Politics

Alt-Right Racist Leader Richard Spencer Once Worked With Trump’s New Senior Policy Advisor

One of Trump’s most obnoxious and scummy campaign lackeys was Stephen Miller, and he’s just been promoted to the position of “senior policy advisor” to the president-elect.

That might not help Trump in trying to claim that he’s not sympathetic to the aims of the racist alt-right movement, because according to one of the leaders of the alt-right, Miller and he worked together in college on political policy advocacy!! Especially in the field of… immigration. Hmm.

Spencer admitted it in an interview with Mother Jones – he seemed surprised anyone had figured it out, and didn’t want to talk about it much because it might hurt Trump’s campaign:

Spencer was more explicit about his views on race and immigration with members of the Duke Conservative Union, where he says he clicked with a columnist for the campus newspaper and fellow DCU member named Stephen Miller. Miller—who would earn acclaim for standing up for white lacrosse players falsely accused of gang raping a black woman—is now a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.

Spencer also defended the Duke lacrosse players, writing about the case for The American Conservative—but that’s not the only reason he and Miller hit it off. Spencer says Miller helped him with fundraising and promotion for an on-campus debate on immigration policy that Spencer organized in 2007 featuring influential white nationalist Peter Brimelow. Another former member of the DCU confirmed that Miller and Spencer worked together on the event. At DCU meetings, according to a past president for the group, Miller denounced multiculturalism and expressed concerns that immigrants from non-European countries were not assimilating.

“It’s funny no one’s picked up on the Stephen Miller connection,” Spencer says. “I knew him very well when I was at Duke. But I am kind of glad no one’s talked about this because I don’t want to harm Trump.”

For his part, Stephen Miller denied everything, because that’s kind of a problem.

Miller did not respond on the record to specific questions about his activities with the DCU or his views on immigration, but he denied being close to Spencer. “I have absolutely no relationship with Mr. Spencer,” he wrote in an email to Mother Jones. “I completely repudiate his views, and his claims are 100 percent false.”

Spencer talked about his past friendship with Stephen Miller at about the 57 minute mark in this interview on the Jamie Weinstein show:

Spencer explains that Trump isn’t alt-right, but he’s a first step towards the alt-right. Maybe Stephen Miller is a stepping stool on that little ideological trip…