DHS speechwriter linked to hateful social accounts while claiming American conservatives are ostracized like Jews in Nazi Germany
A blog post reportedly authored by Eric Lendrum celebrated the January 6 insurrection and compared the following fallout for conservatives to the Holocaust and slavery, Notus reported.
'American conservatives are, right now, on a course for being every bit as ostracized and alienated from broader society as Jews were in the years leading up to Nazi Germany,' he claimed in a 2021 blog post on American Greatness, a rightwing opinion and news site. Lendrum posted on the site until March of this year.
His podcast, The Right Take, is listed in the author's description on the site. On one episode of the podcast, he said he liked watching videos of scared legislators during the Jan 6 insurrection.
'There's something so gratifying about seeing the images of these members of Congress — especially the Democrats — crouching under their chairs, putting on those stupid, like, bubble masks, those anti-gas bubble masks, and then taking selfies,' a laughing Lendrum said just days after the Capitol riot.
In another episode, published in October 2022, Lendrum said immigrants put Europe at risk, while also backing the 'great replacement theory.' The far-right theory claims that nonwhite immigrants are damaging the influence of white people.
'Given the direction of Europe right now, we could use a far-right government at this point,' said Lendrum.
On X, the account @realEricLendrum has argued for the removal of transgender 'ideology' and compared asylum seekers to 'scum.'
In another podcast episode, Lendrum referenced his brief period as a press assistant at the Interior Department during the first Trump administration, saying that he would only return to government if he could be closer to the president.
'If I could work more closely with him, that is the one case in which I would ever go back into government work,' said Lendrum, whose online profile was first reported by Notus. 'Government work is not fun.'
The Independent has attempted to reach Lendrum for comment.
The DHS Office of Public Affairs states that a speechwriter at the department is responsible for preparing 'speeches, talking points, editorials, Congressional testimony, video scripts, web content, and other written content for the Secretary and Deputy Secretary.' The department ranks as the largest federal law enforcement agency.
In one of the blog posts linked to Lendrum, he appeared to argue that conservatives were facing political oppression similar to that of slaves and victims of the Holocaust.
'It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance. It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now,' the blog post stated.
Responding to questions from The Independent, DHS shared a link to the text of the First Amendment.
The X account linked to Lendrum argued that the U.S. should treat immigrants as an 'invading army.'
'They are not migrants. They are not 'undocumented.' They are an invading army. The largest invasion in American history,' one post stated in May 2023. 'And what are you supposed to do with an invading army? Crush it, by any means necessary. That's the #AmericaFirst way.'
Also in the blog post about January 6, the author said, 'The Democrats were absolutely terrified — literally cowering under their seats, horrified at the prospect of mere peasants walking through the halls of their castle.'
The lawmakers, including Republicans, were escorted by Capitol Police through the Capitol complex.
'The truth is that they are grateful the events of that day unfolded as they did,' the post argued regarding the Democrats.
In a podcast episode published in April 2023, he said he would 'always properly deadname t***** freaks.'
'I will keep calling them t******* because I know it's derogatory, and I know they freakin' hate it. That's why I deadname them. That's why I use their original pronouns,' he said. 'You control the language. Don't give these freaks an inch on the language.'
'We need to eradicate transgenderism. Wipe it off the face of the Earth. Destroy it. Get rid of it,' he added. 'As a disclaimer, I'm not saying to wipe the people out. I'm not saying get rid of the people. I'm saying eliminate the ideology. Cure these people.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Buzz Feed
17 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
Trump's Joke Of No Elections In 2028 — People React
On Monday, Donald Trump met with several European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and made some remarks that left the internet saying, "WTF." When asked if he was open to holding an election once peace is achieved, Zelenskyy replied, "Yes, of course." He explained there aren't elections during wartime as they're focused on security, but the goal is "truth everywhere, in the battlefield, in the sky, in the sea," so people can resume democratic, legal elections. Trump interrupted the Ukrainian leader to confirm the bit about no elections during wartime. "Three and a half years from now, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections," he said. "Oh, that's good," he concluded. Good for who??? I really don't like this little smile at the end. Notably, this happened on the same day Trump made headlines for showing off his "Trump 2028" and "4 more years" merch. Obviously, people had a lot to say about this: "A sitting US President 'jokes' about manufacturing a war to stop democracy and stay in power. Crazy how this shit is not a MUCH bigger deal and will instead be forgotten or dismissed," one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote. Another person said, "You can practically see the dim little lightbulb flicker on above his head. 'Wait a second... if my country is in a war... I don't have to leave the White House... EVER?! THAT'S GOOD!' It's the giddy, amoral excitement of a child who has just discovered a brand new and fantastic way to cheat at the game. Except the game is the Constitution of the United States." "It's not funny.... Cause you know DAMN well it has already crossed his mind, that to me is scary!!! YOU'RE NOT FUNNY TRUMP!!!!" "Democrats need to step up and meet this loser and loser gop party where they are at! Ethics are no longer a part of the Republican party and everyone needs to realize that." And finally, "Don't get your hopes up, fuck-face. We've had elections during every war we've ever fought. And we've fought a lot of wars." What do you think about all this? LMK in the comments below!
