Not all of Donald Trump’s supporters are white.
There’s, of course, Ben Carson and Omarosa. And there are prominent supporters outside of the administration like Gianno Caldwell.
But few supporters — black, white, brown or any other color — are as passionate and as consistent as the black man who has become a fixture at Trump speeches.
He was there during the campaign, and he was there at the Phoenix rally, each time somehow positioned just behind the president, each time holding a sign that read “BLACKS FOR TRUMP.”
Who is this man?
Well, the president’s public enemy number one wondered the same thing, and this week it got together to figure it all out.
It turns out that although this mysterious supporter is a man of one message, he’s a man of many names.
At the moment, he goes by Michael the Black Man. In the past he, the government, and presumably his mother, have called him Michael Symonette, Maurice Woodside and Mikael Israel.
He likes to sport a beard, and is rarely seen not wearing a simple white t-shirt emblazoned with the words “TRUMP & Republicans Are Not Racist.”
Underneath that unfortunately controversial koan is a URL for Michael’s site, Gods2.com.
The site proclaims that “LATIN, BLACK AND WHITE MUST UNITE,” before directing users to another site, honestfact.com, that combines hate speech with Biblical references and requests for donations.
According to the site, “ISIS & HILLARY RACE WAR PLOT TO KILL ALL BLACK & WHITE WOMEN OF AMERICA WITH MS-13,” and “Cherokees,” a reoccurring foe of the site, “took the Americas by Violence.”
It isn’t just Clinton that Michael fears, but Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey. The Washington Post reports that Michael refers to the two as “The Beast” and “the devil” respectively.
Micahel’s politics were likely influenced by cult leader Yahweh Ben Yahweh.
The Post reports that Michael met Yahweh in 1980, when he was 21.
Yahweh believed himself to be the Messiah, according to the Miami New Times, and recruited many followers in Miami.
Yahweh and his disciples lived communally, ate once a day, shared spouses (with whom sex was only allowed in a communal room), and worked 18 hours a day spreading their message.
Part of that message including the evils of whites — homeless white people had to be killed as part of the cult’s initiation rites, and the ears of white victims were gifted to Yahweh as macabre mementos.
Whites were also villains in Yahweh’s version of the Bible, which also included aliens. He was known for giving fiery speeches elaborating on his brand of Christianity.
In an interview with Chicago’s WLS-AM this week, Michael says the press and the courts have it all wrong about Yahweh, who was eventually sentenced to 11 years in prison for his activities with the cult.
“I belonged to Yahweh Ben Yahweh,” Michael said, “And he was not violent; he was a black man that was destroyed by the Clintons because we were black and prominent and doing things positive, as they have attacked all black organizations.”
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is “doing the same thing that Abraham Lincoln did,” Michael said in the same interview.
Michael created a radio station of his own, BOSS 104.1 FM, and has used it as a platform for his views. On air, he has lambasted Democrats, who he refers to as “Demon-crats” and has unleashed Yahweh-esque broadsides against homosexuality.
He first began making political public appearances during the Obama campaign. In 2008, he was part of a group of Florida protesters who shouted at 44 to “Go home,” as they waived signs that read, “Obama endorsed by the KKK.”
Obama, of course, was not endorsed by the KKK. Trump, however, does have the KKK’s endorsement.
Michael told WLS that most people have the KKK all wrong. According to him, KKK leader Asa Earl Carter was a Cherokee. “That’s why they wore those hats that looked like tents because they were indicating that those are tepees and that they were hiding under it.”
Michael went on to claim, “Cherokee Indians … are mostly white people … and almost all of them were the ones that had slaves, and all the slave states were states where reservations were located.”
Just how much the Trump administration knows about Michael is unclear.
In effort to uncover how Michael appears so often at Trump speeches, the Post reached out to the White House.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the paper’s query with an email that read, “You would have to contact the campaign.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to the Post’s questions.
It would seem that at least some in the campaign are familiar with Michael, however.
He attended the Republican Party of Palm Beach County’s Lincoln Day Dinner at Trump’s Winter White House, the Trump Mar-a-Lago resort.
He posted several photos of himself with Republican leaders, as well as a video of himself with Florida’s governor, Rick Scott.
In the video, Scott praises Michael’s efforts. “I saw you on TV with Trump. You did a good job.”
The president approves as well. On the campaign he singled out Michael’s signs more than once, saying at an October 2016 rally, “Blacks for Trump. You watch. You watch. Those signs are great, thank you.”
.@realDonaldTrump praises "Blacks for Trump" signs at FL rally: "Blacks for Trump. You watch. You watch." https://t.co/nbcZRDpXl9
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 25, 2016
And this week, in Phoenix, the president and Michael the Black Man faced each other again.
As his supporters chanted “Build that wall!” the president turned to soak up their adulation.
Michael stopped chanting, returning the president’s thumbs up, and mouthing, “I love you!”
