Loving Neo-Nazis

Trump-Loving Neo-Nazis Crash MAGA Boat Parade

Sunday's Trump boat parade was marred by Swastika-waving white supremacists shouting “Make America White Again!”

By Tim Dickinson

A “Trump Boat Parade” in Jupiter, Florida, on Sunday was joined by neo-Nazis waving Swastika flags, shouting “White Power,” “Heil Trump,” and “Make America White Again!”

The showboating of yachts and wake boats on behalf of Trump’s candidacy is a revival of the “Trump Armada” trend from 2020, when MAGAdonians with literal boatloads of disposable income met up to cruise around a harbor and create more than a little whitewater while waving Trump flags. 

This event in Jupiter, one of the wealthiest areas of the state, was touted by Trump ally Roger Stone as the “mother of all TRUMP boat parades.” It promised the well-heeled crowd an “incredible airshow” with “paratroopers” descending with Trump 2024 flags.

But in the wake of Trump using openly fascistic rhetoric on the campaign trail — including pushing bigoted blood libel against Haitian immigrants and even parroting white-nationalists by describing America as an “occupied country” — actual neo-Nazis also tried to join the party. 

They pulled up in a boat waving Trump flags as well as the banner of Hitler’s government, yelling hateful things about “Jews” and hurling the N-word. The images caused Trump’s niece, Mary L Trump, a frequent critic of the former president, to despair on X: “What the fuck are we even doing?”

It’s unclear who was on the neo-Nazi boat. The riders wore skeleton masks or sunglasses to obscure their faces. Video from onboard the boat was shared by a Telegram user with the handle “Coach 88” with the caption “National Socialists crash Trump boat parade.” That video was promoted by the Goyim Defense League, a notorious fascist group in Florida.

In neo-Nazi code, 88 corresponds to the alphabetical placement of the letter H. (88=HH=Heil Hitler.) Another common code used by these white supremacists is 14, which refers to a 14-word supremacist slogan about securing “a future for white children.” When used in combination, 1488 is a powerful dog whistle for bigots. The Neo-Nazis on the boat, true to their trollish MO, also waved a poster of MyPillow founder Mike Lindell’s face with the MyPillow logo and a $14.88 price tag offered in a recent promotion.  (Lindell has claimed ignorance of the significance of the number, but has doubled down on using that sum to sell his bedding.)

Neo-Nazis in Florida have been leveraging the far-right tilt of GOP politics in an attempt to mainstream their poison. Neo-Nazis repeatedly got themselves news coverage by waving signs promoting Florida Governor Ron Desantis in the GOP primary, for example. DeSantis, uncomfortably, refused to denounce them. Many of these same groups have been celebrating as Trump has parroted their hateful rhetoric against immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

Requests for comment from MyPillow and the Trump campaign were not immediately returned.

The organizer of the boat parade posted a response on Facebook on October 14 making clear he felt the Hitler fans were not welcome. The included a video of a large boat belonging to a Trump supporter dousing the neo-Nazis with water churned up by the boat’s propellers. “These patriots took care of the infiltrators that came in, pretending to be with us wearing masks and having terrible flags up supporting Nazis!,” the post said. It added: “Don’t fall for the fake news … Our movement the entire weekend was of wholesome values, Christianity, and patriotism!” (An earlier post by the organizers had initially described the neo-Nazis as “agitators” sent in by “the left.”)

If the neo-Nazis were too extreme for the Trump boat show, the parade nonetheless featured plenty of far-right flamboyance. As part of the sanctioned activities, the president’s son Eric Trump joined in celebration on a boat topped with an enormous bust of his father marked with streaks of blood, an apparent nod to the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt. 

That boat was painted with Trump’s belligerent words from that day “Fight, Fight, Fight” and waved flags that read “ULTRAMAGA” and “FINISH THE WALL.”

Another flag from the sanctioned parade was more threatening. It showed two crossed revolvers beside the words “TRUMP 2024” and included the slogan: “Lock & Load.”