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Treasury Chief Scott Bessent And The Stages Of Trumpist Economic Grief

Treasury Chief Scott Bessent And The Stages Of Trumpist Economic Grief

While much of MAGA is motivated by hatred of an open society — by racism, misogyny and the desire to end all things woke — the swing voters who put Donald Trump over the top thought they were supporting a great manager who would fix the economy, reducing grocery prices and restoring good jobs. It was inevitable that they would eventually feel buyers’ remorse, because Trump never had plans to deliver on his economic promises; on the contrary, almost everything he’s trying to do will make the economy worse.

Even so, it’s stunning just how quickly consumer confidence has fallen off a cliff:

Data via University of MIchiganwww.nationalmemo.com


What’s truly remarkable from my perspective, however, is that Trump’s economic team seems to be even more despairing than the general public.

Bear in mind that “hard” economic data ­— things like unemployment, job growth, and consumer prices — are still looking fairly benign. So you might expect Trump officials to be going on television and assuring everyone that public concerns about tariffs, DOGE layoffs and all that are overblown, that prosperity like you’ve never seen is just around the corner. Instead they’re talking about pain and why Americans should accept it.

I find myself thinking about changing rhetoric about the economy as the stages of Trumpist economic grief. So far they look like this:

1. Prices will come down right away

2. Actually, reducing prices is hard and will take a while

3. Sorry, but we need a painful economic detox

4. Hey, there’s more to life than consumer goods

5. ????

As everyone knows, during the campaign Trump repeatedly promised to bring grocery prices down on Day One of his presidency. As soon as the election was over, however, he declared that “it’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.” He didn’t quite say “Nyah, nyah, fooled you!” but he might as well have. And this reversal was completely predictable.

What has happened since then has been much more surprising. I would have expected Trump officials to wait a while, to start offering excuses for a bad economy only after the economy actually, you know, turned bad. But no, they’re already telling us to expect hard times as the economy goes through a “detox period.”

Detox from what? The semi-official line is that job growth under Biden was somehow fake, that it was all low-value government employment, and that it will be painful as we move workers back to productive work in the private sector. And some in the news media are actually buying that line. The Washington Post just ran a story with the utterly credulous headline “Trump has a plan to remake the economy. But he’s not explaining it very well.”

So, first of all, why does the economy need remaking? The claim that job growth under Biden was mainly government employment is completely false:

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

I don’t know whether people like Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, are deliberately lying, although they probably are — these aren’t hard numbers to check. One thing I’ve noticed, however, is that Republican descriptions of Democratic governance often reflect right-wing fantasies about what liberals would do rather than reality. Big cities must be crime-ridden hellscapes even though New York is one of the safest places in America; Biden must have presided over massive growth in government jobs, even though he didn’t.

The other problem with the headline is, “what plan?” DOGE has wreaked havoc on federal operations, but its claims to have saved large amounts of money appear to be vaporware. And in any case, most government employees work for state and local governments, not the federal government. So how, exactly, is the economy being “remade”?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Trump’s problem is that he’s doing a poor job of explaining his plan. I think his problem is that he’s offering fake answers to fake problems, and the public — unlike, apparently, the Washington Post — isn’t buying it.

In any case, the real surprise is that Trump officials are making excuses for a bad economy even though the economy isn’t actually bad — yet. Maybe they believe that their boss’s policies will do a lot of damage, realize that they have no influence over those policies, and are trying to get ahead of the curve.

But item #4 on the stages of Trumpist economic grief is even more surprising. A few days ago Bessent declared that “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream.” When asked to explain his comment on Meet the Press he sort of doubled down: “The American dream is not contingent on cheap baubles they get from China.”

OK, he didn’t exactly go all spiritual and call on Americans to reject materialism. He seemed to be saying that the American dream is really about upward mobility and affordable housing, although it’s hard to see what aspects of Trump’s policies will help on either of those fronts. But still, the evolution from promises to reduce prices on Day One to “who cares about consumer prices?” is giving me whiplash.

And does anyone expect consumers to accept this new nonchalance about inflation? I don’t. So what’s the next stage in Trumpist economic grief?

I’d say that we’re entering uncharted territory, but really we aren’t. Trump is clearly a wannabe authoritarian ruler; the only question is how successful he’ll be at turning that dream into reality. And we know how authoritarian regimes deal with economic adversity.

First, they try to hide the bad news. Trump officials have already been talking about redefining GDP in ways they imagine (wrongly) will make Biden’s economy look worse and their economy better. It seems highly likely to me that once Trump’s policies start causing inflation and possibly recession, there will be a major push to cook the economic data.

Second, they punish the bringers of bad news. As the New York Times has reported, that’s China’s approach:

Beijing has censored and tried to intimidate renowned economists, financial analysts, investment banks and social media influencers for bearish assessments of the economy and the government’s policies. In addition, news articles about people experiencing financial struggles or the poor living standards for migrant workers are being removed.

If you say that such a crackdown couldn’t happen here, you’re being naïve. In fact, it’s already happening to some extent, largely through self-censorship by media organizations. (Hello, Jeff Bezos.) If the economy worsens, expect the pressure to stay positive to become much more intense.

And bear in mind that we’re only two months into the second Trump presidency. What will things look like a year from now?

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and former professor at MIT and Princeton who now teaches at the City University of New York's Graduate Center. From 2000 to 2024, he wrote a column for The New York Times. Please consider subscribing to his Substack, where he now posts almost every day.

Reprinted with permission from Paul Krugman.

Now The Trump Gang Is Coming After West Point

Now The Trump Gang Is Coming After West Point

I have always been proud of having graduated from West Point. My family has a long connection to the Academy: my father graduated in 1945; my maternal grandfather, Bartley M. Harloe, graduated in 1918; my sixth great grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, founded the Academy in 1802; and most of all, I am proud of having played a role, along with three of my classmates, in ending the 150-year-old regulation which made mandatory for cadets to attend the weekly services of one of the three approved faiths -- Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. No others were permitted.

At that time, failure to attend religious services was punishable by walking back and forth outside for hours with a rifle on your shoulder in the heat and freezing cold and confinement to barracks for months on end. Refusal led to a Superintendent's Board and expulsion from the Academy.

Like many institutions as old as West Point, the Academy has had many flaws, compulsory attendance at church being only one of them. Racism and antisemitism have infected West Point since its founding. During my father's time, Jewish cadets were assigned rooms by themselves, and they were “silenced” by other cadets, including their classmates, refusing to speak to them. Jewish plebes, first year cadets, were sometimes required by upperclassmen to run up and down stairs wearing their winter uniform and overcoat carrying their rifle at what was called “high port” over their heads until they dropped from heat exhaustion.

