White nationalist leader no longer a delegate for Donald Trump

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

published 11 May 2016

One day after he was listed as one of Donald Trump's delegates in California, well-known white nationalist William Johnson says he will resign and has learned he needs to be more "circumspect when I try to enter the mainstream."

The Trump campaign said the inclusion of Johnson, a lawyer in Los Angeles and leader of the American Freedom Party (which exists to "represent the political interests of White Americans"), was due to a "database error," Mother Jones reports. The list of 169 delegates selected by the Trump campaign was published by California's secretary of state on Monday, and Johnson told Mother Jones after he applied to be a delegate, he received a congratulatory email from Trump's California delegate coordinator, Katie Lagomarsino. Before announcing his resignation, Johnson said he was hoping to show that someone can be "mainstream and have these views. I can be a white nationalist and be a strong supporter of Donald Trump and be a good example to everybody."

Earlier in the race, Johnson paid for several pro-Trump robocalls with a white nationalist message, and he said he mentioned those calls in his application to become a delegate. Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Time that Johnson was a "potential delegate that had been rejected and removed from the campaign's list in February 2016," and Johnson says almost immediately, he regretted applying. "I learned my lesson," he said. "I need to be more circumspect when I try to enter the mainstream. Trump has so many issues to deal with. They don't need to deal with Johnson and his baggage."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.