A man holding a 'Blacks For Trump' sign right behind Trump was once part of an extremist murder cult

Yesterday, a handful of proud Donald Trump rally-goers caught the public’s eye with signs that identified them as “Blacks For Trump.”

One of these people, an older (seemingly) white woman, stood out for the rather obvious weirdness of being an older white woman holding a “Blacks for Trump” sign and supporting a known racist’s bid for the presidency. To the woman’s right, though, there was a man who, while not immediately recognizable, has an equally curious set of political beliefs and identities. Miami New Times identified him as Michael Symonette, and he has a crazy history.

Long before he waved his Blacks For Trump sign for the world to see, Symonette was part of the Miami-based Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, a group of black extremists who pledged themselves to the cause of killing white people. He was one of  more than a dozen people who were all indicted on multiple charges of extortion, arson, and 14 murders.

Though Symonette’s own brother testified that he had brutally beaten one of the murder victims and stabbed another man in the eyeball, a jury eventually found him innocent, let him walk free, and gave him the opportunity to transform himself into a local radio owner and popular popular YouTuber known as Michael The Black Man.

Symonette’s YouTube brand is a simple, but effective one built upon right wing, illuminati conspiracy theories and full-throated rants about President Barack Obama secretly being the Antichrist. His race and willingness to come out in bold opposition of the president have made him a popular unofficial political surrogate for conservatives like Rick Santorum and, more recently, Donald Trump.

“When they say that Trump is a racist, that is a lie,” he said in a recent video. “This man has been doing good for black people for thirty years. Google it right now. I want you to know that all of the black leaders in America are against Hillary right now.”

While Symonette may not be a part of the Trump campaign in a technically explicit capacity, his being featured prominently on stage behind Trump can hardly be thought of as coincidental and Trump’s camp hasn’t done much to distance itself from the man despite his questionable pass. From his perspective, both his proximity to and political support of Donald Trump are grounded in his fundamental distrust for Clinton.

“Hillary’s last name is Rodham, and their family members are Rothchilds, who enslaved 13,000 slaves as collateral,” Symonette told the Miami New Times. “She’s also on camera kissing the head of the Ku Klux Klan and saying, ‘That’s my mentor.’ That’s all on my website.”