Racism was similarly rampant at West Point. The Academy did not have a Black graduate until 75 years after its founding in 1877, when Henry O. Flipper became the first African American to graduate. Flipper was silenced by other cadets and forced to live in a room by himself in the barracks and to eat by himself at a table in the mess hall throughout his four years at West Point.

There were only two other black graduates before 1936, when Benjamin O. Davis became the first Black graduate since 1889 and went on to be the first black general in the Air Force. He underwent the same brutal racist treatment that Flipper had endured -- made to eat alone at a table in the mess hall and room by himself in the barracks, silenced by most of the Corps of Cadets.

By the time I graduated, things had improved at West Point, but only marginally. I had eight Black classmates when I graduated in 1969, amounting to one percent of my class. Racism, while no longer officially endorsed by the Academy, nevertheless endured. One of my Black classmates, a star on the football team, was approached by another cadet in his company on the day Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The cadet, who was white and one of our classmates, put his hand on my Black classmate’s shoulder and grinning widely said, “Well, we finally got him.”

By the time that women were first admitted to West Point in 1976, racism, while not a thing of the past, had begun to be dealt with. There were 80 black cadets in the class of 1973, for example. But the entrance of women into the previously all-male bastion of West Point disrupted the place in ways that the Academy is still dealing with. Most if not all the women in the early classes after they were admitted to West Point were sexually assaulted or raped, and sexual assaults continued for years afterward.

Racism and misogyny have persisted at the Academy. Simone Askew, the first black woman to be chosen as the top ranked cadet at West Point in 2017, wrote this about her experience as a cadet:

“It was just two weeks after I had been selected for the role of First Captain of West Point, becoming the first black woman to hold that position. It was late, and I was headed to my room. There waiting for me was a small, white note, inserted underneath my door. I opened the folded page, which bore no signature. Inside was a picture of me holding a rifle, photoshopped with a monkey's face over my own.

Though I was aware of the historical precedence of portraying black people as monkeys, I wondered if the depiction suggested something deeper about my leadership. Racing through my mind were all the presentations and conversations that I had given in the past 14 days as First Captain and whether I had made any mistakes. This self-interrogation fueled in me a paralyzing fear.

I feared if others knew how deeply such an image impacted me that I would be told -- as black cadets and officers are often told -- that this was not the first nor would it be the last time that I would experience racism, so I had better get used to it. Even worse, they would deem me as too emotional, dramatic, self-centered, weak, and ‘always making it about race.’ My strategy, instead, was to perform flawlessly. After receiving a Rhodes Scholarship, I was optimistic that I had finally done enough. My efforts, at last, would prove my humanity to the anonymous artist -- and to the entire Corps of Cadets.

However, more racist caricatures and comments continued to circulate online. One of the popular images even depicted me as Satan himself.

Am I an animal, am I a demon, or am I human?”

The document from which this statement is excerpted is a policy proposal suggesting ways that West Point might deal with the racism that persists even today. It was authored by nine graduates of the classes of 2018 and 2019 including two former cadet First Captains, two valedictorians, two Fulbright Scholars, and a Marshall Scholar, all of whom held positions of senior leadership and responsibility while they were cadets.

The proposal contains numerous suggestions for programs and classes that would, if adopted, put in practice at West Point the right wing’s boogeymen-du-jour: diversity, equity, and inclusion. I think I can safely say that if this laudable document ever came to the attention of Elon Musk and his cronies, heads would explode.

The estimable Judd Legum reported today in his “Popular Information” Substack on how the wholesale attack on DEI in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has led to the “digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices. Almost all of the publications are not associated with DEIA topics but appear to have been targeted because they include a DEIA-related keyword used in a completely different context.”

In one example cited by Legum, a document entitled OSHA Best Practices for Protecting EMS Responders During Treatment and Transport of Victims of Hazardous Substance Releases, the words “diverse” and “diversity” are used to describe not race or gender but rather certification and training requirements for EMS workers and how their training might keep them safe on the job.

I include this off-topic report as an example of the broad-brush approach being applied to the government-wide attack by the Trump administration on anything that might smack of promoting sane practices to deal with racism and sexism and even discrimination against the disabled in the workplace.

As I have previously reported, the Academy's panic over Trump's obsession with DEI recently led to the closure of several cadet extracurricular clubs for groups of women and minorities including the National Society of Black Engineers Club, the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Vietnamese American Cadet Association. A friend with sources among the Academy's staff and faculty told me today that some of the clubs may be allowed to return because West Point determined that the clubs had nothing to do with the DEI office, programs, or policies. The clubs were of course just groups of cadets with similar backgrounds who wanted to get together and have fun.

The assault by the right wing on West Point and the other service academies is far from over, however. Our newly inaugurated Vice President, JD Vance, who made such a fool of himself on the world stage last week at the Munich Security Conference, when he told NATO member nations that Donald Trump will be taking the side of Russia in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, has questioned why the United States even needs West Point or the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy or the Coast Guard Academy. Vance and the rest of the Republican right-wing were horrified and outraged when the Supreme Court specifically exempted the service academies from its decision ending affirmative action on college campuses.

Trump and his hand puppet secretary of defense have accused the Pentagon of being filled with so-called “woke” generals and senior civil servants who amount to what they describe as a Marxist underground within the military establishment. They have even accused one of the several secretaries of defense appointed by Trump in his first administration of being a woke radical. That would be Mark Esper, a West Point graduate from the class of 1986, who they apparently believe was subjected to woke ideological pollution because his was among the first classes with female graduates. Oh, the horror that human beings of the opposite sex might take the place of the young men who had traditionally enjoyed the exclusive privilege of a West Point education!

It's hard to put into words how bad things are with Trump using the utterly bogus excuse of DEI to turn back the clock to an earlier time when white men had most of the money and all the power.

So, I'll reach back to a megalomaniac from an earlier time to put today's DEI panic in context. During my senior year when I and three of my classmates were attempting to overturn the requirement that cadets attend church every Sunday, West Point's deputy commandant singled me out as the ringleader and ordered me to get the others to cease and desist. He did this by making me come to his office every afternoon at exactly 5:05 PM for a daily lecture and verbal drubbing.

For several weeks, I would report to his office, and he would try to convince me how wrong we were and why we should withdraw our formal complaints. When I countered with our arguments about the obvious unconstitutionality of the regulation, he would leap out of his chair and come around his desk screaming at me at the top of his lungs.

