Trump really loves the idea of Nazi enthusiast Curt Schilling running for Congress

Trump is enthusiastically backing a possible congressional run by Nazi enthusiast, fraudster, and former professional baseball player Curt Schilling.

“Curt Schilling, a great pitcher and patriot, is considering a run for Congress in Arizona. Terrific!” Trump wrote on Tuesday.

The tweet was prompted by Trump’s favorite television show, “Fox & Friends,” reporting on an interview where Schilling said he is “considering going back to Arizona and running for a congressional seat.”

Earlier in the year, Trump said Schilling “deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

Schilling is best known for his years as a pitcher in Major League Baseball, but since then he has been involved in pro-Nazi controversies, Islamophobia, and embarrassing business deals that echo many of Trump’s experiences.

Schilling is a collector of Nazi memorabilia, including Nazi uniforms with swastikas in place. In 2015, he provoked controversy when he posted pictures of his collection on Facebook.

Out of 200 photographs that Schilling posted, over three dozen of the images featured swastikas.

“I’ve noticed that there is some kind of fetish with Nazi uniforms,” Brown University professor and genocide expert Omer Bartov told the Boston Globe, referencing Schilling’s collection.

Nazism came up again with Schilling that year after he was taken off ESPN’s broadcasts of the Little League World Series after he posted a meme comparing Muslims to Nazis.

The image depicted Adolf Hitler with the caption, “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?”

“The math is staggering when you get to true #’s,” Schilling wrote along with the posting.

Schilling was fired from ESPN in 2016 after posting an anti-transgender image online.

“ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated,” the network said in a statement.

In 2017, Schilling supported Paul Nehlen, a Republican congressional candidate who described himself as “pro-white” and who was banned from Twitter for posting racist images. Schilling interviewed Nehlen on his radio show that was hosted by Breitbart, the white supremacist pro-Trump site.

Schilling also defended the pro-slavery Confederacy.

He posted a meme online in 2015 comparing the Confederate battle flag to Christian imagery. He also shared a meme that called civil rights heroes, including Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), unpatriotic.

In addition to his problems with racism and other forms of bigotry, Schilling was involved in an expensive failed business deal.

Schilling had a video game company, 38 Studios, that received a $75 million loan guarantee from the state of Rhode Island in 2010. Schilling’s company promised to bring 450 jobs to the state by the end of 2012.

Instead, the company defaulted on its loan in May 2012, laid off 379 people, and was sued by the state that November.

“Legal action was taken to rectify a grave injustice put upon the people of Rhode Island,” then-governor Lincoln Chafee said in a statement.

In 2016 Schilling entered into a settlement with the state and agreed to pay them $2.5 million.

Schilling’s track record does not appear to be a negative for Trump.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.