“Hail Trump” Conference Headlined By Tila Tequila, Nazi Salutes

Friendship Heights, a Washington, D.C. neighborhood, played host to a gathering of the self-described alt-right for a pro-Trump conference that could plausibly be described as "a Nazi rally." The National Policy Institute sponsored the 11-hour series of lectures and roundtables, headlined by its head Richard B. Spencer and former reality star and current Hitler enthusiast Tila Tequila. Spencer called on his supporters to stop acting like an insurgency and begin acting like the establishment. He's been called the founder of the alt-right, a loose coalition of white supremacists, ethnic nationalists, and others, but his closing speech to the conference was far less euphemistic.

"He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German," the New York Times writes of his speech. "America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the 'children of the sun,' a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were 'awakening to their own identity.' As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear who — shouted, 'Heil the people! Heil victory,' the room shouted it back." "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory," is what the Atlantic says people shouted. We offer no comment on their alternative spelling. Protesters attempted to storm the afterparty, held at a restaurant that has since apologized and said they didn't know what event they were hosting. The restaurant has since donated their $10,000 profit to the Anti-Defamation League. Here's Tila Tequila doing a Nazi salute at the reception.

The coverage of the event included this CNN panel, which included a chyron referencing Spencer's questioning Jewish people's humanity.

Donald Trump, who has commented on the Hamilton and a Saturday Night Live sketch, offered no rebuke to the white supremacists and Nazis hailing his election to the office of president.