He labeled me -- see if this doesn't sound familiar -- as a Communist and a Marxist and so radical that I was, in his memorable phrase, “beyond Mao.” Fed up, I replied, “Sir, you mean first is Marx, and then Lenin, and then Mao, and then Truscott?” Red-faced, his body shaking, he sputtered, “D-d-don’t you know what's going on here, you little shit?” Playing dumb and wanting to hear him answer his own question, I told him I had no idea.

“If you succeed at ending mandatory chapel, the next thing that will happen is that we'll have women in here, and then we won't have West Point anymore. All this place will be is a goddamn college.”

The name of the man who made that rather prescient prediction in October of 1968 was Alexander M. Haig, later to become Nixon’s chief of staff, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and secretary of state.

Eight years later, the first class with women was admitted to West Point. The issue of gays in the military wasn’t on the horizon yet, and DEI didn’t even exist, but the dread threat of white men losing their grip on power had breached the sacred ramparts of West Point. Power is what the whole thing has always been about, and those with power have been crazed about holding onto it ever since.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.

Reprinted with permission from Lucian Truscott Newsletter. Please consider subscribing.

Furious Over Trump's Racist Rally, Latino Superstars Vow Payback On Election Day

Furious Over Trump's Racist Rally, Latino Superstars Vow Payback On Election Day

Popular, famous, and highly-influential Latino stars, and superstars including Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin, are lashing out at Donald Trump after his six-hour Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday served up racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic rhetoric. A New York Times headline described it as "Trump's racist rally."

The most-noted racist remarks came from a comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, in an attack calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” and saying, "these Latinos, they love making babies, too, just know that. They do, they do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country,” before talking about Black people carving watermelons.

The Trump campaign waited several hours before issuing a statement saying, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” It was unclear why other racist remarks made throughout the event, including by Hinchcliffe, were not addressed by the campaign.

"Battleground Pennsylvania," NBC News reports, "where polling margins show a razor-thin race between Trump and Harris, is home to the third-largest Puerto Rican diaspora in the country. Last month, the former president invited Puerto Rican artist Anuel AA onstage at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to publicly throw his support behind the Republican ticket."

Variety reports, "Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin were among the notable industry figures who boosted Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Sunday after a speaker at Donald Trump‘s political rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden called Puerto Rico 'a floating island of garbage.'"

"Bad Bunny, one of the world’s biggest music superstar[s] with more than 45 million Instagram followers, boosted Harris’ campaign video targeting voters in Puerto Rico and noting what a contentious relationship that Trump had with the island during his tenure in the White House. Lopez posted Harris campaign material targeted at Puerto Rico as well as the same video pitch that Bad Bunny boosted."

"Singer-actor Ricky Martin, with 18.6 million Instagram followers, did the same thing on his Instagram Stories feed, adding the comment 'I remember' on the Harris video. He also included a clip of Hinchcliffe’s 'garbage' comment."

Variety continued, reporting, "Luis Fonsi, the Puerto Rican singer who had a worldwide smash in 2017 with 'Despacito,' also reposted the Harris video and added a comment."

“We are not OK with this constant hate. It’s been abundantly clear that these people have no respect for us and yet they want our vote,” Fonsi wrote. “I purposely wrote this in English cause yes we’re American too.”

Political strategist, CNN commentator, and co-host of ABC's The View, Ana Navarro has two million followers on the social media platform X and is a highly-influential Republican.

"Today, @KamalaHarris released policy proposals to help Puerto Rico. On the other hand at the Trump rally, this is going on," she wrote, pointing to a clip of Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."

"But nah. They’re not piece of s--- racists who treat Puerto Ricans as second-class US citizens. It’s just our imagination. Puerto Ricans, pay attention!"

She also noted posted a screenshot of Bad Bunny's post, in which he shared Vice President Harris's proposal for Puerto Rico with his 45 million followers.

And, pointing to Hinchcliffe's racist remarks about Latinos making babies, Navarro wrote:

"Latinos, defend our community’s dignity.

Show some self-respect.

A vote against racism is a vote for @KamalaHarris."

Monday morning on The View, co-host Sunny Hostin, who is Puerto Rican, served up a monologue strongly criticizing Donald Trump.

"This Puerto Rican has something to say about the island that I love, where my family is from," Hostin began. "Puerto Rico is 'trash'? We are Americans, Donald Trump. Americans. We voluntarily serve disproportionately high in the military, while you have bone spurs."

"And we vote."

"Pennsylvania is home to almost half a million Puerto Ricans. North Carolina, 115,000. Georgia, 100,000. Arizona, 64,000. Wisconsin, 61,000. Michigan, 43,000. Nevada, 27,000. We vote Donald Trump."

"Trash?"

"And by the way, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi, and Mark Anthony have over 345 million followers on Instagram. I think you only have 26 million, since you care so much about size. And we don't like what was said about Puerto Rico. And we know how to take the trash out Donald Trump. Trash that has been collecting since 2016. And that's you, Donald Trump. And finally, my fellow Puerto Ricans, trash collection day is November 5th, 2024. Don't forget it."

Former Fox News political commentator Geraldo Rivera let loose Sunday night:

"'A floating island of garbage…?' Referring to Puerto Rico??? 'Poisoning the blood of our nation…?' We have 'murder in our genes….?' Fuck these racists. Latino men of good will, have pride in yourselves and your ancestors. A vote for Trump is a vote against self-respect."

Monday morning he added: "Latino men, for the love of your parents and children, for your pride and your honor tell this little gringo s--- to go f--- himself."

See the video and social media posts above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Brenden Dilley

Trump 'Meme Team' Troll Brenden Dilley Spews Racism, Sexism, And Homophobia

Content warning: This article contains anti-LGBTQ, ableist, and misogynistic commentary and slurs, and other profane language.

Brenden Dilley, a far-right podcaster who previously pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory, leads a “meme team” that creates pro-Trump content that The New York Times says “traffics freely in misinformation,” “racist stereotypes,” and “demeaning tropes about L.G.B.T.Q. people.”

Media Matters conducted a monthslong review of Dilley’s show, which regularly streams on right-wing video-sharing platform Rumble, and found that the Trump ally regularly traffics in misogynistic, discriminatory, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. There are dozens of examples so far this year in which he made comments like saying he wished women would “focus on their pretty dresses and their house and their children and making me sexually satisfied all the time, and food” instead of focusing on politics, claiming that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was a “DEI” hire, and saying that transgender people were “fucked in the head.”

