Kicking off the Republican National Convention week in Cleveland on Monday will be an “America First Unity Rally” organized by two far-right allies of Donald Trump: conspiracy-theorist radio host Alex Jones and political dirty trickster Roger Stone. They have billed the event as a way to oppose any effort to “steal” the nomination from Trump. Jones has warned of “revolution” if Trump is denied the nomination, though the odds of that happening have essentially vanished since the convention’s rules committee rejected efforts to “unbind” delegates last night.
Sponsors are calling Monday’s event a “massive victory rally celebration of Mr. Trump’s nomination,” declaring, “We need every Trump supporting patriot to converge on Cleveland in YUGE numbers to show our unity and support for Donald J. Trump!”
In addition to Jones and Stone, speakers are scheduled to include Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos, the gay enfant terrible of the Right who is a prominent apologist for the racist alt-right movement, and Tea Party activist and radio host Wayne Dupree.
Among sponsors of the event are Jones’ InfoWars, Citizens for Trump and a number of subgroups including Bikers for Trump, Truckers for Trump and Christians for Trump. Eternal Sentry, a white nationalist website that was originally a sponsor of the event was dropped after Media Matters reported on the racist and anti-Semitic material featured on the site. Citizens for Trump describes its supporters as members of “Tea Party, 912, 2nd Amendment coalitions, anti- common core groups, Christian conservative groups, and many more conservative organizations.”
The head of Bikers for Trump told CNN this week that with Ohio’s open-carry gun laws, Cleveland could turn into “the O.K. Corral.”
“We’re anticipating a victory dance, but it sounds like there’s a lot of agitators and a lot of troublemakers coming to town,” Chris Cox of Bikers for Trump said on Tuesday. “What happens remains to be seen, but you can definitely count on the Bikers for Trump standing with the police department in the event they need it.”
Jones is no stranger to violent rhetoric, having said earlier this year that Bernie Sanders supporters are “pathetic scum” who “need to have [their] jaws broken.” Last month he called Hillary Clinton a “demon-antichrist” figure.
Trump has embraced Jones and appeared on his radio show even though Jones is in a class by himself when it comes to promoting false and irresponsible conspiracy theories, the latest of which is that liberal philanthropist George Soros engineered the shootings of police officers in Dallas as part of a plot to start a race war that will lead to a “Marxist overthrow of the United States.” Jones is fond of promoting “false flag” theories about everything from the 9/11 attacks to the killing of elementary school students in Connecticut, making him one of the most notorious and truly bizarre conspiracy theorists out there. But he is far from the only one in Trump’s stable. Trump’s own obsession with conspiracy theories is reflected in the number of unhinged characters whose support he has embraced.
Trump told Jones last year that he has an “amazing” reputation. In return Jones called Trump a modern-day George Washington. He and Trump agreed that the country might not survive unless Trump is elected president.
