Welcome back to #TrumpWatch, where Tablet will present the daily low-lights of Donald Trump’s attempt to use the dark forces of bigotry to become President of the United States.
Today, we focus our attention on a report from media watchdog Media Matters that details the connection between Trump and Carl Gallups, a pastor at Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, FL, and radio host, who is also a Sandy Hook truther. In a press release, Trump’s campaign called Gallups “incredible.” He gave the opening prayer at a Trump rally in January.
…ahead of the state’s March 15 Republican primary; the campaign invited Gallups to speak at a rally and touted his endorsement as a “great honor” from a “prominent” leader. Gallups is a fringe conspiracy host who believes the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT, was a “staged” “hoax” and that the father of one of the victims was an “actor employed by the Obama administration to take away your guns.”
I wonder what the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings would have to say about this “hoax.” I wonder how Donald Trump would respond if someone asked him if he believed the shootings were a hoax, and why he was campaigning with someone like Gallups, whose website PPSIMMONS News and Ministry Network touted the “fake” events and “fake fathers” in Connecticut. (If you were to visit PPSIMMONS News and Ministry Network right now, the first blog post details the “Muslim problem” and other anti-establishment messages that seem to be activating hoards of voters into Trump’s camp.) Muslims, the article states, want “to spread their hate among and against us.” Trump, of course, has called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” I also wonder what Trump, who has distanced himself from David Duke, and recently Hitler, would have to say about this affiliation to Gallups and his network.
What say ye, Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii? How will you vote? And Florida, where Gallups influence is intended to help Trump secure the delegates in the Sunshine State, his second home? We’ll know soon.
Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.