Dilley has also bragged on his show about his ties to Republican officials, including former President Donald Trump and Arizona Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, and called for his followers to aid them, including by targeting their political opponents with “psychological warfare.” Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly shared material from Dilley’s “meme team” and supposedly said he “loves” Dilley, while his campaign has reportedly shared footage for Dilley’s team to use and given Dilley press passes for a campaign event.

Dilley has also threatened and spread baseless claims about former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other people he disagrees with.

Dilley is a former Republican congressional candidate turned online show host who has pushed conspiracy theories and formed a “meme team”

  • Dilley unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Arizona in 2018. He lost the Republican primary for a 2018 special election for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, billing himself as a “staunch believer in the Make America Great Again movement.” [The Arizona Republic, 2/27/18; The New York Times, 12/13/23]
  • Dilley previously supported the QAnon conspiracy theory, and he has since denied the theory’s existence (which its central figure has encouraged people to do) and invoked the QAnon-linked adrenochrome conspiracy theory. In the past, Dilley wore QAnon hats and covered posts from QAnon’s central figure, “Q,” on his show. He has since dubiously claimed that he “never was all in for Q” but also invoked the conspiracy theory among QAnon supporters that elites are harvesting a substance called adrenochrome from children to gain youth. [Media Matters, 1/29/24, 2/20/24; The Daily Beast, 8/14/20; The Dilley Show, 4/9/24, 4/24/24]
  • Dilley used to air a show on YourVoice America, the online channel of right-wing commentator Bill Mitchell. Mitchell has repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories, including the QAnon conspiracy theory. [Right Wing Watch, 8/1/18, 9/18/18; Media Matters, 7/9/19, 3/24/20]
  • Dilley said he created his “meme team” following the January 6 insurrection and decided to turn it into a “political weapon” after Trump launched his 2024 campaign. In an interview on Real America’s Voice , Dilley said that in 2020 he was banned from social media. And after the January 6 insurrection, he “let all of the memers know if they need a place to go, if they’re getting banned, here’s a Telegram chat I created private just for them, and they can still create content, and I’ll continue to play it for my audience.” He claimed that in the following years they “refine[d]” their “skills” and that once Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign, “we pretty much knew it was game time, and we were going to take all those skills that we had been refining and utilizing just for entertainment purposes, and we were going to turn it into a political weapon.” [Real America’s Voice, Smack Down with Pastor Darrell Scott, 2/17/24]
  • Dilley said in 2020 that he didn’t “give a fuck about being factual” and “it doesn't matter if it's true” and that he would “make shit up.” In 2020, Dilley said, “My objective is to destroy Democrats, OK? Destroy liberals, liberalism as an idea, Democrats, and anything that opposes President Trump.” He added, “You don’t have to fact check me because I don’t give a fuck,” and “I fucking make up shit sometimes, from time to time. I don’t care. I don’t care. Democrats know it. Republicans know it. I don’t mind admitting it. I don’t give a shit. … When I get a chance to shit on the left, I don’t mind making shit up. No, not at all.” And the year before, Dilley said, “It doesn’t have to be true; it just has to go viral.” [Right Wing Watch, 1/2/24; Twitter/X, 5/4/20]
  • During Trump’s presidency, Dilley threatened violence against protesters. Dilley said in response to protests over George Floyd’s murder in 2020 that he and millions of other gun owners were waiting for Trump to give “us the green light to finish this entire thing in under an hour.” [Right Wing Watch, 1/2/24]
  • Trump and his campaign have repeatedly shared material from Dilley’s “meme team,” including a video regarding a “unified Reich.” The New York Times reported that Dilley’s group “traffics freely in misinformation, artificial intelligence and digital forgeries known as deepfakes,” and its memes “are riddled with racist stereotypes, demeaning tropes about L.G.B.T.Q. people and broad scatological humor.” Trump has repeatedly shared content from the group on his social media, as have members of his orbit, including as recently as June 10 when Trump shared a video and claimed that President Joe Biden “hates the military.” In May, Trump also shared a video from a member of Dilley’s “meme team” that mentions a “unified Reich.” [The New York Times, 12/13/23; Media Matters, 5/21/24; Truth Social, 6/10/24]
  • Trump has been photographed with Dilley’s “meme team” and seemingly coordinated with the group. According to The New York Times, Dilley and his “meme team” members have “posted numerous photos of themselves posing with Mr. Trump, spending time with his advisers and attending events at Trump properties,” and Trump’s campaign has also “privately communicated with members of the meme team, giving them access and making specific requests for content.” Additionally, “in at least one instance, the campaign shared behind-the-scenes footage to be used in videos, according to members of the team.” Trump has also “sent personalized notes to several of the group’s members, thanking them for their work.” [The New York Times, 12/13/23]

On his show, Dilley has repeatedly played up his ties to Republican politicians, consultants, and staff, including Trump and Kari Lake

