Rize of American Nazi's

Over a Third of Trump Supporters Follow White Nationalists on Twitter, Research Finds

Would Trump stand a chance without the support of hate groups?

By Sammy Nickalls

In a Politico article about white nationalists supporting Donald Trump published earlier this week, Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller denied the campaign's connection with hate groups, claiming that they've "rejected and rebuked" such groups, "have never intentionally engaged" with them, and "don't want votes from people who think this way." However, if Trump didn't get votes from white nationalists, he wouldn't stand a chance—at least, if you look at the numbers.

Social media analytics firm Demographics Pro analyzed 10,000 Trump supporters and 10,000 Hillary Clinton supporters active on Twitter. Then, the firm matched the account with 10 white-nationalist Twitter accounts, including David Duke and Jason Bergkamp.

The results were disturbing, to say the least. A whopping 3,549—considerably over one-third—of the Trump supporters followed one or more of the white nationalists (as illustrated by the chart above). In comparison, only 16 Hillary supporters followed any of the white-nationalist accounts.

Of course, it's possible for someone to follow white nationalist accounts without actually supporting their views, but the stark difference between the numbers is telling.

These results aren't considerably surprising considering the trajectory of Trump's campaign over the past year. Take, for example, the Anti-Defamation league officially recognizing Pepe the Frog as a hate symbol after it was hijacked by alt-right, Trump-supporting white nationalists.

Basket of deplorables, indeed.