In March, the president prompted a tide of criticism when he referred to his outgoing top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, as a "globalist".

"He may be a globalist, but I still like him," Trump said at Cohn's final cabinet meeting, continuing, "He's seriously a globalist. There's no question."

"Never underestimate the power of anti-Semitism in this," Shane Burley, author of Fascism Today, told Al Jazeera. "I don't think Trump is making an open reference to Jews, but the logic of anti-Semitism is informing rhetoric."

  alJazeera

I don't like the constant squealing about anti-semitism every time someone criticizes Israel or an Israeli, but in this case, it's no stretch to say there's anti-Semitism "informing" Trump's "rhetoric". And he's obviously racist. I just wonder how his Proud Boy and Neo-Nazi supporters reconcile the fact that Kushner and Ivanka are Jews.

Burley said the movement's lasting influence can be seen in the Republican Party's open embrace of far-right talking points, including globalism and conspiracy theories blaming Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros for everything from migration to anti-Trump protests.

And now someone has put a bomb in Soros' mailbox.

On Monday, the civil rights group Muslim Advocates published a pre-election report documenting a sharp uptick in anti-Muslim sentiment among political candidates in 2017 and 2018.

Heidi Beirich, the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, explained that Trump has been "escalating pretty egregiously" the tenor of midterm election rhetoric.

"You'd have to be a fool not to know that Trump is trying to use race as a way to gin up his supporters."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.