Donald Trump’s supporters on Saturday weren’t fazed by reports of a terror group featuring the GOP front-runner in a recruiting video, with some dismissing the clip’s authenticity.
The video, purportedly produced by Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab, uses historic civil rights era footage of Malcolm X and audio of Trump to label the United States a racist society, citing the real-estate mogul’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
But many backers of the GOP front-runner who poured into the ice hockey rink here at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum said they were more concerned about Trump restoring the Gulf Coast economy than whether he was being used to recruit terrorists.
“We should not worry about the lies that our enemy proffers, but be concerned with defeating our Islamo-fascist enemies. Islamo-fascism is an ideology just like Nazism,” said Chris Farrell, 53, an Army veteran from New Orleans.
Kent Peterman, 28, an Air Force member from Gulfport, Mississippi, said he was certain terrorist groups would find any U.S. leader to put in their recruiting videos.
“I think they could use anybody as a recruiting tool. It doesn’t matter who it is. It could be Hillary,” he said.
Trump himself made that point two weeks ago, saying that President Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were being used, not him.
A couple of attendees, meanwhile, questioned whether the video was authentic.
“I think that’s fabricated,” said Ralph Cahill, who drove two hours from Soso, Mississippi, to Trump’s rally in a lime green stretch Hummer limousine adorned with posters of Trump.
