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Trump and Sanders do sometimes make similar hand gestures. (Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com).

(JOE SONGER)

The Ku Klux Klan is using Donald Trump as a conversation piece to gauge interest by prospective members, according to the Washington Post.

Trump, the Republican front-runner who has said that many Mexicans crossing the border illegally are "rapists" and "murderers" and has called for a temporary ban on Muslims from traveling to the United States, has an appeal to the KKK and other white supremacist groups, who are enthused by such talk from a major presidential candidate.

In an effort to recruit members, the KKK's strategy is subtle. A member in public might have a newspaper opened to a Trump article to find out whether someone starts a conversation and conveys their interest in Trump's anti-immigrant views, according to the Post.

"One of the things that our organization really stresses with our membership is we want them to educate themselves on issues, but we also want them to be able to learn how to open up a conversation with other people," Rachel Pendergraft, national organizer of the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, the modern KKK organization founded by David Duke, told the paper.

Trump has declined to talk about his support among white supremacists, but he also repudiated Duke's support of him after he was prompted to.

Aside from recruitment, Trump is also energizing the KKK's base, according to Pendergraft.

"They like the overall momentum of his rallies and his campaign," she said. "They like that he's not willing to back down. He says what he believes and he stands on that."

Trump's rallies have also stirred controversy, including the roughing up of Black Lives Matter protester Mercutio Southall Jr. at The Donald's Birmingham rally in October. Trump got angry when television cameras covering the rally panned to the incident instead of focusing on him.

And KKK organizations in Alabama have also recently used anti-Muslim rhetoric in recruiting fliers.

Exactly how much of a surge in membership the KKK and likeminded groups are experiencing because of Trump is unclear because the Klan and other white-nationalist organizations don't publicly release the number in their ranks.