The white supremacist who became a Donald Trump delegate has some surprising thoughts on women

White nationalist William Johnson made national news last week when a Mother Jones report revealed Donald Trump selected him as a delegate in California. Johnson—the leader of the American Freedom Party, which pledges to promote the interests of European-Americans and a homogenous society—deemed the nomination a sign of mainstream white nationalist acceptance.

“I just hope to show how I can be mainstream and have these views,” Johnson told Mother Jones. “I can be a white nationalist and be a strong supporter of Donald Trump and be a good example to everybody.”

Later that day, the Trump campaign revealed that Johnson was selected as a result of a database error. (The AFP probably still has delegates, so don’t fret!) Johnson later said he would resign from being a delegate.

California’s Secretary of State declared it was too late for Johnson to send in his resignation, but Johnson told Fusion that he’s informed the Trump campaign that he will not be going to Cleveland for the Republican National Convention.

We spoke to Johnson about the recent spate of media attention, and whether he feels spurned by Trump.

How do you respond when someone calls the views of the American Freedom Party racist or hateful?

Nowadays, no one would call a black man the N-word. That is a slur that is not accepted. But they can call me a racist, or a white supremacist, or a KKK person. These are worse slur words than the N-word, because those slur words pit the whole world against me.

“Oh, you’re a white supremacist.” Everybody who reads that hates me because of that slur. Society, particularly the media, needs to stop using those slur words towards us, just as you would never the n-word toward a black man.

Just because what happened in the past doesn’t give people the right to use slur words against anybody. Whether the blacks have had a harder time or whites have a better time, using hateful slur words towards everybody is not all right.

And Donald Trump—how is he progressing these views?

The epic battle from here on out is not the battle between progressives and conservatives, which has occupied the media and the politicians for the last 40 years. From here on out, the battle is between the globalists and the nationalists.

Donald Trump promotes a nationalist platform, and the rest of the mainstream—whether it’s the Mitt Romney Republicans, or the Hillary Clinton Democrats—they promote the globalist platform. That’s the epic battle everyone’s dealing with, and Donald Trump—Donald Trump is the herald, the leader, the founder of the resurgence of the nationalist platform.

After he denounced you as a delegate, did your belief that the white nationalist perspective is reaching the mainstream waver at all?

Because he’s promoting nationalism as opposed to globalism, then boy, we’re all for him. Whether he likes me or doesn’t like me, that’s immaterial. Frankly, I doubt he knows who I am.

So you didn’t take it personally?

Not at all. If I were Donald Trump, I would say, “Get rid of this Johnson. We don’t need his baggage.”

Why are you fearful of the globalists?

They promote open borders. That’s wrong. They promote consumerism. That’s wrong. Consumerism is destroying the environment, because it’s just, “Make make make, buy buy buy. Grow the NDP, make a lot of money for shareholders.” That’s wrong.

Globalists promote multiculturalism and diversity, and that is killing the white race. Nationalism promotes a homogenous population. Globalism is empire-building by corporations. We’re past the colonial stage of empire building by governments, so we need to get past the empire building by big business.

Nationalism wants local business, protectionism in our local markets.

And also, one big issue is that nationalism supports a strong, male leader. You want to have strong men in charge. And globalism promotes the touchy-feely, feminist approach we’ve had for so long.

That’s why you have Angela Merkel, and Hillary Clinton.

People are yearning for a strong, male figure. White males have been beaten down for a long time in this country, and Donald Trump is the resurgence of the strong male leader. How many times have you heard about the Philippines president? Not very often, but you’ve been hearing about all the time recently because he’s a strong leader.

In other countries, you’re seeing strong leaders also, and that’s a hallmark of a nationalist.

Why don’t you think a woman is capable of leading a country?

I think that they can be a good leader and they can be strong, but the world yearns for a strong, male-led leadership. And we haven’t had that in a long time. The issue of globalism supports feminism, and nationalism supports patriarchy, that’s just a minor issue of the two.

We need to move beyond feminism and support the traditional family, where the husband works and the wife raises the family. And they can afford to live in their own home on a single workers’ income and raise their children. That’s the ideal solution. That’s the solution in the ’50s, and when Trump says “Make America Great Again,” that’s what we think it means.

And that’s more of a patriarchy, not a feminist approach.

So, how do you account for women who want to work and live in the same world as men?

Of course, I think that’s good, and I think there should be equal pay for women and men.

What’d you think of the sketch Seth Meyers did about you?

A lot of the comments said Seth Meyers is stupid, but you know what, I thought he did a pretty good job!

This interview was edited and condensed.

Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.