Trump appointee to West Point board has a history of spreading conspiracies
Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor has also made racist remarks, calling immigrants 'unwanted Muslim invaders'
Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, President Donald Trump‘s recent nominee to West Point’s advisory board, has been known to spread conspiracy theories and denigrate refugees and immigrants, according to CNN.
The senior adviser at the Pentagon will serve on the Army academy’s Board of Visitors, which was created to “inquire about the academy’s morale and discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, and academic methods,” according to West Point’s official website.
All those who serve on the board either must be a member of the House of Representatives or be personally appointed by the president.
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President Trump previously chose Col. Macgregor as an ambassador to Germany back in July, as reported by Politico. Macgregor has made racist remarks in regards to immigrants in the past. He once called Germany’s refugee inhabitants “millions of unwanted Muslim invaders,” during a 2018 interview on the radio show, Conservative Commando.
In 2016, Col. Macgregor appeared on the Michael Ostrolenk Show podcast and had some disparaging comments about Muslims seeking asylum: “They’re coming to benefit, to consume and to establish themselves, inside other people’s countries with the goal of eventually turning Europe into an Islamic state.”
During a 2019 appearance on Conservative Commando, Col. Macgregor was spreading a conspiracy about foreigners being bused into America with backing from billionaire political donor George Soros, saying that Soros, who he called a Marxist, was “the destruction of the United States and of Western Europe.”
In addition to appointing Col. Macgregor, the Trump administration has appointed two people with links to white nationalism to government positions since losing the election on Nov. 7.
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Last month, former speechwriter Darren J. Beattie said that Trump appointed him to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, according to Huffington Post. Beattie lost his job in 2018 after it was disclosed he had spoken at a white nationalist conference.
Similarly, political analyst Jason Richwine, who was appointed last month to a senior position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has said in the past that Latinos have a lower IQ than white people.
This continues President Trump’s history of filling high-ranking appointments with individuals with histories of racial rhetoric and far-right beliefs. He appointed Steve Bannon, former chairman of alt-right news publication Breitbart News, as his chief strategist in 2017.
Also in 2017, President Trump appointed Sen. Jeff Sessions as his attorney general, who has a long history of disparaging commentary against gay rights and pro-Black legislation. ABC News reported that he once said affirmative action has “delayed” “racial harmony,” stating, I think it makes people unhappy if they lost a contract or a right to go to a school or a privilege to attend a university simply because of their race.”
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