Supporters of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump will be holding an “America First Unity Rally” on July 18. The event, which will be hosted by Citizens for Trump and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, is being billed as “a massive victory rally & parade celebration of Mr. Trump’s nomination.”
The rally recently hit a speed bump after organizers were forced to drop a white nationalist website that had previously been featured in promotional materials as a sponsor. The person who produces the website in question also resigned from a position with hosting organization Citizens for Trump.
The “Unity” rally is slated to feature speakers and hosts with incendiary histories befitting of their support for Trump. The scheduled speakers and hosts have lobbed racist and sexist attacks against opponents; called for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’ executions; openly discriminated against minorities; led the movement that claims the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job”; and alleged that President Obama and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) are not American citizens.
Here are five things to know about the “America First Unity Rally.”
Co-Host Roger Stone Has A History Of Pushing Violent Rhetoric, Racist Taunts, Sexist Screeds And Discredited Research
Roger Stone is co-hosting the event and been heavily promoting it on Alex Jones’ conspiracy show (Jones is also speaking at the event). Stone is a longtime friend and ally of Trump and conducted a press gaggle at the July 16 Trump event that introduced running mate Mike Pence. He has a decades-long history of employing political dirty tricks, and regularly spouts violent, racist, and sexist rhetoric, including calling Hillary Clinton a “cunt” and advocating for her and Bernie Sanders’ executions.
Stone is also a discredited researcher and conspiracy theorist who claims the Clintons and Bushes secretly murdered dozens; the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 is “suspicious”; President Lyndon Johnson killed President John F. Kennedy; President George H.W. Bush tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan; and the Clintons killed John F. Kennedy Jr.
For more about Stone, go here.
Leading 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones Is A Speaker And Sponsor
Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones is speaking at the rally and has been encouraging his listeners to give “their time, their energy, and their money” to support it. Jones’ website Infowars.com is sponsoring the event. Jones is a 9/11 truther who said after the terrorist attacks: “Those were controlled demolitions. You just watched the government blow up the World Trade Center.” His website claimed that Jones “predicted the attacks on September 11th, 2001 and is considered one of the very first founding fathers of the 9-11 Truth Movement.”
Jones also believes the government was behind national tragedies like the Oklahoma City bombing, Boston Marathon bombing, Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and mass shootings in Aurora, CO, and Newtown, CT.
For more about Jones’ toxic beliefs and his support of Trump, go here.
A White Nationalist Website Previously Sponsored The Event
The white nationalist website Eternal Sentry previously sponsored the event. Eternal Sentry is a self-described “altright" website that features racist and anti-Semitic material, repeatedly warns about “White Genocide,” and is produced by former Citizens for Trump staffer Paul Chambers, who said whites need to “fight back” against African-Americans and “send them back to the mud-huts they so desperately and obviously desire.”
Following Media Matters’ reporting, Citizens for Trump’s Tim Selaty told Cleveland.com he was not aware of Chambers’ “harmful” views and that his group had failed to do its “due diligence.” According to Selaty, Chambers “decided to drop his sponsorship and resign his volunteer position on our staff.”
Speaker Jan Morgan Bans Muslims From Her Business
Jan Morgan is a rally speaker and national spokesperson for Citizens for Trump. Morgan owns an Arkansas gun range that bans Muslim customers, explaining, “why would I hand a loaded gun to a muslim and allow him to shoot lethal weapons next to people his koran commands him to kill?”
Morgan has claimed that “Islam is also not a religion, It is a theocracy and terrorist cult that hides behind the mask of religion in order to acheive (sic) its mission of world domination.”
Organizer Citizens For Trump Claims President Obama Is A Kenyan Citizen
Citizens For Trump posted an April 15 image asking, “Isn’t it Time ‘We the People’ Elected An American Citizen for President?" and claiming President Obama, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are respectively Kenyan, Cuban, and Canadian citizens.
In August 2015, Citizens for Trump posted an image of President Obama with the caption, “If Trump Becomes President I’m Moving Back To Africa.”