When Trump refused to call out Nazis and white supremacists even after a domestic terrorist killed one woman and maimed more in Charlottesville, Virginia—and then averred that “very fine people” were marching under Confederate flags—the extremists recognized the signal.
When, only a week later, he pardoned Joe Arpaio—a man whom white supremacists had made a cause célèbre—they saw him in their corner again.
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the administration was bringing the hammer down on the DACA program, he cited two lies popular among far-right nativists: That “Dreamers” take jobs away from Americans, and that the program prompted the surge in unaccompanied child immigrants (who, for the record, are not eligible for DACA status).