You will always…ALWAYS…find White Supremacists and their like-minded neo-fascist brethren anywhere that Donald Trump is going to be. More to the point, WE will find them there!
WILDWOOD, NJ – Since entering the White House a three years ago, Donald Trump has held several rallies for his supporters, but Wednesday marked the first time he has ever held one in New Jersey with a few thousand coming to see him. Neo-fascists took the opportunity to promote themselves within the crowd, passing out flyers and talking with Trump supporters as they stood outside the Wildwoods Convention Center.
The rally was actually a campaign event for Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s re-election campaign. A freshman congressman who took the seat from Republicans who held it for 24 years, Van Drew switched parties in December just days after the vote in the House of Representatives to impeach Trump, him being one of two Democrats to not vote for impeachment. Still, those who came out were there to see Trump, and the 7500-seat Convention Center was filled to capacity, with those who could not get in watching the rally from a screen set up outside.
The neo-fascists who came out to the rally did not display anything that indicated their group affiliations, and the material that they distributed was vague in that regard. Dan D’Ambly of the European American American Heritage Association (NJEHA) passed out flyers touting his organization, but it promoted standard conservative talking points such as opposing sanctuary cities and Trump’s mantra “Build the Wall”. There was however a call to bring troops home to defend borders that was punctuated with the statement, “No more wars for Israel,” a common refrain among anti-Semites who feel that the wars the U.S. are involved with in the Middle East are for the benefit of Israel. D’Ambly and the NJEHA were seen at both “Unite the Right” rallies that took place in Charlottesville, VA in 2017 and Washington, DC in 2018. Their website touts the “14 Words” mantra common among neo-Nazis: “(W)e must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.”
Nice to see ol' Dan D'Ambly out at the Trump rally trying to hawk his NJ European Heritage Association group! I don't think he felt the same! pic.twitter.com/8Byw2OUUAk
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins (@DLamontJenkins) January 29, 2020
A member of Patriot Front was also seen distributing small flyers that was also vague in its White supremacist roots with it’s headline “No More Foreign Wars” and a message critical of the U.S. Government’s foreign policy. Patriot Front was founded by members of the group Vanguard America who broke away from that organization shortly after the Charlottesville rally that put the group in the spotlight. A picture obscures the Patriot Front logo on a flag they created, a fasces surrounded by thirteen stars, which was the logo on the cap that the member was wearing in Wildwood. Patriot Front members waved this flag in a video showing them dropping a banner on an overpass in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn a few weeks ago. It is believed that the person in Wildwood also participated in the Bay Ridge outing.
I was just handed a flyer for the white supremacist group Patriot Front by this young man outside the Trump rally in Wildwood, NJ, tonight. Safe to say he didn't recognize me. pic.twitter.com/yGuGk9OF4V
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) January 28, 2020
Approximately 300 persons counterprotested the rally in a nearby parking lot, among them four Democratic candidates running for the Congressional seat currently occupied by Jeff Van Drew and Martin Luther King III, all speaking to those assembled to oppose Trump. There was one disturbance when a Trump supporter who earlier was berating the counterprotesters from the boardwalk eventually made his way into the lot and attacked the inflatable Baby Trump that was set up in the area. After being tackled by the balloon owner, he was arrested. His name was not known at the time of this posting. Racism wasn’t just regulated to those identified as being in hate groups. One Trump supporter who said his name was Dan Shultz from Maryland berated the counterdemonstrators by telling them to “Go back to your shithole countries,” recalling Trump words about certain non-European countries and the immigrants arriving from there.
This MAGAt attacked the inflatable Trump baby. He is the only arrest I know of at the rally. Earlier, he was yelling at everyone from the boardwalk. pic.twitter.com/nGLtclnSOk
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins (@DLamontJenkins) January 28, 2020
“Go back to your s—-hole countries !!!! Hi, how are you?” Dan Schultz of Maryland at Trump Rally scene on Boardwalk in Wildwood. pic.twitter.com/u01hy8eSX5
— Amy S. Rosenberg (@amysrosenberg) January 28, 2020
Wildwood Mayor Pete Bryon, who remarked that Trump is welcome back anytime, estimated the crowd at 15,000, a far cry from the 175,000 in ticket requests made in the days prior to the rally. According to a post on the Wildwood Tourism Facebook page, the blankets and chairs that Trump supporters left behind were donated to charity.
All the right-wing media guys like to go to liberal rallies and take pics of the trash, so here's what it looks like after Trump lines moved in NJ pic.twitter.com/zDRjIMDMFs
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) January 29, 2020
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