The extent to which the Trump campaign has legitimized and promoted white supremacism — the real unvarnished version — still boggles my mind. I sincerely can’t understand why people are just sitting back and letting this happen. The media now treat each new revelation of Trump’s outright connections with and sympathy for these racial extremists as a sort of “ho-hum” routine thing, not very big news, let’s just move on and discuss Ivanka’s designer dress instead.

But the GOP convention was absolutely lousy with white supremacists, and not just hanging around outside. They were given press passes and convention credentials, and in at least one case actually seated in the luxury box next to the VIP section.

First, TPM reports that while Trump was giving his speech last night, the big screen above the stage displayed a tweet from a blatant white supremacist: RNC Displays Tweet From White Supremacist As Trump Accepts Nom.

The tweet came from @Western_Triumph, whose Twitter profile describes himself as:

#AltRight #ProWhite #Southern #RaceRealist #Nationalist #SlayCulturalMarxism #Trump2016 #LoveYourRace

His timeline is full of racism, antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and homophobia, of course. And at least one tweet seems to be calling for mass murder of non-whites and “race traitors.”

Hillary says whites should “recognize our privilege”.I say whites should recognize (((the traitors))), and begin the Great Purge!

— Western Triumph (@Western_Triumph) July 18, 2016

Also displayed on the big screen in the convention hall: a tweet from white nationalist anti-immigrant website VDARE:

This wasn’t the only white nationalist tweet to be featured on the RNC’s curated ticker during the convention. On Tuesday, a tweet from anti-immigrant hate group Virginia Dare was highlighted on the giant screens hanging in the convention hall.

Another notorious white supremacist, Matt Forney, was given a press pass by an “RNC contact” and used it to broadcast live from the convention floor on a racist radio show, Red Ice Radio.

And last but not least, infamous white supremacist Richard B. Spencer was actually given a convention credential, which you can see hanging around his neck in this photo he took with discredited far right troll Chuck C. Johnson.

Chuck C. Johnson, of course, is no stranger to white supremacism himself, as we thoroughly documented in this article last March, when Johnson was hanging around with Trump surrogate Katrina Pierson.

And white supremacist Chuck C. Johnson not only managed to get into the convention hall for Trump’s speech — he was seated in the luxury box, right next to the VIP section.

Chuck Johnson (yes that Chuck Johnson) is in the luxury box maybe 20ft away from VIPs pic.twitter.com/bQDYFd9Aql

— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) July 22, 2016

The mainstreaming of racism and white nationalism in the Donald Trump era has damaged the Republican Party’s brand for many years to come. There’s always been a broad streak of xenophobic nationalism in the Republican Party, but before Trump it was usually shoved down out of sight, with only occasional eruptions into public view. Now it’s completely out in the open, in your face.

The GOP may never recover from this.