‘Twinks4Trump’ activist granted White House press accreditation

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The founder of the infamous ā€˜Twinks4Trumpā€™ art project is now an accredited White House correspondent.

Self-branded ā€œgay conservative mouthpieceā€ Lucian Wintrich was behind a photo exhibit last year under the title ā€˜Twinks4Trumpā€™, 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 Trumpā€™s 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 ā€˜DepoloraBallā€™ 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 Houseā€™s 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.
‘Twinks4Trump’ activist granted White House press accreditation
The internet-famous ā€˜Pepe 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)ā€™s database of listed hate symbols in September, joining the swastika and the KKKā€™s burning cross.

Speaking about his ā€˜Twinks4Trumpā€™ project previously, Wintrich  said: ā€œTwinks4Trump combines stereotypes about young gay men and these deep stereotypes about young conservatives. And it kind of tosses them up a little bit. Itā€™s satire.

ā€œI think that camp comedy, political satire, theyā€™re 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.

ā€œThe second you hear a dissenting voice and you say ā€˜Oh well, this sounds conservative so you must be a racist, bigot neo-nazi you donā€™t have any sort of conversation.

ā€œTo be gay and then conservativeā€¦you have to fight harder and research more and then read more than anybody else because youā€™re going to be continuously challenged.ā€