A group with alleged links to Nazi Germany was “proud” when President Trump aide Sebastian Gorka wore its medal to an Inauguration Day event, according to NBC News.
Gorka wore an honorary medal from Hungarian nationalist organization Vitezi Rend to Trump’s Inaugural Ball, which prompted NBC News to travel to Hungary and dive deeper into his ties to the group that allied with Nazi Germany in 1938.
“When he appeared on U.S. television … with the medal of the Vitez Order… it made me really proud,” Vitezi Rend spokesman Andras Horvath told NBC News.
Gorka denied connections to the group, but NBC reported that three people claim he was a well-known member of Vitezi Rend. The group was founded in 1920 to award medals to Hungarian veterans of World War I.
Gorka told the news organization that the medal was once was awarded to his Hungarian-born father, but that has not stopped Jewish groups from speaking out. World Jewish Congress vice president Andras Heisler told NBC that wearing the medal “isn’t a good message for a democratic society.”
Gorka has denied he has ever been a sworn-in member of Vitezi Rend — whose name translates to “valiant order,” according to NBC News.
The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect offered the following statement to NBC News: “How many ducks in the Trump White House must walk, talk and quack Anti-Semitically before our country wakes up and sees the greater problem?”