NEW YORK - Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have appropriated the phrase “basket of deplorables” - used by Hillary Clinton during the campaign to pillory some of his backers - to plan an inauguration party called the “Deploraball.”
But while the intention might be to mock the defeated Democratic candidate, the planned gathering has revealed a deep schism within the ranks of a movement known as the alt-right: pitting those embracing white nationalism or outright racism against those seeking a more credible platform for hard-right conservatives.
The party will be held at the National Press Club in Washington the night before Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, when many official inauguration events are taking place.
Organizers say the Deploraball is a cocktail party for Trump supporters from all ethnic backgrounds and no incendiary or discriminatory actions will be allowed. Organizers call themselves “Trumpists” and say they have sold 1,000 tickets ranging in price from $99 to $2,500. But after an online battle between star guests, Deploraball organizers offered ticket holders refunds “in light of recent events.”
One of the original organizers of the ball, alt-right social media personality Tim Treadstone, who is commonly referred to by his online persona “Baked Alaska,” has been disinvited after tweeting several anti-Semitic comments, setting off angry exchanges among members of the alt-right on Twitter.
Another featured guest at the party, Mike Cernovich, has condemned Treadstone for appearing anti-Semitic and homophobic.
“The lines are drawn, and the fracture is more or less complete,” he said.
Cernovich, an architect of viral internet trends promoting rumors of Clinton’s supposed ill health that have been credited with helping push Trump to victory with the support of the alt-right, said he has rejected the alt-right’s descent into white nationalism.
The alt-right movement, which came to the fore during the presidential campaign, is a loose grouping that rejects mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. It had previously been more widely embraced by libertarians and the far-right fringe: people more opposed to the concept of political correctness than to racial or other diversity.
Trump has been criticized for naming Steve Bannon, former head of the Breitbart News website that is closely linked to the alt-right, as a senior White House adviser.
Days after the Nov. 8 election, the movement was strongly criticized when some Trump supporters gave Nazi salutes to alt-right leader Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, during a gathering in Washington to celebrate Trump’s victory.
The incident prompted some figures linked with the alt-right to assume the term “new right” to describe themselves instead.
After Treadstone posted anti-Jewish tweets over the past week, Cernovich told him not to repeat the so-called “hailgate” scandal at Deploraball.
“No Nazi salutes ... or don’t have your name on the event,” Cernovich wrote in a series of insult-filled text messages to Treadstone that were later posted on Twitter.
The argument raged on social media between the two southern California-based men, who were once friends, egged on by their fans.
“You used the movement and now you want to distance yourself from it,” Treadstone, wearing pastel-colored camouflage apparel and a bleached blond beard, said in one 45-minute video post.
Treadstone said the main difference between himself and the so-called new right, including Cernovich and Yiannopoulos, is the explicit support of white nationalism.
“If you don’t support white advocacy, you cannot be alt-right and that’s where a lot of people are running into a problem,” he told Reuters.
Cernovich, who says Treadstone is increasingly fixated on Jewish conspiracy theory, said the branch of former alt-righters he belongs to are more inclusive and are primarily focused on populism, nationalism and the rejection of “victim culture and identity politics.”
Jeff Giesea, one organizer of the Deploraball, described “Trumpism” as a new breed of Republicanism and said it was still a work-in-progress. “We’re in the process of constructing it, and it’s messy,” he said.
