Hate crimes rose 226% in places where Trump rallies were held in 2016, study reveals

US counties which hosted president Trump’s campaign rallies in 2016 saw a 226 per cent increase in reported hate crimes, when compared to similar counties that did not host one, new analysis has revealed.

The analysis was released by The Washington Post and conducted by professors and students from University of North Texas.

Starting out, researchers sought to find out whether or not Trump’s rhetoric "may encourage hate crimes”.

The analysis examined whether there was a link between Trump rallies and increased reporting of hate crimes, both immediately and in the months after each rally.

The study’s authors said:

To test this, we aggregated hate-crime incident data and Trump rally data to the county level and then used statistical tools to estimate a rally’s impact.

We included controls for factors such as the county’s crime rates, its number of active hate groups, its minority populations, its percentage with college educations, its location in the country and the month when the rallies occurred.

Findings revealed that counties that hosted one of Trump’s 275 campaign rallies in 2016 saw a staggering 226 per cent increase in reported hate crimes compared to counties with similar demographics which did not host rallies.

This is not the first time that Trump has been linked to hate crime. Democrats have criticised his rhetoric, claiming it incites violence and encourages white nationalism.

FBI data from 2017 that showed a 17 per cent increase in reported hate crimes over 2016, the year Trump ran for president.

Following the deadly gun attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 50 people, Trump was asked whether he sees a rise in white nationalism.

He said:

I don't really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.

If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet.

Last month the New York Times reported that over 1,000 “hate groups” are currently active in the US, most of which promote white supremacist ideologies. Trump also received endorsements from leading white supremacist figures like David Duke and Richard Spencer.

H/T: TheHill

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