  • Dilley claimed he’s been told that Trump said he would never disavow Dilley and his “meme team” because he “loves” them. Dilley said that “somebody who was a very, very good friend of President Trump” told them that Trump is “never going to disavow you because he loves you and he loves the Dilley meme team.” [The Dilley Show, 1/5/24]
  • Dilley bragged that he was the only pro-Trump figure “who was allocated 20 fucking tickets for me to distribute” for Trump’s Iowa caucuses event. Dilley said, “I challenge you to find anyone else, an influencer or otherwise, who was allocated 20 fucking tickets … to distribute,” adding that it shows that “the campaign completely trusts our judgment, specifically mine, to make sure that the most worthy and hardworking MAGA are in attendance at all of his rallies.” [The Dilley Show, 1/11/24]
  • Dilley bragged that he received “exclusive” press credentials to the Trump campaign’s Iowa caucuses “War Room,” where he interviewed Kari Lake and Iowa’s attorney general. Dilley said they gave him credentials “because I’m Brenden Dilley of the Dilley meme team.” He also bragged that he got an “exclusive” press credential that had “Dilley 300” written on it, which he claimed got him into the “Trump War Room.” [Media Matters, 1/29/24]
  • Dilley claimed that Trump met a member of his “meme team” and asked for her phone number. Dilley said a member of his “meme team” met Trump and told him that she helped create one of the team’s pro-Trump videos, and then he asked for her phone number “in the event that he needs more videos.” Dilley also showed an image of another supposed member of his team meeting Trump, and claimed that Trump “lit up when he found out” he was a member of Dilley’s “team.” [The Dilley Show, 2/19/24]
  • Dilley claimed now-Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump encouraged his “meme team” to make videos for her. Dilley shared a text from a supposed “meme team” member who met Lara Trump, saying, “Here’s a shot for DITW [Dilley in the wild]. When I told Lara I was with The Dilley Show and Brenden Dilley specifically wanted her to know the DMT [Dilley Meme Team] will make memes for her she lit up and said, ‘oh yes, please!’” [The Dilley Show, 2/22/24, 3/13/24]
  • Dilley bragged that the RNC is “completely full, from top to bottom, with Dilley meme team fans.” In March, Dilley claimed on the show that he was “friends with” multiple new RNC employees, including Christina Bobb, who had been newly installed as senior counsel for election integrity at the RNC, saying she was “a friend of the show and absolutely loves the Dilley meme team.” He added that the RNC was “now completely full, from top to bottom, with Dilley meme team fans and Dilley Show friends.” [Media Matters, 4/3/24; The Dilley Show, 3/13/24]
  • Dilley said Lake told a member of his “meme team” that she “love[s]” Dilley. According to Dilley, a member wearing apparel from his “team” met Lake and she said, “Oh my God, I love him. Tell Brenden I said hi.” [The Dilley Show, 4/15/24]
  • Dilley claimed that “a senior, senior, senior member of our beloved Trump 2024 campaign” texted him about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Dilley said that this supposed Trump campaign member texted him about a post of his regarding the independent presidential candidate and wrote, “fucking devastating.” [The Dilley Show, 5/8/24]
  • Dilley suggested that he would “help people on the transition team” if Trump is reelected. [The Dilley Show, 5/14/24]
  • Dilley said he “had a half-an-hour conversation with the [Trump] campaign” about how to help get “committeemen and delegates for Trump.” Dilley said that Trump’s campaign was “calling upon the Dilley 300 phone bank team” and had tasked his “meme team” “to try and get people to sign up and be committeemen and delegates for Trump.” [The Dilley Show, 5/29/24, 5/30/24]
  • Dilley said that he met with the Trump campaign’s “state director for Georgia” to discuss how he could help the campaign. He said that he “had a wonderful breakfast with the state director for Georgia this morning” to discuss “how I can help and what The Dilley Show can do to facilitate a fucking massive victory here in Georgia.” [The Dilley Show, 6/7/24]
  • Dilley claimed he heard from Lake that Trump said one of Dilley’s “meme team” videos was “one of the best videos I’ve ever seen.” Dilley said he passed along that “the Dilley meme team is honored” by Trump’s embrace of their content. [The Dilley Show, 1/15/24]
  • Dilley said he and his wife “have spent a lot of time chitchatting and hanging out with” his “friend” Lake. [The Dilley Show, 2/12/24]
  • Dilley claimed that there is “no buffer between myself and Kari Lake or the Dilley meme team and Kari Lake.” He said that while Trump knows him, his wife, and his “meme team,” “there are buffers between us and him because it's taken longer to establish that relationship and obviously he’s Donald Trump.” In contrast, he said, “there is no buffer between myself and Kari Lake or the Dilley meme team and Kari Lake.” [The Dilley Show, 4/17/24]
  • Dilley also claimed a member of Congress gave him their phone number and they texted. According to Dilley, after he criticized members of Congress in late 2023, “a congressman had reached out to me and said, ‘I’d like for you to have my number. … We can discuss anything you want or text me.’” He also said they later texted. [The Dilley Show, 1/1/24]
  • Dilley claimed that GOP political consultant Alex Bruesewitz is a “big friend” of his “meme team” and an “honorary Dilley meme team” member. Dilley said Bruesewitz was “a good friend of mine, and he’s [a] big friend of the meme team. Loves the entire Dilley meme team.” [The Dilley Show, 2/12/24, 2/19/24]
  • Dilley: “Some of your favorite MAGA people, like your favorite candidates,” are “calling me for counsel constantly.” Dilley claimed that he’ll “reach out” and “check in” on campaigns and candidates, saying he’ll “call them or they’re calling me for counsel constantly,” adding that he also does this “with some of your most influential political fucking operatives.” [The Dilley Show, 4/16/24]
  • Dilley claimed that “one of the most probably respectable minds in all of politics” said that “Biden has an asymmetrical advantage in money, but Donald Trump has the Dilley meme team.” According to Dilley, one of the members of his “meme team” was “having a private conversation with somebody that I would say many people consider one of the most probably respectable minds in all of politics,” and that this person made this claim about Biden and Trump “to a group of megadonors.” [The Dilley Show, 5/9/24]

Dilley has called for his followers and “meme team” to aid Trump and Lake, including targeting their political opponents with “psychological warfare”

  • Dilley took credit for getting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop out of the 2024 GOP presidential primary race, saying the “massive effort of psy-oping their insecurities and what they really were completely toppled the entire organization.” Dilley claimed, “We utilized massive psychological warfare on DeSantis via shame and insecurity, relentlessly so.” He added, “This is unfortunately what it will take to win. That is the level of savagery you must have. You must view everybody who is opposing Donald Trump and the America First agenda as opposing America itself. This is how we toppled them.” [Media Matters, 3/19/24]
  • Dilley called for “a fucking army of poll watchers at all of the critical precincts in the swing states.” [The Dilley Show, 1/25/24]
  • In a tirade filled with misogynistic slurs, Dilley threatened to target then-presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s friends and family as long as she stayed in the GOP primary race against Trump. Dilley said that since Haley had yet to drop out of the race at that point, “the Dilley meme team has decided to make you, your family, your friends, your coworkers, and every single individual as even remotely associated with you a political target henceforth.” Specifically, Dilley said he hoped that “every single person who’s ever fucking called you, emailed you, or shaked your goddamn hand is used to having public scrutiny via meme and fucking song and deep dives and everything in between,” adding that “every picture your son has ever posted, every fucking comment he's ever made in every forum, is going to be unearthed.” He also threatened to “dig into all your daughter's comments, all of the pictures, all of her associations, her ex-boyfriends, her fucking ex-girlfriends. We’re going to dig into all of your employees. We'll dig into all of their employees. We’ll dig into your lovers.” [The Dilley Show, 2/20/24]
  • Dilley directed his “meme team” to target Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is running against Kari Lake for U.S. Senate in Arizona, and Dilley used homophobic rhetoric and called the Democrat “an actual commie-carrying member and a cartel fucking mouthpiece.” Repeatedly mispronouncing the congressman’s name, Dilley said he was “going to turn the Dilley meme team loose on Gallegos” and “we’re going to start churning out content for Kari Lake,” adding that “we’re going to go heavy on Gallegos. ... I told that little fucker last night. I was like, ‘Hey. I’m going to ruin your fucking life.’” He also said, “Gallegos is a priority right now, and the meme team is turning their attention to him right now as we speak,” explaining that “the plan is to destroy this motherfucker.” Dilley went on to credit his “meme team” for “jumping in that fight and sharing so much great content” for Lake, saying her campaign is supposedly “gaining momentum every single day.” [The Dilley Show, 4/4/24, 4/22/24]
  • Dilley told his followers to take memes from his “meme team” and “be saturating the replies” of “leftist accounts” with them. Dilley said, “I care about all of these leftist accounts being inundated with memes that are relevant and pushing back against their argument,” adding, “Soon as you see the comments, you see the Biden HQ account, you see Gallego, any of these leftist accounts, you need to be saturating the replies.” [The Dilley Show, 4/18/24]
  • Dilley also instructed his followers to “hijack” hashtags and spread memes and videos during the June 27 presidential debate between Biden and Trump. Dilley said, “We want to hijack that hashtag as we always do. Whatever the top three hashtags are for the debate, we want to own them.” He added that “all I want you doing is retweeting all of those videos. So we’re going to be working that shit, dropping the videos, pushing back, and showing the truth about Joe Biden’s lies. We're also going to be pushing pro-Trump content.” [The Dilley Show, 6/24/24, 6/25/24, 6/26/24]

