Seemingly unchastened by the loss of his committee seats due to widespread outrage at his hateful and divisive rhetoric, Iowa Rep. Steve King dropped his latest awful social media post: A transphobic meme imagining the outcome of a second civil war.

King shared the image of humanoid red and blue states locked in battle with the sarcastic caption, "Wonder who would win." The meme itself offers its answer, reading, "One side has about 8 trillion bullets, while the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use."

In the image, the congressman's own state of Iowa is depicted on the soon-to-be bullet-ridden blue side. King has since deleted the post; however, here's a screenshot (apologies for the small size and poor quality of the image, but you should get the gist):

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(Update 3/19/19: Yarek Waszul, the illustrator of the image King shared, informed us via Twitter that King had not been authorized to use the image. "I am the artist & copyright holder. Steve King Does not have my permission to use that image in any way.")

Steve King has racked up a long resume of hate during his 16 years in office, calling DREAMers drug mules with "calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling seventy-five pounds of marijuana across the desert" and wondering when “any other subgroup” besides white people “contributed to civilization.” King was re-elected to a ninth term in November, and everything seemed to be going pretty well for him until the literal words “white supremacist” fell out of his month.

House Republicans stripped him of his positions on the Agricultural and Judiciary Committees in the wake of King's January interview with the New York Times. "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization,” the Congressman mused. “How did that language become offensive?”

Even though he’s finally seen some consequences for his speech, King continues to profit from his white nationalism. He used the Times interview controversy to raise money from his supporters, sending a campaign email in which he wrote that “the unhinged left has teamed up with Republican 'NeverTrumpers' and is pulling out all the stops to destroy me."

King has also been the beneficiary of the support of neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa, which pushed its members to donate to his campaign and made phone calls to House leaders to show their support for the Congressman.

In the wake of the Times interview, King was finally condemned by some of his fellow Republican legislators. "If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive," said Mitch McConnell in a statement, "he should find another line of work." Sadly, King has not yet followed this excellent advice.



Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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