Sheridan County GOP removes racist Facebook post after chairman calls it ‘inappropriate’

The Republican Party of Sheridan County published a racist post on its Facebook page Tuesday afternoon, using racist slurs and several derogatory stereotypes about Black Americans to describe the candidacy of former President Donald Trump, before removing the post about 45 minutes later.

The post refers to a campaign stop Trump made on Sunday in a Philadelphia suburb, where he manned a McDonald’s frying station.

The Sheridan County Republican Party Facebook post included a still image from a local television station’s coverage of the day. The image shows an apron-clad Trump standing next to a sign that reads, “This McDonald’s is locally owned and operated.”

Below the image is a racial slur.

“Trump is now even more of a candidate,” it says. The slur was crossed out in the post.

Below the text are several bullet points, including “anything gold plated with his name on it,” “several baby mamas,” “mugshot,” “34 crimes,” “got shot,” and “worked at McDonald’s for a day and quit.”

It also said “dindu nuffin,” a derogatory contraction of the words “did nothing,” according to Hatebase, a website that tracks hate speech.

The Sheridan GOP captioned the post: “While it’s actually nothing in Wyoming, you gotta admit this is kinda funny.”

A reverse Google search leads the message back to a far-right online forum that is popular with extremists and regularly hosts violent, anti-Semitic and racist content, the Anti-Defamation League said.

Party response

Sheridan County GOP Chairman Bryan Miller said the post was removed because it was “inappropriate” and did not represent the party.

Miller, who was not aware of the post until WyoFile initially contacted him, said he does not manage the party’s social media accounts. Instead, that is the responsibility of the organization’s ‘communications team’.

“I called and talked to our team, and one of the people thought it was funny. I said, ‘I don’t think so, get rid of it.’ And they did,” Miller said.

Miller declined to share more details about who is on the communications team or who published the message.

“We don’t share the names of our people who post our posts and stuff because people here and across the state end up doxing them and doing all that nonsense,” Miller said. “And I won’t do that to my people, even if they screw up.”

The post comes two weeks before Election Day, when Trump is expected to handily win Wyoming’s three Electoral College votes against Vice President Kamala Harris. Several polls indicate a tight race in other states as the two candidates enter their final campaign days.

“The bottom line is it was inappropriate, and that’s why I removed it because it’s not representative of Sheridan County,” Miller told WyoFile. “It’s that simple. There is nothing more to worry about.”

Miller said the role of the organization’s Facebook page has been to “spread information to people” because he said there is generally not enough media attention given to the provincial party’s affairs.

When asked what information is important to people right now, Miller said, “Nothing in particular, other than people need to get out and vote.”

Early voting is underway in Wyoming. The general election is on November 5.