Dilley has repeatedly spread extreme misogyny on his show

  • Dilley has repeatedly used the word “bitch” to describe women across the political spectrum. The women whom Dilley has called a “bitch” include Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), actress Amy Poehler, key QAnon promoter Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski, conservative commentator Candace Owens, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate Nicole Shanahan, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), and columnist E. Jean Carroll. [The Dilley Show, 1/11/24, 1/22/24, 1/24/24, 1/25/24, 1/26/24, 2/8/24, 2/22/24, 2/27/24, 3/11/24, 3/18/24, 3/22/24, 3/27/24, 4/29/24, 6/19/24]
  • Dilley claimed that former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis was fat and “real, real slutty.” Dilley said that Ellis was “real, real slutty,” calling her a “real big girl” and “big bitch” who “wore a dress over the summer” and “made it look like a fucking giant bottle of Pepto Bismol.” [The Dilley Show, 1/31/24]
  • Dilley claimed that weddings often featured “the slut that wants to fuck half the fucking audience.” Dilley also referred to the maid of honor as the “best bitch” who “secretly wants to fuck your husband.” [The Dilley Show, 2/2/24]
  • Dilley: “I hope everything goes back to the 1950s” when “women could focus on their pretty dresses and their house and their children and making me sexually satisfied all the time, and food.” Dilley added that he would tell women, “You don't worry your pretty head about those politics” and that “that’s a man's problem,” adding that instead “I’ll let you know who to vote for” and that “what you need to concern yourself with is how come the floors in the kitchen aren’t as shiny as they were two weeks ago.” [The Dilley Show, 2/8/24]
  • Dilley: “Americans don't want to vote for a bitch,” and “a bitch with the fucking red button on the nukes” is “dangerous.” In a rant he admitted would “sound misogynistic” after calling then-presidential candidate Nikki Haley “kind of a slut,” Dilley argued that “we know in our deepest biology that a bitch with the fucking red button on the nukes is dangerous” and that “we all kind of inherently know there are certain kinds of women we must avoid at all cost giving them power,” calling it “herd protection.” He also argued that that was “why we give them like as much power as we can in the house” but “why women don’t get control of anything outside of the house” and “the closer we get to other humans, the less control my wife should have.” During an appearance on the Matt Kim Podcast on YouTube the next month, Dilley lauded a voter who said she would not vote for Haley because she was “probably menopausal,” with Dilley saying that the voter meant to say that “the bitch is menopausal most likely, and we don’t need that as a president.” [The Dilley Show, 2/12/24; Matt Kim Podcast, 3/5/24]
  • Dilley complained that Super Bowl advertisements did not feature “fuckable women.” During a rant about Super Bowl LVIII commercials, Dilley claimed that the “elites” put a “moratorium on new fame,” and that it meant that Super Bowl ads featured “bitch” pop star Taylor Swift, fellow pop star Madonna was “still gyrating her vagina,” and fellow pop star Cher’s “new pussy” is “only, like, 15.” He also claimed, “They don’t put these bitches out to pasture, and now we all have to see them half-naked on a fucking magazine cover at 65 years old,” and that, “They’re not even trying to sell you sex anymore with, like, fuckable women.” [The Dilley Show, 2/12/24]
  • Dilley claimed former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was a “frail, worn out piece of ass.” While criticizing Alex Soros, the son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, for reportedly dating Abedin, Dilley also called Abedin the “leftovers” and “sloppy seconds” of her ex-husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). [The Dilley Show, 2/15/24]
  • Dilley claimed that “God hates” Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis “because he made her fat” while having small breasts. Added Dilley, “Put on all that weight and not even go up a cup size? … That is just brutal.” He has also claimed that Willis “might be the dumbest whore to ever have graduated a law school.” [The Dilley Show, 2/16/24, 3/12/24]
  • Dilley called Meghan McCain “fat fuck Miss Piggy” and accused Cindy McCain of being a “whore.” After Meghan McCain rebuffed Kari Lake’s supposed “olive branch” following her criticism of McCain’s father, the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Dilley called McCain “one of the ugliest, fattest women in America,” and claimed that her mother, World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain, “is a whore, OK? She’s a child-trafficking whore.” He alleged, without evidence, that a member of his “meme team” saw Cindy McCain cheating on John McCain, and accused John McCain of being “a traitor to this country.” [HuffPost, 2/21/24; The Dilley Show, 2/22/24]
  • Dilley complained that a newly crowned Iranian-born Miss Germany was “this fucking busted piece of Iranian ass” instead of “the perfect fucking Aryan woman” he said the country used to have. Dilley complained that a woman who was born in Iran and moved to Germany when she was six had been crowned Miss Germany, arguing that she does not “even look German.” He contrasted this to how, he said, Germany “used to technologically, scientifically fucking create their women. They were all 5 foot 8 with fucking blonde hair, blue eyes, huge tits, and fucking 24-inch waists.” [Euronews, 2/27/24; The Dilley Show, 2/26/24]
  • Dilley claimed that any woman who has earned a law degree only did so because she is “a leftist whore.” Added Dilley, “They just hand these out to leftist whores. You’re not actually smart.” He also argued, “If you gave me one week to prepare a case or debate of some kind against any woman who graduated with a law degree in the last eight years, I could beat them. Anyone. Every single one. Because I’ve seen enough now to know that they’re fucking retarded.” [The Dilley Show, 3/5/24, 3/5/24]
  • Dilley claimed that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has “a fat face, but she got some big ass dick-sucking lips.” While discussing the Supreme Court ruling to keep Trump on the ballot in Colorado, Dilley also called her a “stupid bitch” who was “one of the dumbest whores we’ve ever had” before the Supreme Court. [The Dilley Show, 3/5/24, 3/5/24]
  • Dilley claimed that women managers in the workplace realize that they should hire “only guys for this job.” He argued that women working meant female managers “have to police a bunch of cunts all day long at [their] job because then they force [them] to hire other women.” [The Dilley Show, 3/21/24]
  • Dilley called Vice President Kamala Harris a “dirty bitch” and baselessly claimed that she “suck[ed] dick to become the vice president.” [The Dilley Show, 3/25/24]
  • Dilley on pop singer Lizzo: “You can be a fat fuck singer and no one will make fun of you. But if you’re a fat fuck singer who tells everybody you're hot as shit and then proceeds to show everybody your giant 600-pound ass, that’s when people get upset.” Dilley was responding to Lizzo’s announcement on social media that she would step back from the public spotlight after being attacked for singing at a Biden fundraiser. Dilley added, “This should have happened years ago, fucking years ago, but better late than never,” and took credit for Lizzo’s announcement, remarking that “apparently the Dilley meme team’s leading the charge” against her. [HuffPost, 3/30/24; The Dilley Show, 4/1/24]
  • Dilley has repeatedly discussed and mocked House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and climate activist Greta Thunberg’s breasts. Dilley accused Thunberg of having undergone breast augmentation surgery and claimed she was therefore a hypocrite regarding climate change. [The Dilley Show, 4/4/24, 4/8/24]
  • Dilley claimed former CNN anchor Poppy Harlow had a “sloppy, slutty kind of look to her.” Discussing the announcement that Harlow would be leaving CNN, Dilley said Harlow looked “kind of stacked” and that “she looks like Stormy Daniels kind of; kind of got that, like, sloppy, slutty kind of look to her.” He also speculated that she could join Fox News “if she’s going to show her fun bags.” [The Dilley Show, 4/26/24]
  • Dilley claimed that “total bitch” CNN anchor Kasie Hunt’s hair would be a “rape deterrent.” Dilley claimed that Hunt is a “total cunt” and has a “stupid mini fridge head” that makes her look like “a homeless transgender” person who is “battling some kind of a Down syndrome situation.” He also claimed that her hair could serve as a “fucking rape deterrent in New York City … so migrants won’t touch her.” [The Dilley Show, 6/24/24]