The Hill
17 minutes ago
- The Hill
Gabbard slashing intelligence office workforce, cutting budget by more than $700 million
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will dramatically reduce its workforce and cut its budget by more than $700 million annually, the Trump administration announced Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement, 'Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence.' She said the intelligence community 'must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers.' The reorganization is part of a broader administration effort to rethink its evaluation of foreign threats to American elections, a topic that has become politically loaded given President Donald Trump's long-running resistance to the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election. In February, for instance, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. The Trump administration also has made sweeping cuts at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation's critical infrastructure, including election systems. Gabbard's efforts to downsize the agency she leads is in keeping with the cost-cutting mandate the administration has employed since its earliest days, when Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency oversaw mass layoffs of the federal workforce. It's the latest headline-making move by a key official who just a few months ago had seemed out of favor with Trump over her analysis of Iran's nuclear capabilities but who in recent weeks has emerged as a key loyalist. She's released a series of documents meant to call into question the legitimacy of the intelligence community's findings on Russian election interference in 2016, and this week, at Trump's direction, revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former government officials. The ODNI in the past has joined forces with other federal agencies to debunk and alert the public to foreign disinformation intended to influence U.S. voters. For example, it was involved in an effort to raise awareness about a Russian video that falsely depicted mail-in ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania that circulated widely on social media in the weeks before the 2024 presidential election. Notably, Gabbard said she would be refocusing the priorities of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which her office says on its website is 'focused on mitigating threats to democracy and U.S. national interests from foreign malign influence.' It wasn't clear from Gabbard's release or fact sheet exactly what the changes would entail, but Gabbard noted its 'hyper-focus' on work tied to elections and said the center was 'used by the previous administration to justify the suppression of free speech and to censor political opposition.' The Biden administration created the Foreign Malign Influence Center in 2022, responding to what the U.S. intelligence community had assessed as attempts by Russia and other adversaries to interfere with American elections. Its role, ODNI said when it announced the center's creation, was to coordinate and integrate intelligence pertaining to malign influence. In a briefing given to reporters in 2024, ODNI officials said they only notified candidates, political organizations and local election offices of disinformation operations when they could be attributed to foreign sources. They said they worked to avoid any appearance of policing Americans' speech. Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, hailed the decision to broadly revamp ODNI, saying it would make it a 'stronger and more effective national security tool for President Trump.'
Miami Herald
17 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Can you prove to Trump you're not anti-American? An (absurd) immigration checklist
The Trump administration's announcement Wednesday that immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship and other benefits will be screened to determine whether they have displayed anti-American ideas or behavior is problematic to say the least. Who gets to decide what exactly is anti-American? And that got us thinking. If U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents are the ones deciding whether you stay or go, what will they be considering? Is the applicant's social media free of rainbows? Come on in. Do they have preferred pronouns? The exit is that way. What about the person's car — is it (more or less) American made? A positive sign. Yes, this is a serious matter. But measuring anti-American-ness? That's a joke. U.S. immigration officers have always used their discretion to award citizenship and other benefits to people born outside the country. It's unclear what will actually change under the updated immigration policy manual, though 'Anti-American activity will be an overwhelmingly negative factor in any discretionary analysis,' U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wrote in a Tuesday news release. The guidelines target 'anti-American ideologies' but don't describe what they are, which is the problem. That will be in the eyes of the beholder — and the beholder being the Trump administration, we can imagine how that might turn out. Given that the new guidance also includes 'social media vetting,' we encourage officers to print out the following checklist, which we're sure will please the president and his top aide/anti-immigration zealot Stephen Miller: Does this future patriot drive a truck that does no more than 5 mpg of beautiful fossil fuel? Approve. Did the wannabe American show up to the immigration interview in a Prius or electrical vehicle? (Please consult your supervisor regarding the status of Tesla, as the president and Elon Musk may still patch things up.) Deny. Send applicants straight to Alligator Alcatraz if they rode a bike, because this is America, not the future model citizen spotted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021? Approve. Has this ungrateful person posted anything complaining about the cost of groceries since Jan. 20, 2025 — because 'inflation is down to a perfect, beautiful number,' the president has to constantly remind us? Deny. Does this soon-to-be great American thank the president every day for protecting us from mail ballots, windmills, foreign invaders and paper straws? Approve — immediately. With this list, USCIS officers will be sure to ensure that whoever is allowed in the country has pledged their allegiance not only to America but to a particular ideology that the president has decided is the only one acceptable. Whoever disagrees should not be granted the privilege of American citizenship, does not belong in the Smithsonian museums or in the federal government, especially if they will produce any jobs reports that make Trump's economy look bad. And if you find the above list absurd, it's because it is meant to be. These are, in fact, absurd times.
