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Donald Trump takes the oath of office. His election has spurred a groundswell of activity on both sides of the political spectrum.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, millions of people took to the streets to protest. They also opened their pocketbooks.
So far in 2017, both left-leaning and far-right groups have seen “bumps” in donations, memberships, and influence. Some more than others.
One example is Democratic Socialists of America, whose membership has nearly quadapuled in the last year to over 24,000 dues-paying members. The total number of DSA chapters has also increased, from 45 in November 2016 to 164 now, including chapters in the traditionally conservative states of Nebraska and West Virginia, according to David Duhalde, the group’s deputy director. Dozens of groups are in the process of becoming chapters.
The total number of DSA chapters has also increased, from 45 in November 2016 to 164 now, including chapters in the traditionally conservative states of Nebraska and West Virginia.
“We’ve definitely seen people get active in DSA where they feel like maybe the Democratic Party or other progressive organizations aren’t resisting Republicans enough and they are finding DSA as a venue to engage in very productive political action,” Duhalde says.
Other groups on the left have also benefited. The American Civil Liberties Union experienced a huge Trump bump, receiving $24 million in just two days after Trump announced his plan to ban people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States—almost seven times as much as it received in online donations during 2015. Overall, as of February, the ACLU’s membership had doubled since the November election.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, received more than 500 volunteer applications after Trump announced his executive order on immigration. And Planned Parenthood, has seen what President Cecile Richards called an “unprecedented outpouring of support.” As of April, the organization had gained 600,000 new donors since the election.
Environmental groups have been especially affected, as Trump has given environmental activists plenty to be concerned about, from reneging on the Paris climate accord to appointing a climate change denier as head of the EPA. Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth have all seen donations increase since his election. In addition, 350.org spokesperson Jamie Henn told the online news outlet Grist that his organization has gained “tens of thousands of new supporters since Election Day,” as well as an increased number of donors.
Trump has even helped boost support for community radio stations across the country, says Susan Sheldon, listener-sponsor development director at Madison, Wisconsin’s WORT community radio. She recalls what happened during pledge drive season earlier this year, building on WORT’s 16 percent increase in total donations in 2016 from the year before.
“There’s a listserve for public radio and community radio development officers, and in that listserve all of us were saying to each other, ‘What’s going on?’” Sheldon tells The Progressive. “It was just blowing up.”
Meanwhile, some mainstream conservative groups have also seen their fortunes rise in the aftermath of Trump’s election. A spokeswoman for the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List reported “a huge increase in the number of calls and emails simply expressing thanks and support."
But the boom also extends to groups that openly espouse racist, white supremacist views.
Among the most repugnant of the organizations benefiting from Trump’s rise is the Daily Stormer, which The Washington Post described as a “neo-Nazi website known for its crude, hate-filled attacks on Jews, women, immigrants and people of color.” Two of the featured sections on the Daily Stormer’s website are “Jewish Problem” and “Race War.”
Two of the featured sections on the Daily Stormer’s website are “Jewish Problem” and “Race War.”
Editors claim the site has seen a 30 percent increase in its traffic since the election. The Southern Poverty Law Center has named the Daily Stormer the “top hate site in America.” The editor of the Daily Stormer did not respond to a request for comment from The Progressive.
Traffic to other white supremacist websites has also increased since Trump’s election. ProPublica found that while many racist online publications have a modest number of readers in total, “all have seen rapid growth.”
Additionally, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented a 23 percent increase in the number of neo-Confederate groups from 2015 to 2016. The organization found that active hate groups in the United States had reached a near-historic high by the end of 2016.
Another sign of the Trump bump was the increased attendance over the year before at an annual white nationalist conference held in Washington, D.C., just a few weeks after Trump’s election. “There’s an energy in this city that I’ve never felt before,” Gerald Martin, a conference attendee, told The Washington Post.
Lecia Brooks, outreach director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, tells The Progressive there has been “an unprecedented number of hate crimes” since Trump’s election.
In its report on 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 1,094 hate-related incidents in the first 34 days after the election, writing that “The hate was clearly tied directly to Trump’s victory.” In New York City alone, there were fourteen instances of vandalism involving swastikas in the first two weeks after the election.
“The radical right was more successful in entering the political mainstream last year than in half a century,” the report concluded.
Brooks believes Trump’s election has galvanized white supremacists who are anxious about becoming a numerical minority in the United States and who were frustrated by Barack Obama’s presidency.
“I think folks saw in Trump a way to push back against that,” she says. “So his rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims really just fed into their existing anxiety, it gave voice to it.”
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Correction:
An earlier version of this story understated the extent of Democratic Socialists of America's increase in membership. The group's dues-paying membership has nearly quadrupled to over 24,000 in the last year, not tripled to 20,000.