Dilley has made racist, anti-immigrant, bigoted, and antisemitic comments on his show

  • Dilley has more than once invoked the racist and antisemitic “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Dilley has claimed, “They’re replacing you right now with a bunch of fucking illegals from south of the border. At every turn, they’re going to replace you,” and said of Black voters, “Your voting bloc has been replaced by illegal invaders.” The claim echoes the white nationalist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement,” which posits that nonwhite people are replacing white people in the United States and other predominantly white countries, specifically through immigration. [Media Matters, 1/12/24; The Dilley Show, 1/22/24, 2/5/24]
  • Dilley claimed if women vote for Democrats it will “no doubtably result in them getting raped at some point in 2025 by an illegal immigrant or some migrant from a foreign land or some criminal” who was let out after repeat offenses. [The Dilley Show, 1/19/24]
  • In response to a predicted influx in Florida of Haitian migrants fleeing political instability, Dilley claimed that Floridians were “about to have cannibal Haitians showing up in your yard.” [Tampa Bay Times, 4/14/24; The Dilley Show, 3/14/24]
  • Dilley called Minnesota “frozen Somalia.” Dilley asked, “Why would anybody in their right fucking mind move to frozen Somalia?” [The Dilley Show, 3/19/24]
  • Dilley said Jews who support Democrats are “voting for your own destruction.” [The Dilley Show, 4/10/24]
  • Dilley falsely claimed that George Floyd was “a felon overdosing underneath a cop’s leg.” According to The Associated Press: “The county medical examiner’s office ruled Floyd’s death a homicide due to ‘cardiopulmonary arrest,’ not an overdose, even though he had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.” [The Associated Press, 10/21/22; The Dilley Show, 4/11/24]
  • Dilley said “DEI hires” are OK in retail, but “you used DEI to choose a Supreme Court justice,” mentioning Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. [The Dilley Show, 4/25/24]
  • Dilley said that “England is way more fucking Muslim now” and that “jihadis” are “taking control of these cities and the government.” While praising an action from the British government, Dilley speculated that it was “not being caused by Judeo-Christians living in England with Western values” and instead was “more likely … caused by the highly influential Muslim community,” calling it a “slippery slope.” [The Dilley Show, 5/16/24]

Dilley has repeatedly made anti-LGBTQ remarks and used hateful slurs on his show

  • Dilley bragged that “we brought back the word f–––––,” and he has repeatedly used the anti-LGBTQ slur to describe people and things he opposes, including philanthropist George Soros’ son Alex. Dilley has also repeatedly called things “gay” and “queer” derogatorily. [The Dilley Show, 12/28/23, 2/1/24, 4/10/24, 4/15/24, 4/26/24, 5/9/24]
  • Dilley lauded a mixed martial artist who claimed that being transgender used to be “a mental fucking illness” and that “the world’s not saying … chicks have dicks.” Dilley said that MMA fighter Sean Strickland was “delivering knockouts inside and outside the octagon” with his anti-LGBTQ rant and claimed that transgender people were the “fucking deranged chicks with dicks t––––– community.” [TheWrap, 1/18/24; The Dilley Show, 1/18/24]
  • Dilley claimed that transgender people were “fucked in the head” and that “we tried to tell you that and you told us we were being bigoted.” Dilley said this in response to the unsubstantiated claim that a shooting at a Texas church had been carried out by a transgender person. [The Associated Press, 2/13/24; The Dilley Show, 2/12/24]
  • Dilley complained about “LGBTQ bullshit” at Disney. Dilley made the remark in response to a poll supposedly showing that most Americans opposed “Disney’s gay ‘inclusion’ agenda.” [The Dilley Show, 5/6/24]
  • Dilley suggested that “gay butt sex” and “homoerotica” were “degeneracy.” He also claimed that Democrats “decided to do all kinds of weird shit to their bodies, moving things around, changing genders, and sucking each other off.” [The Dilley Show, 5/8/24]
  • Dilley claimed that “they give you a whole month” if “you put your penis in another dude’s butt” or “if you’re a chick with a dick.” [The Dilley Show, 5/14/24]
  • Dilley claimed that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was hired because “she’s Black and she eats pussy.” He also claimed that she was asked in a job interview for the position, “Are you a t–––––?” [The Dilley Show, 5/14/24]
  • Dilley called anti-LGBTQ laws “a very good thing” and “good news.” Dilley praised a new Mississippi law requiring people at public schools to use facilities corresponding to their gender assigned at birth and guidance from the United Kingdom’s conservative government telling schools in England not to teach about gender identity. [CNN, 5/14/24; BBC, 5/16/24; The Dilley Show, 5/16/24]
  • Dilley appeared to call for violence against — and for court martialing — a person in the military who he alleges is married to a transgender woman who was crowned Miss Maryland. After a transgender woman won Miss Maryland, Dilley complained about a “woke marine who’s married to a fucking dude that just won Miss Maryland,” asking, “How the hell was that guy not beat with a sack of oranges by other marines?” He added, “If I was in your group and you married a fucking cross-dressing shim … I would beat you with oranges while you slept.” He also called for the person to be “court martial[ed] … right now” due to their marriage. [The Baltimore Banner, 6/7/24; The Dilley Show, 6/7/24]

