Trump leans on Dutch farmers’ protest against climate measures to rally US base: “you’re next”

Former president Donald Trump headlined the Turning Point USA event in Florida this week, during which he took a moment to praise Dutch farmers protesting against government mandates on reducing nitrogen emissions. Trump dramatically warned Americans: you’re next.

The Dutch farmers’ protests have unexpectedly resonated with the US far right and are now being used as talking points by political figures like Trump. Katherine Keneally, a Senior Analyst at ISD, spoke with journalist Karlijn van Houwelingen from the Dutch outlet AD, about how the far-right and conspiracists use events like these to further push their own narratives forward.

Katherine has been keeping watch over content – images, videos and articles – being spread across mainstream and fringe social media by accounts that frequently share conspiratorial and far-right content, ranging from COVID-19 conspiracists, election deniers, anti-government groups and the ‘patriot’ movement, to climate deniers and QAnon adherents. The Dutch protests are just the latest example of something the far right is clinging onto in order to amplify existing anti-government narratives, and protesting the supposed control of a ‘New World Order.’ In this instance, they believe that the US government, like the Dutch, are using policies like these to create a manmade food crisis in order to increase control over U.S. citizens, she told AD.

To read the full article in Dutch, please click here.