Things don’t appear to be going too well for Richard Spencer. It seems that his time in the spotlight as that racist in a suit who helped legitimize the alt-right and put Donald Trump in office is coming to an end. His marriage dissolved due to the stress of being a white nationalist propagandist, and he’s been begging for money on crowdfunding sites ever since his lawyer dropped him after he was sued for participating in the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
And, apparently, he needs the money. Like—really needs it. According to a Facebook post from the co-owner of a bar in Spencer’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana, the guy who popularized the euphemistic term “alt-right” couldn’t even afford a $4.25 bourbon over the weekend.
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Spencer isn’t the only alt-right figurehead who’s been having a hard time visiting local watering holes as of late. In April, a judge ruled that bars have every right to kick out people wearing MAGA hats if they want. That same month, fellow fallen asshole Milo Yiannopoulos and his sidekick Chadwick Moore were chanted out of a Manhattan pub by a local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. But rather than kick Spencer out of the Great Northern Bar and cause a scene for the rest of his patrons, co-owner Doug Rommereim chose another shaming tactic, he explained to AM station KGVO.
“I would never put someone’s credit card up like that because they got declined, I would never do that,” he said. “Except in this one instance where I thought it was kind of funny.”
Unlike other celebrities who have had their receipts posted online for stiffing local establishments, Spencer didn’t just forget to tip his bartender—it seems like he might be completely out of money. Of course, there are other reasons a card could get declined other than lack of funds—as one Redditor suggested, it’s possible he has more than one bank account and just uses a card attached to the empty one when he feels like being a dick to his server.
But if the legal tactic he once used to bully his way onto university campuses isn’t working, and he’s actually broker than a college student like Rommereim’s Facebook post suggests, that doesn’t bode well for the alt-right movement in general.
“I am under attack,” Spencer said in April when he begged for $25,000 to fight his Charlottesville lawsuit. “Losing this case would be catastrophic for our movement, for everyone engaged is dissident politics, to be honest.”
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