A man affirming the ideology of white supremacy was arrested this Monday before dawn near the headquarters of the Democratic Party in Washington a few days before a demonstration by supporters of Donald Trump, said police in charge of the security of the US Congress.

Donald Craighead, a resident of Oceanside, California, was driving a pickup truck without a license plate and had a bayonet and machete, weapons banned in the federal capital, police said in a statement.

On patrol

He explained to the police that he was "on patrol" before speaking "of white supremacist ideology and other speech relating to white supremacy," according to the police.

Swastikas and other neo-Nazi inscriptions were painted on one of the mirrors and inside the vehicle, according to photos released by police on their Twitter account.

The headquarters of the Democratic Party is located 500 meters south of Congress.

Police said they did not know if the man had come to Washington to attend the demonstration, scheduled for Saturday, by supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump in support of protesters arrested for participating in the deadly assault on Congress on January 6.

Remember last January 6

Hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators had then forced the entrance of Congress when parliamentarians were gathered there to certify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden over the outgoing Republican president.

Nearly 600 people have since been arrested for their participation in the attack which left five dead. 

The seat of the American legislature, which remains marked by the memory of the assault, has since been the scene of other incidents.

On August 19, a man threatened for long hours to set off an explosive device he claimed to have in his vehicle parked in front of Congress, before surrendering to authorities. 

On April 2, a policeman was killed and another injured when a young man threw his car against a roadblock protecting the entrance, before being shot.

The day before January 6, 2021, an unknown person had planted homemade bombs in front of the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington, which had not exploded.

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