Notwithstanding a resounding Election Day defeat in his U.S. Senate bid, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke appears optimistic about the future of the United States following President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment this week Steve Bannon, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, to roles in his administration.

Mr. Duke, the one-time Imperial Wizard of the KKK, failed to garner much more than 3 percent of the vote earlier this month after he unsuccessfully campaigned on a platform of “respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans.” On Friday, however, he praised the president-elect for making staffing choices he considers to have waged similar efforts in support of whites.

“Mr. Trump’s appointment of Bannon, Flynn and Sessions are the first steps in the project of taking America back,” Mr. Duke tweeted on Friday.

In a blog post published the same day, the former Klansman outlined specifically what he favored about Mr. Trump’s appointments.

Mr. Bannon, the former Breitbart chairman named as Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, “has repeatedly exposed the vicious war on White people on his Breitbart website,” Mr. Duke wrote.

Lt. Gen. Flynn, meanwhile, “realizes that America’s foreign policy has been downright traitorous with the support of the radical Jihadists of Saudi Arabia, over our natural allies the Christian, Muslim and moderate secularists of Syria,” Mr. Duke wrote.

“He also understands that Putin of ‘Christian Russia’ should not be our enemy but our ally. He is an avowed enemy of the Jewish warmonger traitors called ‘Neocons’ and they in turn intensely hate this U.S. Army General who truly puts America First,” Mr. Duke added of Lt. Gen. Flynn, the president-elect’s pick for national security adviser.

Mr. Trump’s pick for attorney general, Mr. Sessions, “has been hated for years by the Jewish-dominated media for his opposition to massive immigration into America and for the fact that he has dared to publicly oppose the massive, institutionalized racial discrimination against white people called affirmative action,” Mr. Duke wrote.

“We must demand the protection of the civil rights of all Americans including white people!” Mr. Duke continued. “Everyone must be judged on their merit and not the unfair and destructive anti-white affirmative action racist policies that dominate major corporations, Federal, State and city governments, colleges and educational institutions.”

“Bravo President Trump! Some Great First Steps!” he added.

Mr. Duke’s endorsement of the future Trump administration’s first appointments comes eight months after the current president-elect stumbled when questioned about the white supremacist’s support of his White House campaign.

“Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK?” Mr. Trump told CNN in March.

“David Duke is a bad person, who I disavowed on numerous occasions over the years,” Mr. Trump clarified several days later.

The Trump camp found itself similarly situated in recent weeks upon garnering the support of The Crusader, a KKK-affiliated newspaper, and prompted a North Carolina-based chapter of the Klan to plot a “victory parade” in the president-elect’s honor.

“Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form,” his campaign said earlier this month after The Crusader defended Mr. Trump in a full-page column printed on the front page of the newspaper. “This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign,” it said in a statement.

Mr. Trump’s team did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.

Mr. Duke, 66, stepped down from his role as Klan leader in 1980 and successfully campaigned eight years leader for a spot in the Louisiana House of Representatives.