Someone Is Giving Donald Trump News From an Internet Troll and Neo-Nazi Fundraiser
Politics
If you are lucky enough not to know who Charles C. Johnson, also known as Chuck Johnson is, here’s a quick primer: Johnson is a far right blogger who was permanently banned from Twitter in 2015 for a tweet that was perceived as a threat against civil rights activist DeRay McKesson. His site, GotNews, is known for stories that make wild, often provably false allegations. Johnson has claimed that both President Obama and Emmanuel Macron are gay, wrongly identified the woman he thought was “Jackie” of the UVA scandal, and has, overall, demonstrated what Forbes called a “disregard for facts.” Gawker once called him “the web’s worst journalist.” (Johnson sued Jezebel’s former parent company Gawker Media over two stories written about him; Univision deleted several posts, including one about Johnson, after it purchased Gawker Media.)
He also appears to be in a position to influence the president of the United States, in one crucial way. A piece in Politico on Monday alleges that Donald Trump’s staff routinely pass him news articles—including the occasional fake one— to promote their own agendas or gain a competitive advantage over their enemies in the administration. Among the incidents Politico describes was one in which a clip from GotNews, blaming deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh for leaking to the press, set Trump to “asking staff about Walsh,” leading to internal investigations and counter-investigations. Walsh has since left the White House.
Who in the Trump White House is reading and promoting Johnson, and why? Politico characterizes the GotNews distribution to Trump as a “mischievous” act, but Johnson’s ability to reach the Oval Office is a troubling development. Johnson has long positioned himself in a grey zone of “ironic” alt-right racism, where his penchant for deliberately provoking liberal sensitivities serves as cover for some of his more explicitly bigoted pronouncements. Lately, however, off-color jokes have given way to unambiguous, explicit white supremacy: His company, for instance, is currently hosting an online fundraiser for the Daily Stormer, an old-fashioned neo-Nazi hate site.
Johnson claims a close relationship with the White House, and he was an avid supporter of the Trump campaign. Forbes reported in January that he was working with the administration’s transition team, although the level of his involvement and influence has never been clear. Johnson has been vague on the subject, and he is, anyway, what we might call an unreliable narrator. He was, as Forbes noted, spotted standing in the VIP section at Trump’s election night party, and he has claimed on Facebook to know White House advisor Steve Bannon.
All of which makes Chuck Johnson’s ideas about race and his evident relationships with white supremacists a matter of public concern. Johnson’s language around race isn’t subtle: On GotNews, he’s referred to an alleged mob of Hispanic men protesting a Trump rally as “savages,” has repeatedly referred to Black Live Matter supporters as “thugs” and posted numerous stories alleging criminal acts by people he claims were affiliated with BLM. He’s also appeared on a podcast hosted by The Right Stuff, a proudly and profoundly anti-Semitic show hosted by white nationalist Mike Enoch.
On his personal Facebook page, Johnson recently shared a story speculating that black people have a “violence gene.”
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