‘Twinks4Trump’ activist granted White House press accreditation
The founder of the infamous āTwinks4Trumpā art project is now an accredited White House correspondent.
Self-branded āgay conservative mouthpieceā Lucian Wintrich was behind a photo exhibit last year under the title āTwinks4Trumpā, featuring scantily-clad young gay men, in support of the Republican billionaire.
However, things are looking up for Wintrich ā who has been handed an official White House press pass, courtesy of Trumpās press secretary Sean Spicer.
Though the White House press corps is typically comprised of serious news outlets, Wintrich got the pass on behalf of alt-right and overtly pro-Trump blog Gateway Pundit, which first revealed it would have an official White House correspondent at the āDepoloraBallā inauguration event.
Wintrich made his press corps debut this week, despite having no experience of political reporting.
Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft tweeted a picture of himself and Wintrich in the White Houseās Press Briefing Room yesterday.
The tweet was adorned with a frog emoji and both appear to be making a frog symbol with their hands ā which MediaMatters noted is an apparent reference to white supremacist hate symbol Pepe the Frog.
The internet-famous āPepe the Frogā meme started out life as an innocuous cartoon, but was adopted as a visual symbol by the far-right and white supremacists online last year.
The symbol was added to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)ās database of listed hate symbols in September, joining the swastika and the KKKās burning cross.
Speaking about his āTwinks4Trumpā project previously, Wintrich said: āTwinks4Trump combines stereotypes about young gay men and these deep stereotypes about young conservatives. And it kind of tosses them up a little bit. Itās satire.
āI think that camp comedy, political satire, theyāre incredible tools for bridging that cultural divide and that gap and getting people to laugh while simultaneously getting them to think about things a little bit differently.
āThe second you hear a dissenting voice and you say āOh well, this sounds conservative so you must be a racist, bigot neo-nazi you donāt have any sort of conversation.
āTo be gay and then conservativeā¦you have to fight harder and research more and then read more than anybody else because youāre going to be continuously challenged.ā