‘He gives them the green light’: Trump’s rhetoric revives hate groups across US

Donald Trump’s baseless claims about Springfield have led to increased threats of violence. Photograph: Luke Sharrett/Getty Images

For Denise Williams, the 70-year-old head of Springfield’s NAACP chapter, the past several weeks have been testing to say the least.

Last month, flyers calling for mass deportations of immigrants were distributed by the so-called Trinity White Knights, a group associated with the Ku Klux Klan, in Black-majority neighborhoods in south Springfield.