This weekend’s far right conservative conference saw Christian nationalism in full display. Some Republicans took part in the event and openly supported the extremist ideology.
In Tampa, Florida, the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit featured many speakers, including Donald Trump. Trump emphasized the importance of having a belief in God to be a part the nation. millions of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated or agnostic.
“We are Americans and Americans kneel to God, and God alone,” Trump said.
The former president wasn’t the only one peddling Christofascist ideals at the conference. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far right lawmaker from Georgia who has supported racist and conspiratorial views during a conversation at the event, was interviewed. In the past (and Who has attended events hosted by white nationalists?(Before), he had pushed for Republican Party to be the party of Christian nationists.
“We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists,” Greene said.
The Georgia lawmaker went on to lament that the GOP has had to “chase down certain identities or chase down certain segments of people” in order to win elections, something she said the party should no longer try to do.
“We just need to represent Americans and most Americans, no matter how they vote, really care about the same things and I want to see Republicans actually do their job,” she said.
Outside the event, far right nationalist sentiments were also displayed. Neofascists demonstrated outside of the building holding flags with Nazi swastikas and references to the SS (the “Schutzstaffel,” political soldiers for the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany) and shouting racist slurs at passersby. They also displayed photos of Florida Republican Governor. Ron DeSantis, declaring the area to be “DeSantis Country.”
Officials from Turning Point condemned the imagery and the actions of the neofascists, but DeSantis hasn’t responded to his image being included in the demonstration. DeSantis engaged in the same Christofascist rhetoric that Greene and Trump. telling attendees at a separate state party event near Hollywood, Florida, that they needed to “put on the full armor of God” to oppose progressive ideas.
“You will face fire from flaming arrows but the shield of faith will protect you and ultimately keep the state of Florida free,” DeSantis said in his speech.
Although Trump hasn’t commented on the fascist elements outside the event, he did thank attendees of the event, writing that “the crowd & ‘love’ was AMAZING” on his Truth Social account.
Trump has used the word “nationalist” to describe himself in the past. 2018 speech to describe himself and his beliefsThis was just over a year after white nationalists attacked Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump downplayed the right-wing violence, which resulted in the death of one person and injuring dozens more.
Nationalism of any kind is a dangerous ideology that prioritizes the individual’s devotion to a nation-state. Nationalism is routinely used to push one segment of society’s interests as being supreme to all othersThey often do so to their greatest detriment. As author George Orwell explained in his essay, “Notes on Nationalism,” the belief:
…is inseparable from the desire for power. Every nationalist’s primary goal is to get more power and prestige, not only for himself but also for the nation or other unit where he has chosen to sink.
Mike Igel (chair of the Florida Holocaust Museum) spoke out against the neofascist protesters.
“Carrying the Nazi flag, or that of the SS, the unit responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust, is an indefensible act of pure hatred,” Igel said in a statement. “This isn’t about politics or religion. It’s about humanity.”
