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This morning in Warsaw, Poland, President Donald Trump issued a battle cry for family, for freedom, for country, and for God" in a speech that often resorted to rhetorical conceits typically used by the European and American alt-right. It sounded, at times, not just like the populists of the present but the populists of the past.

Drafted by Steve Miller, the architect of the travel ban, Trumps speech used the type of dire, last-chance wording often utilized by the far right on both sides of the Atlantic: "The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.

Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Trump asked. Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

Trump arrived in Warsaw Wednesday night for a 16-hour visit in the runup to the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Poland was a less-than-obvious choice for Trumps first major public European speech. Typically, American presidents land in London, Paris, or Berlin before Eastern Europe. But Trump has been at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over everything from climate change to migrant policy, and French President Emmanuel Macron has also positioned himself as a counterweight to the conservative American administration. The Polish leadership, on the other hand, seems to have more in common with Trumps vision.

In his address, Trump cast the West, including the United States and Europe, on the side of civilization. With an undercurrent of bellicosity, he spoke of protecting borders, casting himself as a defender not just of territory but of Western values. And, using the phrase he had avoided on his trip to Saudi Arabia, he insisted that in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism, the West will prevail.

Again and again, Trump held up Poland as an example, saying their history reminds the world that the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of the people to prevail. He recalled the story of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis in 1944: The West, he said, was saved with the blood of patriots.

That battle, the president seemed to say, is ongoing. He called on a new generation to rise up, saying every last inch of civilization is worth defending with your life.

Just as Poland could not be broken, I declare today for the world to hear that the West will never, ever be broken, Trump said. Our values will prevail, our people will thrive, and our civilization will triumph.

He did not mention that in 1944, the Polish patriots, while valiant, were not, ultimately, the saviors of the state. Nor did he note that Europeans widely see the Polish ruling party of today, which has tried to clamp down on the media and judiciary, as itself a threat to Western values. Some 90,000 Poles marched against the Polish government in early May, protesting its anti-democratic trajectory. That Poland was absent in Trumps speech.

In his speech, Trump also addressed Russia, in advance of his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week. He urged Russia to cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere and its support for hostile regimes including Syria and Iran, and to join the community of responsible nations in our fight against common enemies in defense of civilization itself.

He also affirmed the US commitment to NATOs Article 5, the assurance that each member will defend the others, on European soil. His failure to endorse that clause on his previous visit to Europe in May had angered traditional US allies. (He later did so, on US soil, but he had yet to do so in Europe.)

As expected, Trump also doubled down on his insistence that NATO allies pull their weight economically, and praised Poland for already giving 2 percent of its GDP.

But it was his insistent thread that recalled theories of a clash of civilizations that will be the primary takeaway from this speech. He was met with cheers throughout. Earlier in the week, the Associated Press reported that the audience was largely hand-selected in advance by the Polish ruling party, which brought in supporters by bus to ensure a large crowd.

Trumps speech came after a joint press conference held with Polish President Andrzej Duda, during which the American president called CNN fake news and said what he would like to see is honest and fair press because fake news was a bad thing, very bad for our country.

The President of the United States, representing the U.S. on foreign soil, attacks the American free press as fake news pic.twitter.com/LJwOjApHUO

At the same press conference, Trump told traveling press that hacking might have come from Russia in the 2016 presidential elections but nobody really knows for sure.

"I think it was Russia, he said, and I think it could've been other people."

And asked about North Koreas missile testing, he said there would be consequences for their very, very bad behavior. But he did not specify what those consequences would be outside of some pretty severe things.

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Trump's speech in Poland sounded like an alt-right manifesto - Vox

Donald Trump continued to push forward his white nationalist agenda in Poland on Thursday, in a speech that, as Sarah Wildman at Vox wrote, often resorted to rhetorical conceits typically used by the European and American alt-right.

That this is true should hardly be worth debating. Trump argued that Western (read: white)nations are the fastest and the greatest community and the world has never known anything like our community of nations. He crowed about how Westerners (read: white people) write symphonies, pursue innovation and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers, as if these were unique qualities to white-dominated nations, instead of universal truths of the human race across all cultures.

He also portrayed this Western civilization as under assault from forces from the South or the East that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are.

The speech read, at times, like a cleaned-up version of The Camp of Saints, a white supremacist novel that Trump advisor Steve Bannon reportedly admires, which portrays a Western civilization on the verge of invasionby legions of evil dark-skinned people intent on destruction.

The speech wasnt subtle.Both folks on the leftand on the alt-rightunderstood it clearly.Folks on TheDonald forum on Reddit were inspired to post heavily about how immigrants and leftists are destroying Europe and only the hard right can stop the damage. Breitbart gushed about how Trump was calling forprotecting our borders and preserving Western civilization, and bizarrely compared the speech to Ronald Reagans tear down this wall speech, even though the Berlin Wall is the gold standard in the kind ofborder security and cultural preservation that Trump has made his political career calling for.

And yet, even though Trump was fairly begging to be labeled a fascist with his speech painting the purity of white civilization as under threat from racialized foreigners, there was a stampede of punditry eager to paint those who see the obvious as hysterical reactionaries. The main tactic was to zero in on individual words and ignore the largermeaning conveyed by context, both outside the speech and even within it.

Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast tried to argue that Trumps rhetoric was no different than Winston Churchills anti-fascist speechesinvoking the concept of Christendom, as if Trumps critics were objecting to the use of the term civilization or even the West, as opposed to the larger rhetorical thrust of his speech. Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez got downright silly with the context-removal efforts:

Hey, Mike, some food for thought:Out of context, phrases like church, kitchen, children, hard work is ennobling, God is with us or one people, one nation, one leader could be defended as traditionalist entreaties about the importance of family values, a work ethic, faith and patriotism. Translate them back into the original German, however, and they are easily recognizable as popular Nazi slogans.

Which isnt to say that Trump is a Nazi, but he shares their authoritarian DNA. And this is what authoritarians do: They wrap their grotesque ideas in ennobling rhetoric of tradition, patriotism or family.Thats why their words need to be understood in context, rather than playing this game where a few unobjectionable quotes are taken out of context and held out to be not-that-bad.

No one can pretend that we dont have plenty of context. For twoyears,Trump has been demagoguing with openly racist rhetoric,painting immigrants and refugeesas adire threat to our national security, hiring white nationalists like Steve Bannon, starting authoritarian initiatives like an immigrant crime database and nationwide voter suppression efforts, and tweeting out white supremacist propaganda, its time to stop giving him the benefit of the doubt when he wallows in rhetoric that echoes that of white nationalists.

Even within that Warsaw speech, Trumprhetorically equated actual past guns-and-ammo battles that spilled the blood of patriots with this vaguely defined but seeminglyracialized fight to preserve our civilization. Its a speech where he said, Our freedom, our civilization and our survival depend on these bonds of history, culture and memory, which is rhetoric that deliberately excludes those who have different histories, cultural practices and memories.

Anyone who denies Trumps leanings cannot truly be believed to be ignorant of this pattern, not after two solid years of this. Instead, such a person must be understood as complicit.

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Trump's alt-right Poland speech: Time to call his white nationalist rhetoric what it is - Salon

Updated| The American right frequently delightsin its mockery of CNN, dutifully following in the footsteps of President Trump, whospent much of the last week maligning the cable news network.

Sometimes, however, that glee can seem misplaced.

Lucian B. Wintrich, the White House correspondent for right-wing news site Gateway Pundit, decided to express his disdain for the network's alleged desire to stifle the Trump administration by depicting President Trump as one of the hijacked 9/11 airliners crashing into the World Trade Center. The tweet since deleted was clearly intended as a slight at CNN and recent controversies surrounding its reporting.Perhaps unintentionally, Wintrich approvingly conflatedTrump with Al Qaeda while casting CNN in the role of the 3,000 innocents who were killed that morning.

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The image shows Trump's head crudely superimposed onto the fuselage ofUnited Airlines Flight 175, which terrorists slammed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. Sixty people died aboard the airplane. Six hundred fourteen died in the explosion of the tower, the resulting fireand the building'sensuing collapse.

Wintrich is a young Bard College graduate who gained notorietyfor Twinks4Trump, which the liberal site Mic once described as a portfolio of "gay men in various states of undress sporting Make America Great Again hats." Wintrich is an ally of Milo Yiannopoulos, another openly gay member of the alt-right. Both men are fond of calling Trump "daddy."

This winter, Gateway Pundit receivedWhite House credentials and announced that Wintrich would serve as its White House correspondent. Many critics of Trump saw this as further evidence that he would afforda platform to alt-right outlets that would, in exchange, eagerly promulgate his distorted version of reality. Media Matters for America, the left-leaning watchdog group, called Wintrich a "dangerous troll," citing what it called his misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic comments.

Several weeks later, Wintrich was denounced in the White House briefing room by Jon Decker of Fox Radio. "They hate blacks, Jews, Hispanics," Decker reportedly said of Gateway Pundit, and of Wintrich in particular.Wintrich had his own versionof the encounter: "He really aggressively grabbed me, not to the point where I was bruised, but close to it.

Wintrich has been busy, in recent days, sending out tweets mocking CNN. These have beenin line with the president's own attacks, which came as Trumpwas preparing to meet with Russian leader VladimirPutin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, decidinghow to best confront an emboldened North Korea and awaiting Senate action on the American Health Care Act.

In an exchange with another Twitter user who confronted him with the 9/11-themed tweet, Wintrich claimed it was sent to him by a friend in the U.S. Marines, saying that helater deleted the tweet because numerous people asked him to. He maintainedthat the tweetwas funny.

Asked by NewsweekFriday how he wouldexplain what he meant by the tweet, Wintrich replied in an email: "Memes, as a new media art form, are open to interpretation. How would you explain it?"

Twitter

Confronted with Wintrich's tweet, Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft had a simple message: "I hope CNN won't dox him." The reference is to CNN's tracking down of the Reddit user who created the professional wrestling image tweeted by Trump a week ago. Since CNN report did not identify that individual by name, it did not technically "dox" him.

This article has been updated to reflect Wintrich's reply to Newsweek's request for comment.

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Bizarre Alt Right Cartoon of Trump as 9/11 Plane and CNN as Twin ... - Newsweek

Richard Spencer is the face of the alt-right movement.

It seems likethe alt-right has an identity problem. It cant figure out what it wants to be or what it wants to be called. This confusion is driving a wedgebetween those deplorables who identify with the label alt-right and white supremacist Richard Spencer who has become the face of the movement, and those who identify with the almost the exact same things he stands for but are uncomfortable publicly aligning themselves with his brand of racism and anti-Semitism.That must be deeply difficult for them, poor little things.

And before you ask, yes, they are serious. They actually see a distinction in their ideologies which is splintering the movement in two.

During the Presidential campaign, the term came to denote several intersecting phenomena: anti-feminism, opposition to political correctness, online abuse, belligerent nihilism, conspiracy theories, inflammatory Internet memes. Some pro-Trump activists adopted this big-tent definition, allowing any youthful, edgy critique of establishment conservatism to be considered alt-right.

But a core within the movement always insisted on a narrower conception of the alt-right, one that was inextricably linked with white separatism, and with Spencer specifically. [...]

Now the boundaries are set. Spencer and his allies have won the branding war. They own the alt-right label; their right-wing opponents are aligning themselves against it, working to establish a parallel brand. It has become increasingly clear that this is not a mere rhetorical ploy but a distinction with a difference.

This is truly laughable so its hard to know where to begin. But they are right on one thinglabels and language do matter. In politics, brandingis everything. Mistakes have huge consequences and can be disastrous for ones party and career. George H. W. Bush, for instance, became synonymous with the one liner he uttered at the 1988 Republican National Convention: Read my lips: no new taxes. Of course, he did the exact opposite of his promise and raised taxes, which his opponent, Bill Clinton, made sure to remind us of four years later in his presidential bid. And we all know what happened after that. So who can blame these folks for trying to perfect their name and brand so the outside world knows exactly who they are?

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The alt-right has an identity crisis in its movement but we will gladly help them out - Daily Kos