MAGA Mixer to feature Trump choices — and election conspiracies

Lansing area law enforcement agencies are on alert rolling into this weekend.

A rally on the steps of the State Capitol is planned for Saturday (March 26) by supporters of former President Donald Trump and those who claim the 2020 election was “stolen.” The rally, set to last about three hours on Saturday afternoon, will then give way to a “MAGA Mixer.” City officials said authorities are keeping an eye on the rally.

The event is being sponsored by two out-of-state organizations: Republicans for National Renewal and Grand Opportunity USA. Shane Trejo, grassroots director for Republicans for National Renewal, co-hosted a podcast titled “Blood, Soil and Liberty” for two years with white nationalist Alex Witoslawski. And while the audio of those shows has since been deleted from the internet, the podcast still remained listed this week on several popular podcast sites.

The Anti-Defamation League’s extremism archives indicates the phrase Blood and Soil — “blut und boden” — was a Nazi phrase referring to keeping oneself racially pure. It was chanted at the Charlotteville “Unite the Right” protest in 2017.

In 2019, Witoslawski was recorded by activists from Unicorn Riot providing messaging training for the white supremacy group Identity Evropa. That group later dissolved and attempted to rebrand itself as the extremist American Identity Movement before again falling apart in 2020.

Trejo did not respond to an email inquiry about his involvement with Republicans for National Renewal or his ties to Witoslawski. But John Paul Moran, the executive director for the other organization sponsoring the mixer, Grand Opportunity USA, said that he had spoken to Trejo over the weekend about Witkowski and his reported ties to white nationalism. Moran reported that Trejo had rejected the claim that he was tied to white nationalism in any sense. Moran said anyone who wants to support white nationalism is unwelcome at the MAGA Mixer.

“That’s not what we’re about, at all,” he said. “We’re for opportunity for everyone.”

The event was originally set to happen at Lansing Brewing Co., but Moran, a Boston area resident, said the brewery canceled the mixer after it garnered negative publicity. It’s set to continue at Royal Scot, a bowling alley and golf course in Clinton County, just past the Ingham County line on Grand River Avenue by the Capital Region International Airport.

Royal Scot had its liquor license and food license suspended by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission and the Department of Agriculture in 2020 for violating COVID-19 rules. City Pulse recorded people violating Michigan’s health rules there at the time. Afterward, the former health officer for Clinton County said the activities at Royal Scot were leading to the spread of COVID.

Moran declined to discuss the violations and license suspensions at Royal Scot, calling the entire COVID-19 response “mixed messaging.” Royal Scot accepted its suspensions last year.

Moran proudly touts being an openly gay man who ran as a Republican for Congress in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District two years ago. Incumbent Democrat Seth Moulton easily defeated him in 2020 by a margin of 65.4% to 34.4%, The New York Times reported. 

But Moran, 55, was not deterred. He launched Grand Opportunity USA with a plan to create a new rating system for candidates up and down every ballot in the country — with a particular focus on federal races. In his weekly “Opportunity Report” Facebook videos, Moran claims the rating systems are a novel concept, but in an interview with City Pulse, he recognized that political groups have had rating systems for decades that gauge candidates on issues.

Unlike those, however, Moran said his system will measure political stances on 39 issues that he claimed to be supported by 80% of voters. Those issues boil down to five categories: social, personal, economic, education and national opportunity. They run the gamut from traditionally right-wing beliefs like school voucher systems to traditionally left leaning ideological constructs such as supporting civil rights based on “race, age, religion, orientations, lifestyles and political” perspectives. Moran’s group also opposes identity-driven “politics,” including what it calls “Critical Race Theory, LatCrit and Critical Gender Theory.”

With a maximum of five points possible, former President Bill Clinton received a rating of +1 under Moran’s rating system. JFK received a rating of +4. Ronald Reagan received a +4.4. George W. Bush received a +2. Barack Obama’s rating dipped into the negatives at -2.4.

Moran has also claimed that public education has been teaching children as young as kindergarten about sexual activity, as well as promoting gender identity for students.

The “gender agenda,” as he called it, is rooted in sexist and homophobic beliefs. He also claimed that fewer women come out as lesbian because of access to transgender identities.

“I am all about protect adult transgender persons,” he said. “But not for kids. With puberty blockers and all that. That’s just insane.”

Leading medical experts, however, feel differently.

Last April, the American Medical Association wrote to the National Governor’s Association demanding an end to legislation that interferes with the care of transgender children and adults.

Moran said he supports the rights of transgender adults to receive care — “just not the kids.” He also said that the medical interventions used on children who identify as transgender can create significant health issues down the road. In addition, those who early on in life identify as transgender ultimately always come out as lesbian, gay or bisexual, he contended.

The former congressional candidate is also suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, alleging that election officials and lawmakers superseded the state Constitution by expanding mail-in, no-reason absentee voting. He added: “They violated the Constitution. It’s that simple.”

After being told that Michigan has had over 250 election audits, legislative reports and an Inspector General report finding no fraud in the 2020 election, Moran still insisted there was evidence of election fraud in Michigan, claiming there was video of ballots being dumped late in the night, as well as challengers booted while ballots were counted at the TCF Center in Detroit. Both of those claims were promoted by Trejo, who in addition to serving as a director at Republicans for National Revival also chairs the 11th Congressional District Republicans. Trejo published those allegations on a right-wing website called Big League Politics. In November 2020, Attorney General Dana Nessel sent Trejo and Big League Politics a cease-and-desist order that claimed material on the website had constituted “misinformation.”