Although President Donald Trump has long proven his acceptance of violent white supremacists, many of whom have explicitly supported his rise to power, their virulent ideology remains a threat potent enough for the National Guard to kick out members. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the National Guard has now discharged two of its members — Georgia’s Dalton Woodward and Alabama’s Trent East — who were members of a neo-pagan group that espouses a whites-only ideology and is a haven for hate.
Woodward was deployed to Afghanistan when the Atlanta Antifascists group’s report came out revealing his connection — and who’s to say that his ideology didn’t motivate him to violate decency while overseas? The same could be said of East’s previous job as a jailer for the Haralson County Sheriff’s Office, which kicked him out after the revelation. The Journal-Constitution notes that in just 2017, a poll of military service members by the Military Times “found nearly one in four had seen signs of white nationalism among their fellow service members.” Some 42 percent of non-white troops said they’d seen signs of white nationalism.
Woodward offered no comment, but East tried to distance himself from the violent ideology of the organization he’s a member of — and the white power causes that he’s proudly supported as a demonstrator at a rally in support of white supremacist Richard Spencer. East claimed that he’s “just never been a fan of Christianity, and so seeing a faith that was about my ethnic roots was something I could get into a little more.” There are plenty of sects of neo-paganism that not only have nothing to do with East and Woodward’s Asatru Folk Assembly but actively denounce it and white supremacy in general. In other words — it’s the racism.
An Atlanta Antifascists spokesperson said that “East was merely “dissembling his beliefs” in an attempt to make his statements and actions appear less extreme.” They added:
‘He’s a confirmed white supremacist just shopping around in the marketplace, picking and choosing by aesthetics. I’m surprised he is not backtracking more.’
Besides his photographed appearances in support of Spencer and his membership in the Asatru hate group, East’s now deleted social media profiles even included white supremacist imagery.
He and Woodward are not the first military members to get booted following revelations of ties to white supremacy. For example, the Journal-Constitution notes that a Colorado Air Force sergeant got revealed as an organizer for the racist organization known as the American Identity Movement just this month, and he’s also faced discharge proceedings. In an earlier case, a Coast Guard member was revealed to be plotting terror attacks on prominent Democrats.
The commander-in-chief, who one might hope would care about these kinds of issues, has shown no sign of concern.
Asked if he saw white nationalism as a “rising threat” following a terrorist attack in which a shooter touting the ideology killed 50 people, Trump vaguely rambled:
‘I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet… But it’s certainly a terrible thing.’
What solid leadership! Not.
