Trump Adviser, Son Post Image Featuring Alt-Right Symbolhttp://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-adviser-son-post-image-featuring-alt-right-symbol/ar-AAiLPRs?li=BBmkt5RA white nationalist symbol has made its way into the latest back and forth in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Amid the flurry of statements about to Hillary Clinton calling "half" of Donald Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables," — a reference to some of the Republican nominee's supporters who ascribe to views popular among the white nationalist-linked alt-right movement — informal Trump adviser and confidante Roger Stone tweeted a picture of the poster from the movie "The Dependables" altered as "The Deplorables." Donald Trump, Jr., one of Trump's sons, posted the same image on Instagram. The origin of the image is unclear.
The Photoshopped faces include Trump, running mate Gov. Mike Pence, Gov. Chris Christie, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Ben Carson, both of Trump's eldest sons, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, alt-right icon Milo Yiannopoulos, and Stone himself. Prominently featured over Trump's right shoulder: popular white nationalist symbol, Pepe the Frog.
"Pepe the Frog is a huge favorite white supremacist meme," Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told NBC News of the meme.
While Pepe the Frog may not be a household name, the meme is well-known to members of the alt-right on the internet.
"Pepe the Frog is a huge favorite white supremacist meme," Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told NBC News of the meme.
While Pepe the Frog may not be a household name, the meme is well-known to members of the alt-right on the internet.
"It's constantly used in those circles," Beirich said. "The white nationalists are gonna love this because they're gonna feel like 'yeah we're in there with Trump, there's Pepe the Frog.'"
Pepe the Frog, a cartoon amphibian, was popularized on the website 4chan, and became associated with the neo-Nazi movement.
Over the course of this campaign, Trump has retweeted Twitter accounts with names such as 'WhiteNationalistTM' and blasted out anti-Semitic images to his over 11 million followers on the social media site. Some members of his campaign have been tied to the alt-right, including Breitbart's Steve Bannon, who is now CEO of the Trump campaign. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton gave a speech shortly after Bannon's appointment linking Trump's campaign to the nationalistic movement and calling on the rest of the GOP to reject extremist views. Clinton has continued to argue that Trump has "given voice" those who engage in "offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric."