Would-be 'warlord' yearns for white nationalist dictator to 'destroy the left' during event hosted by DeSantis ally

The conservative activist who has ignited panics over anti-racism lessons and other elements of the so-called "woke" agenda hosted a social media debate aimed at eliminating the Republican Party's political rivals.

Christopher Rufo, a Manhattan Institute fellow and close ally of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, commended "thoughtful points" made by participants and notably did not disagree when one suggested that conservatives align with a hypothetical white nationalist dictator “in order to destroy the power of the left," reported The Guardian.

“Let’s say a real white nationalist arose who had real political power," said former shampoo magnate and would-be "warlord" Charles Haywood, "and therefore [could] be of assistance against the left. I think that the answer is that you should cooperate with that person in order to destroy the power of the left.”

The debate Rufo hosted on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, centered around Haywood's promotion of a strategy he calls "no enemies to the right," which urged conservatives not to criticize anyone on their own side -- including right-wing extremists.

Haywood responded to concerns about right-wing authoritarianism by praising it as something of a necessary evil.

"When we’re talking about people like Franco or Pinochet or even Salazar … they did kill people," Haywood said. "They killed people justly, they killed people unjustly, and that’s just a historical fact. But they saved a lot more people than they killed.”

Augusto Pinochet tortured, exiled or killed tens of thousands of people as military dictator of Chile, while Francisco Franco killed up to 200,000 people during his reign as dictator of Spain, and António de Oliveira Salazar cracked down on political opponents and imposed brutal colonial policies in Africa as head of Portugal’s authoritarian, one-party state.

“I think there is a room for engaging the dissident right and the establishment right," Rufo said at the conclusion of the debate. "I think we need to have a bridge between the two and engage in thoughtful dialogue.”

Rufo reportedly helped draft Florida's "Stop Woke Act" and was appointed by DeSantis to the the board of trustees of Florida’s New College, which he has helped transform from a traditional liberal arts college to a more conservative institution.

Haywood, who sold his Indianapolis-based shampoo manufacturing company Mansfield-King in 2020 and started Society for American Civic Renewal, which he describes as an “organizing device" to conduct "more-or-less open warfare with the federal government" in the eventuality that "central authority has broken down."