Forbes reports that famed internet troll Chuck Johnson, banned from Twitter for doxing women and harassing everyone he can online, is working with the Trump transition to recommend people for the White House team from the ranks of the alt-right. Here's a taste of what he was doing before taking on his Very Important Troll status, via Little Green Footballs:
Johnson, of course, is well-known for harassing and outing rape victims, outing Ebola victims, hanging out with white supremacists and writing for white nationalist sites like Takimag and Vdare, and a host of other vile far right activities, and is notorious for threatening to sue anyone and everyone who criticizes him.
According to a Forbes report, multiple sources inside the transition team confirm that "he is working behind the scenes with members of the transition team’s executive committee, including billionaire Trump donor Peter Thiel, to recommend, vet and give something of a seal of approval to potential nominees from the so-called 'alt-right.'"
I guess we know where his funding came from for his various ventures ahead of Trump's election now. Peter Thiel loves sh*tposters like Johnson, and he's certainly simpatico with His Hero.
We aren't talking about minor appointments, either.
Johnson, who boldly predicted against conventional wisdom and polls that Trump would win, and who was spotted in the VIP section at Trump’s election night party, began working with the transition team shortly after Nov. 8. Among his contacts within Manhattan’s Trump Tower, where the President-elect has set up camp, is Thiel, a member of the transition’s executive committee. A PayPal cofounder and Facebook board member whose vast network of Silicon Valley connections has made him invaluable to the President-elect, Thiel has overseen many of the science and technology appointments for the incoming administration.
Johnson has helped in that effort, pushing for at least a dozen potential candidates to Thiel, including Ajit Pai, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, whom Johnson hopes will lead the organization under Trump. Pai declined to comment for this story. As a Republican member of the FCC, Pai is a natural candidate to be considered for the chairmanship of the agency, and Johnson's recommendation suggests he's also favored by a segment of the self-described "alt-right."
Beyond recommending candidates, Johnson has also helped set up meetings between potential appointees and transition team members. He has worked with Jim O’Neill, who is being considered to head the Food and Drug Administration and is currently employed by Thiel at San Francisco-based investment firm Mithril Capital. Johnson has tried to arrange for O’Neill to meet with conservative influencers and political groups in an effort to build support for his potential FDA nomination. O’Neill declined to comment.
I guess it's perfectly appropriate for the troll-in-chief to bring in one of the internet's biggest for advice, but it certainly isn't shaping up to be good for any of those "hard working voters" that Trump appealed to.
On the other hand, NY Magazine thinks it's just more Chuck Johnson-level trolling:
But this afternoon, Johnson told Gideon Resnick, a reporter for the Daily Beast, that “most of the Forbes story is false.” Even by Trump standards, Johnson’s history is pretty toxic. As mentioned before, he was also Twitter’s first high-profile permanent ban, a dubious honor he earned for soliciting people to “take out” Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson.
On top of that, Johnson’s choices for administration positions are either unknown or very obvious. He supports Ajit Pai, a conservative FCC commissioner, to head the FCC, a pick that’s practically a foregone conclusion. What seems as likely as anything — reading between the lines of the Forbes story — is that Johnson is in very remote touch with someone on the transition team, has likely sent several emails, and may or may not have been used as a sounding board for certain names. Which is, on the one hand, reassuring — and on the other, not at all.
I'm inclined to think it's in the middle of those two places. He was in the Trump VIP section at his election night party, has received some hefty funding from someone on the right, and is more or less at the same level that Andrew Breitbart was back in the day. It's not inconceivable that Steve Bannon has been relying upon him for some input from his friends on the white supremacist, neo-Nazi side of the spectrum, after all.
