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Although Trump rejects the support of the KKK, the KKK still likes Trump. Why are the KKK people supporting him?

Image of "The Knights Party" page, captioned "Congratulations, PRESIDENT TRUMP! Populism Wins!" 1/20/17

agc
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Rajseen Gupta
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    What do you mean with "good person" or "bad people"? Would you please re-write your answer because right now it doesn't make sense what you're looking for. – nelruk Feb 03 '17 at 17:47
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    Can you provide a reference showing that the KKK support Trump? Otherwise I'm inclined to vote to close. Also, there is a value judgment is saying that the KKK are bad people. Those kind of moral observations are typically not what we do here. – indigochild Feb 03 '17 at 17:51
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    Look at the KKK.com webpage and you will see this http://kkk.bz/2017/01/20/populism-wins/ – Rajseen Gupta Feb 03 '17 at 17:56
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    About moral observations (good or bad) you might take in consideration what we do here in Politics.SE; therefore @RajseenGupta I recommend you to take the Polticis.SE tour and then re-write the question. – nelruk Feb 03 '17 at 18:00
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    I think this is a valid rhetorical question but likely not very answerable here in any legitimate way. But if you want to connect some dots: Trump -> Bannon -> Breitbart -> alt-right. –  Feb 04 '17 at 05:24

3 Answers3

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Because during the election, Trump was the candidate that most closely matched their political views:

Overall, we do like his nationalist views and his words about shutting down the border to illegal aliens

The explicit racism and implicit antisemitism of the Trump campaign both spoke to the KKK and white supremacists in general, as did the fact that the Trump campaign employed prominent members of the far-right, and that the campaign interacted positively with white supremacists on social media on multiple occasions.

It is important to note that there are political differences between the KKK and other far-right groups and Trump, but the far-right feels that the Trump campaign helped normalize their ideas and that it gave them a platform and new momentum to further spread these ideas.

The Washington Post:

In addition to opening “a door to conversation,” she said, Trump’s surging candidacy [...] has done something else: It has electrified some members of the movement.

“They like the overall momentum of his rallies and his campaign,” Pendergraft said. “They like that he’s not willing to back down. He says what he believes and he stands on that.”

the LA Times:

“I love it,” said Duke, 66, tearing into a chicken garlic pizza at a nearby restaurant later. “The fact that Donald Trump’s doing so well, it proves that I’m winning. I am winning.”

Trump’s surprise rise to become the GOP presidential nominee, built largely on a willingness to openly criticize minority groups and tap into long-simmering racial divisions, has reenergized white supremacist groups and drawn them into mainstream American politics like nothing seen in decades.
[...]
White supremacists are active on social media and their websites report a sharp rise in traffic and visitors, particularly when posting stories and chat forums about the New York businessman.
[...]
“Before Trump, our identity ideas, national ideas, they had no place to go,” said Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank based in Arlington, Va.

Mother Jones:

But Trump did not become the object of white nationalist affection simply because his positions reflect their core concerns. Extremists made him their chosen candidate and now hail him as "Emperor Trump" because he has amplified their message on social media—and, perhaps most importantly, has gone to great lengths to avoid distancing himself from the racist right.
[...]
This stance has thrilled and emboldened hate groups far more than has been generally understood during the 2016 race for the White House. Moreover, Trump's tacit welcoming of these hate groups into mainstream American politics will have long-lasting consequences, according to these groups' own leaders, regardless of the election outcome.

tim
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    Explicit racism and implicit antisemitism are bad assumptions based on highly biased sources. First I would call attention to the anti-semetism. He is highly supportive of Israel, while calling out some hard leftists like Soros who happens to be Jewish. He called out Soros because he is Liberal, not because of the religion of his birth. – Paul TIKI Oct 16 '17 at 19:33
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    @PaulTIKI Right, because he is liberal. Just like Yellen and Blankfein. That's what they all have in common. It's definitely not part of an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews controlling banking and politics. And the star of david on a meme stolen from Nazis is a sheriffs star, and all the other antisemitic canards are just innocent mistakes... Either way, my answer reflects what credible sources are saying. If you want more information and sources, feel free to open a question about it. – tim Oct 16 '17 at 20:07
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    So he's still anti-semetic, and yet has called for the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem. Anti semetism is obvious when you are the most vocal supporter of Israel since Regan. Antisemetism is pulling out of Unesco over the rest of the bodies treatment of Israel. Your sources are NOT reliable because they are trying to Imply Racism without evidenc – Paul TIKI Oct 17 '17 at 14:28
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    Linking David Duke to Trump as a way to claim racism is as rational as saying Paul McCartney and John Lennon were murderous thugs because Charles Manson liked the song Helter Skelter. It makes no sense when viewed rationally, and yet that is exactly what your "credible" sources are trying to do. – Paul TIKI Oct 17 '17 at 14:35
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    @PaulTIKI Nobody said that Duke is the reason for the racism claim against the Trump campaign, that's a strawman. Trumps position on Israel is irrelevant regarding antisemitism. The sources do provide evidence. But I'm done discussing this with you. Your arguments make no sense, and if you can't - or don't want to - see the very obvious racism that was used by the Trump campaign, you are not going to see the somewhat subtle antisemitism either, so there is no point. If you have a question about the topic, open a new question (check that it's on-topic and not a duplicate first though). – tim Oct 17 '17 at 14:56
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    I don't expect a response (or much care), but how can an entire nation, founded and governed by Jews, be irrelevant to a discussion on anti antisemitism? That is irrational. Your sources are heavily biased. Take time to read both sides. look for and understand the bias – Paul TIKI Oct 17 '17 at 15:12
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    But how can Trump be anti-Semitic? Some of his best political allies are Jewish! – Obie 2.0 Mar 26 '19 at 07:54
  • "Trumps position on Israel is irrelevant regarding antisemitism." Convenient stance, given that anti-Trumpers are usually also anti-Israel. – John Jan 01 '20 at 14:12
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    @John I don't see how that is related (and it seems like a broad overgeneralization). There is some correlation between being anti-Israel and antisemitic, but Trumps antisemitism isn't excused or negated by his pro-Israel policies. – tim Jan 01 '20 at 15:11
  • @tim Your anti-Israel stance isn't negated or excused by your framing of Trump either. – John Jan 02 '20 at 08:54
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There's not much need to do a lot of guessing here, because the KKK newspaper was quoted in the WaPo piece linked in the Q:

"While Trump wants to make America great again, we have to ask ourselves, 'What made America great in the first place?'" the article continues. "The short answer to that is simple. America was great not because of what our forefathers did — but because of who our forefathers were.

"America was founded as a White Christian Republic. And as a White Christian Republic it became great."

As if that wasn't easy to guess from the screenshot of the site which has a "White Heritage Store". And asked by phone, the author of that piece (besides some contortion about the endorsement not being "official") said

"Overall, we do like his nationalist views and his words about shutting down the border to illegal aliens."

The WaPo article is quite a bit longer, but I'm not sure it's worth getting into any more of the obvious details on Trump's positions etc.

the gods from engineering
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It can be assumed that the KKK thinks the president's stance on at least immigration of people from the middle east is in line with their values.

Many people who it might be assumed the KKK don't like have criticized Trump in ways that might not make him unattractive to the KKK. ie if a noted propionate of equality calls him a racist or misogynistic they are more likely to burn effigies of the speaker than of Trump.