A senior Trump administration staffer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been linked to online posts and comments promoting racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ views — including describing queer people as “freaks” and asylum seekers as “scum”.
Eric Lendrum, a speechwriter at DHS since March 2025, has previously contributed to right-wing platforms and hosted a podcast where he espoused extremist positions. His Instagram, before being set to private, featured photos of him posing with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The comments were first uncovered by Notus, which tied Lendrum’s LinkedIn and X accounts to blog posts, podcasts, and social media activity expressing far-right ideology.
Comparisons to slavery and the Holocaust
In a December 2021 blog post for American Greatness, a conservative website where he worked from 2017 until joining DHS this year, Lendrum compared backlash against right-wing extremists to some of history’s darkest moments:
“American conservatives [are] on a course for being every bit as ostracised and alienated from broader society as Jews were in the years leading up to Nazi Germany,” he wrote.
He defended those who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021, describing them as “peaceful protesters” facing “persecution for their patriotism.” He added:
“It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.”
Extremist podcast remarks
On his podcast The Right Take, Lendrum mocked lawmakers forced to shelter during the Capitol riot:
“There’s something so gratifying about seeing the images of these members of Congress — especially the Democrats — crouching under their chairs, putting on those stupid bubble masks… and then taking selfies.”
In October 2022, he promoted the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, claiming it was “real, by the way” and suggesting Europe could use “a far-right government” to stop immigration.
Anti-LGBTQ+ hate
On X and in podcast appearances, Lendrum has repeatedly used slurs against transgender people, vowing to deliberately deadname them and mock their pronouns.
“I will keep calling them tr***ies because I know it’s derogatory, and I know they freakin’ hate it. That’s why I deadname them. That’s why I use their original pronouns. You control the language. Don’t give these freaks an inch.”
He further claimed:
“We need to eradicate transgenderism. Wipe it off the face of the Earth. Destroy it. Get rid of it. Cure these people.”
In another post from November 2024, he wrote:
“The evil ideology of transgenderism must be ERADICATED from the face of the earth, once and for all. Nothing of it must remain.”
Anti-immigrant rhetoric
Lendrum has also called asylum seekers “illegal scum”:
“None of them are actually fleeing persecution… they just say they are because they know that’s how you game the system.”
Mounting controversy
The revelations raise urgent questions about the hiring practices and vetting process within the Trump administration, particularly given Lendrum’s influential position crafting speeches at DHS — an agency central to immigration enforcement and domestic security.
Neither DHS nor the White House has commented on the controversy at this time.