On his show, Dilley has used threatening rhetoric against certain figures he opposes

  • Dilley threatened to “punish that bitch” Taylor Swift if she made the “wrong choice” and endorsed Biden. Said Dilley, “As long as Taylor Swift remains — we’ll call it a free agent — we will behave a certain way. The second she makes … the wrong choice, it is absolutely incumbent upon us to punish that bitch for … doing that.” [The Dilley Show, 1/30/24]
  • Dilley called for “asymmetrical warfare” against a Georgia judge and his family after his ruling in Trump’s Fulton County case. After Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled against disqualifying Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference and racketeering case, Dilley slammed the ruling, saying, “You see him in public, you mock him. You see him online, you mock him. You see his sister online, his mom online, his brother, his wife, his fucking kids. Doesn’t matter … Asymmetrical warfare. That’s how you do it. You wanna fucking condemn the nation? We will condemn your fucking entire lineage.” [Media Matters, 3/19/24]
  • Dilley called for pro-Palestinan college protesters to be “curb stomp[ed].” Added Dilley, “I hope they literally jackboot thug the shit out of you because you are not protesting. This is not — this is not what the First Amendment is about.” [The Dilley Show, 5/1/24]
  • In response to Trump’s criminal conviction in New York, Dilley called for “the fucking destruction of every motherfucker that had their hands involved in this entire bullshit collapse of this country.” Of the possibility that “cities will burn” if that happens, Dilley said, “I don’t give a fuck. I don’t give a fuck. Blind justice must return.” [The Dilley Show, 5/31/24]
  • Dilley called for people in the DOJ and FBI who he claimed “committed treason” against Trump to “be thrown in prison.” Dilley, addressing “FBI agents who overthrew the government,” said, “You should have everything you fucking ever earned taken from you also. Your pension should have to be paid back, your retirement funds should cease immediately, your assets should be seized, and, yes, you should be thrown in prison.” He added, “This country would be so much safer if the majority of these corrupt FBI cunts were behind bars.” [The Dilley Show, 6/6/24]
  • Dilley called for “every bad thing that’s possible to happen to” Dr. Anthony Fauci. He added that he wanted “everything that he [Fauci] ever loved to be gone” and that a “jail cell wouldn’t be enough for that guy.” Dilley also claimed that “anybody with Fauci blood fucking coursing through their veins is inherently going to have some type of evil in them” and expressed hope that Fauci’s “entire lineage” would be “gone.” [The Dilley Show, 6/19/24]

Dilley has spread false claims and conspiracy theories about those he opposes

  • Dilley claimed without evidence that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s voice condition is due to drug use. Dilley claimed that Kennedy had a “destroyed voice box from crystal meth.” In reality, Kennedy’s voice is caused by a neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia. [Business Insider, 8/17/23; The Dilley Show, 2/28/24]
  • Dilley falsely claimed that former President Barack Obama is “a Kenyan” and “the former terrorist in chief.” Dilley also implied that Obama — who was born in Hawaii and is an American citizen — was involved with “bring[ing] the violent people here to the United States of America and let[ting] them do their violence on our college campuses.” [The Dilley Show, 4/23/24, 5/1/24]
  • Dilley baselessly suggested that Hillary Clinton’s “homebrew server” could have contributed to the Baltimore port bridge crash. Said Dilley, “Do I think Hillary had anything to do with terrorists attacking the ship and making it crash? Probably not, but the dumb cunt did have a homebrew server where she was giving away military secrets via the Chinese hacking her shit because it was open completely. So I’m not saying they did it, but I’m saying they could.” In reality, the crash appears to have been caused by multiple power outage issues on the cargo ship that crashed into the bridge. [The Associated Press, 5/14/24; The Dilley Show, 3/26/24]
  • Dilley falsely claimed that journalists who wanted to speak with him were “all vaxxed” and “shedding” the “poison … jab you took.” Said Dilley, “They’re all vaxxed and shit spreading their fucking God-knows-what. Like, no. You’re not fucking shedding in my house. You’re not shedding — you’re not fucking shedding those poison fucking jab you took. No.” In reality, COVID vaccines are safe and people who got them do not “shed” from them and harm others. [Reuters, 4/23/21; The Dilley Show, 5/15/24]
  • Dilley invoked a baseless anti-trans conspiracy theory about Michelle Obama and falsely claimed Jill Biden had a relationship with Joe Biden while working as a babysitter for him. Dilley called former first lady Michelle Obama “big Mike Obama” — an apparent reference to a baseless conspiracy theory asserting that she is transgender. In the same episode, Dilley also falsely claimed that first lady Jill Biden “was the babysitter that Joe was fucking when his family died”; in reality, Jill Biden met and began dating Joe Biden a few years after his first wife’s death. [PolitiFact, 2/28/23, 3/14/23; Reuters, 1/27/21; The Dilley Show, 5/30/24]
  • Dilley baselessly claimed that “like 1% of teachers … are actually quality and the rest are complete fucking batshit crazy communists.” Added Dilley, “There’s a reason I’ve hated them since I was a child.” [The Dilley Show, 5/30/24]Dilley baselessly accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of being a “serial killer.” [The Dilley Show, 6/3/24]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

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