Pro-Trump supporters on Capitol Hill -

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP / SIPA

  • During the invasion of the United States Capitol on Wednesday by radical supporters of Donald Trump, many ostentatious anti-Semitic signs were spotted, whether flags, T-shirts, tattoos.

  • Part of the American far right has been surfing anti-Semitism for a long time, and Donald Trump has always maintained a certain ambiguity on the issue.

  • A feeling reinforced with the Qanon movement and the conspiracy linked to the coronavirus.

Many anti-Semitic signs were seen among radical supporters of Donald Trump who invaded the Capitol on Wednesday: “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirt, neo-Nazi tattoos and symbols, or known members of American neo-Nazi groups like Matthew Heimbach or Jason Tankersley.

Nothing surprising for Tristan Mendès France, associate professor at the University of Paris in digital cultures and who has long studied extremes.

For him, the observation is clear: "The nuclear heart of the radical" trumposphere "is fed with anti-Semitism, even if of course the entire Trumpian base is not.

"

Qanon and conspiracy, fertile grounds for anti-Semitism

The reason comes mainly from the rapprochement with the Qanon movement, with many anti-Semitic messages, which has long watered the most radical branch of Donald Trump's supporters, making people believe, among other things, in a great conspiracy theory to illegally elect Joe Biden.

"It is no surprise that we find at the Capitol both Qanon signals and anti-Semitic markers, T-shirt, very clear slogan", notes the lecturer.

To summarize, Qanon conveys the thesis of a conspiracy coming from the pedo-sanatic elite dominating the world and even more so the United States.

However, "as soon as we mix the fantasy of world elites and conspiracy, we almost systematically open the door to anti-Semitism," notes Tristan Mendès France.

Fatal consequence, the conspiracy theses having exploded with the coronavirus, anti-Semitism "is more and more visible, more and more exposed, and has more and more toxicity.

"

Anti-Semitism in the history of the United States

Beyond the exceptional circumstances of the coronavirus, anti-Semitism "is a central element in the ideology of the American extreme right even if it does not have the same importance according to the movements concerned", informs Alexis Pichard, researcher in civilization American, author of the book 

Trump and the media, the illusion of a war? 

: “We find it very naturally in neo-Nazi groups, which flourished under Barack Obama and were legitimized by Donald Trump throughout his 2016 campaign and even beyond.

We must remember in particular the “Unite the Right” demonstrations in Charlottesville in the summer of 2017, during which far-right activists chanted “You will not replace us” as well as “Jews will not replace us”.

"

For the researcher in civilization, the anti-Semitic tradition of the American far right goes back at least to the 1940s, when the populist America First movement emerged, characterized by its firm opposition to the Roosevelt administration and its hatred of Jews.

"Although the membership of fascists and Nazis is officially banned by the movement, its ranks are nevertheless populated by supporters of Hitler, sympathizers of Nazi Germany", he underlines.

Donald Trump, never dissociated

So much for structural and economic reasons.

There remains one last thing, the influence of Donald Trump himself in this.

For Tristan Mendes France, the American president has been riding a ridge for a long time: he has never joined Qanon, but never left it either.

The lecturer thus identifies more than 200 times when the Head of State has relayed Qanons twitter accounts on his own account.

Donald Trump has also often made more or less direct references to the far right.

Alexis Pichard: “Also, when during his 2016 campaign, he chose 'America First' as his flagship slogan, under the influence of Steve Bannon, an ideologue of the extreme right, he established a link of filiation with the populist movement of 1940s even if the semantics he encodes in the expression allows him to deny any ideological rapprochement.

"

A strategy known as the clien d'oeil, of which the researcher in history still identifies many examples: "after the clashes in Charlottesville, he had declared that there were" very good people "among the demonstrators of the extreme right, therefore among the neo-Nazis.

Trump also adopted the emblems of the anti-Semitic far right during his 2016 campaign, such as Pepe the Frog, a fictional character turned into an icon of the fascosphere.

"

A strategy which now seems to be backfiring against him, in an America shocked by the events of the Capitol and which could never forgive Donald Trump for this crisis, even in 2024 when he could have the ambition to represent himself.

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