John Cole, a Pennsylvania-based editorial cartoonist, tweeted four drawings. One depicted a man wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat - a hallmark of Trump's campaign and presidency - with a Hitler-esque mustache, standing in front of an American flag while performing a Nazi salute. Another showed Trump standing in front of a crowd of KKK members and other assumed white supremacists, with his arms opened to a Black couple, encouraging them to join him. One of the cartoons was a play on the film The Producers, in which a Jewish accountant helps produce a play about the 'happy home life of Hitler.'We must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are ALL AMERICANS FIRST. pic.twitter.com/FesMiQSKKn
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
Trump's statement that ''we are all Americans'' drew criticism from many people.The original rally, called ''Unite the Right," was headlined by prominent white nationalists and neo-Nazis, including Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler. The organizers called the protest against what they saw was an infringement on the rights of white Americans, and a perceived special treatment of people of color and immigrants. The organizers also made explicit their support of the confederacy movement, a modern reincarnation of the original Confederacy. The Confederacy was a union of slave-holding states that sought to secede from the United States, which led to the American Civil War. Virginia was an important state in the Confederacy and throughout the South, the memory of the Civil War is a complex issue that deals with states’ rights, racial relations, and politics.One of the more famous cartoons associated with the alt-right and the neo-Nazi movement during Trump's campaign was Pepe the Frog, who reportedly made a few appearances at this weekend's rally.I've drawn a few cartoons about @POTUS' normalization of white nationalism/neo-nazism. Here are a few. #Virginia #CitronellaNazis pic.twitter.com/egUUeqozjT
— John Cole (@ColeToon) August 12, 2017