Story highlights Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Eric Trump's 'bullet' comment about David Duke follows a pattern

Like his father, younger Trump speaks a language of threat, she says

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, and professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. Her latest book is "Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Thank you, Eric Trump, for saying that David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and current candidate for Louisiana senator, "deserves a bullet." Even those of us who are no fans of Duke find your proposal of political assassination repulsive and must reject it in the strongest possible terms. Yet you've also done America a favor: Just days from the presidential election, you've reminded Americans of the ethos of violence that's at the heart of your father's presidential campaign.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Ironies abound in Eric Trump's declaration that "these are horrible people," referring to the white supremacists behind the Ku Klux Klan. Swastikas and other emblems, retweeted by Trump Sr. from white supremacist social media accounts , have mainstreamed a subculture of hatred, bringing concepts like "Jewamerica" and "white genocide" to a vast public. In one week of January 2016, one data analysis from Little Bird found that 62% of Trump's tweets had white nationalist origins or connections.

The Trump campaign has also used Nazi German symbols in its own original campaign ads. In July 2015, Trump tweeted a stock image of actors with SS uniforms overlaid by an American flag and a portrait of himself, with text saying "We need real leadership."

Trump blamed an intern for the presence of those uniforms, but his followers know the real story: Trump promises to save American whites against the incursions of shifting demographics (Hispanics and other peoples of color will become the majority in a few decades) and immigrants, as well as from the empowerment of African-Americans in the wake of Barack Obama's presidency. That's one reason why The Crusader, a Ku Klux Klan-affiliated newspaper, recently endorsed Trump

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