Politics

Clive Palmer Is Now Posting Straight-Up Anti-Semitic Memes

The post is bad. The comments are worse.

Clive Palmer

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

At around 1 o’clock this morning, the official Clive Palmer Facebook page, as well as Palmer’s meme page, The Palmy Army, posted an incredibly anti-semitic meme.

Clive Palmer

The meme shows Mel Gibson and Taylor Swift in a phone conversation, with Gibson saying, “They’ve been kicked out of 109 countries, Taylor. How can that be coincidence?”

The “they” in the meme is a reference to Jewish people, and Gibson and Swift are ironic icons of the anti-semitic alt right because of their perceived right-wing sympathies.

It’s unlikely that Palmer posted the meme himself. He appears to have a team of content creators working for him. The Palmy Army page carries Palmer’s official endorsement, and links to his verified Facebook and Twitter profiles. The image remains on both pages.

Below the posts were a number of comments containing more anti-semitic memes and jokes, including references to Hitler and the Holocaust.

Anti-semitic memes.

It’s the latest ugly incident on Palmer’s Facebook pages, which the controversial businessman is trying to use as a vehicle to re-build his political career.

The Palmy Army

Palmer announced earlier this year his plan to run Palmer United Party candidates in the next federal election, which is likely to be held early next year. Palmer’s political career appeared all but over following the disintegration of his parliamentary team after the 2013 election and subsequent failure to win any seats in the 2016 election. The Palmer United Party was de-registered by The Australian Electoral Commission in May 2017.

Throughout this time, Palmer has been embroiled in a series of embarrassing legal battles with business partners, as well as state and federal governments.

But since last year, Palmer has been trying to resurrect his image by cultivating an online following through bizarre tweets and memes, which he often uses to attack his enemies in politics and the media.

The pages have developed a large audience of young, mostly male followers, who seem to get a kick out of Palmer’s dank memes.

Palmer launched the Palmy Army page earlier this year and said he would potentially use it to recruit candidates for the next election, but things quickly went off the rails, with posts devolving into a downward spiral racist, pro-Nazi comments.

Palmer said he would attempt to wrest back control of the group by booting out anyone who didn’t have his 90s WordArt themed “Palmy Army” banner in their profile picture, but it appears those efforts have failed.

Palmer has not responded to Junkee’s requests for comment.

Max Koslowski contributed to this report.