White Supremacist Slogans Spotted at Trump-Vance Rally
Armed ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Arrested Outside Trump Rally: WHO, ME?
Examining footage from a Trump rally in Saginaw, Michigan on Oct. 4, USA Today reports that almost a dozen GOP supporters were seen holding up placards emblazoned with the slogan “Reclaim America.”
The wording is well-known in certain circles for its associations with Patriot Front, a Texan neo-Nazi organization currently facing at least two high-profile lawsuits for attacks on Black U.S. citizens.
The group has reportedly since posted on Telegram announcing the Trump camp had “adopted” the phrase, while also somewhat paradoxically noting “it remains unclear whether the Trump campaign is aware of this connection.”
While the Republican Party has not yet commented on the placards, it comes amid a slew of other incidents in which their candidate appears to have increasingly courted white supremacist supporters.
His campaign recently announced it would be holding a rally on Oct. 27, nine days before the presidential vote is due to be held, at Madison Square Garden–a venue notorious for having once hosted more than 20,000 pro-Hitler demonstrators on the eve of the Second World War.
“Let’s be clear. Allowing Trump to hold an event at MSG is equivalent to the infamous Nazis rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939,” New York Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal posted on X in response to the announcement.
The furore over the Trump campaign’s choice of venue also followed after their candidate prompted widespread outcry on Oct. 7 for his comments suggesting undocumented migrants are genetically predisposed toward murder and other types of violent crime.
Trump then attacked Harris’ handling of illegal immigration—despite her pushing back against his claims of a “crisis”—and alleged that she was letting people into the country with “bad genes.”
“How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murders, many of them murdered far more than one person, and they are not happily living in the United States,” he said. “And now a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes.”
He added, “We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump has shown a fascination with genes—using the topic often during discussions of immigration to suggest some people are more superior than others.
During a 2020 campaign speech in Minnesota, Trump told a majority white crowd of his supporters that they have “good genes” and seemed to suggest that immigration and racism challenges in America comes down to genetic differences, reported the New York Times.
“A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe?” said Trump. “The racehorse theory, you think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”
Racist theory is not new to tRump:
But this is new to tRump:
Vem Miller, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, told a reporter with the Southern California News Group that he was invited personally to Trump’s Coachella Valley rally by the head of Clark County’s Republican Party. He also claimed he was wearing a Trump shirt and a MAGA hat while entering the perimeter via a security checkpoint, when he told the officer working the gate that he had firearms in his car as a courtesy.
At a press conference following the arrest on Sunday, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Miller passed an initial outer perimeter, but was stopped when a deputy noticed an “obviously fake license plate” as he tried to pass a second checkpoint. The sheriff also said it appeared likely that Miller was a “sovereign citizen”—part of a loosely organized anti-government movement.
He was quickly arrested and charged with possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, the sheriff’s office said in a press release. The arrest happened before the former president arrived at the rally, and “did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” the release added.
Miller’s license plate was “one that is homemade and indicative of a group of individuals that claim to be sovereign citizens,” Bianco said. The sheriff said the deputies noticed several other “irregularities” with Miller’s car—the interior was in “disarray,” and he was in possession of “multiple” fake passports and fake drivers’ licenses displaying other names.
Miller claimed to be a journalist with VIP access to the rally, Bianco said, but his press pass “didn’t necessarily materialize.”
Bianco also said that Miller’s car wasn’t registered, as sovereign citizens often don’t believe in registering their cars. “We had to go through VIN number,” the sheriff said. “It actually did belong to him, it just was not ever registered.”
Miller was also in possession of several unregistered firearms, including a shotgun and a loaded handgun, as well as a high caliber magazine, the sheriff’s office said. He was booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center and released on his own recognizance.
“Right now, we are actively engaged in working with secret service and the FBI to ensure that this person is followed up on,” Bianco said, adding that his deputies likely prevented Miller from trying to assassinate the president.
“We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Bianco told the Southern California News Group Sunday afternoon.
The sheriff said that any additional charges would come from federal authorities. In a statement sent to the Daily Beast, federal prosecutors for the Central District of California said they were aware of the incident.
“The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”
The sheriff described sovereign citizens as a “far-right” group, but did note that they were not necessarily militant. “They don’t believe that laws apply to them,” Bianco told reporters on Sunday.
