Brian Kolfage, who organized a fundraising effort for President Trump’s proposed border wall that went viral earlier this week, reportedly has a history of running sites that promoted conspiracy theories and racist content online.
According to a report published by NBC News on Thursday, Kolfage’s most recent business venture included an Facebook platform called Right Wing News in addition to string of affiliate sites that would frequently traffic in false conspiracy theories or racist content.
The Facebook page for Right Wing News was reportedly removed from the platform in October when the company removed over 500 pages at the time that it said used fake accounts “to drive traffic to their websites” or “were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate.”
{mosads}Kolfage also reportedly created a Facebook group shortly after Right Wing News was puled on the platform that called Fight4FreeSpeech, which also accepted donations.
He told NBC News on Thursday that he didn’t mention either of the pages in the viral GoFundMe supporting Trump’s border wall effort because he “didn’t want it to be a distraction.”
“I don’t wanna mix the two. That shouldn’t be the focus. My personal issues have nothing to do with building the wall,” he continued.
According to NBC News, Kolfage also ran sites that were affiliated with Right Wing News that have since been shut down that also pushed false conspiracy theories.
One conspiracy theory promoted the sites reportedly claimed that Hillary Clinton was secretly hiding deadly illnesses.
The sites also reportedly trafficked in racist content that featured headlines like: “Obnoxious Black People Lose Their Minds When Victoria Secret Models Say This 1 Word On Live Video.”
However, the news has stopped Kolfage’s most recent crowdfunding effort’s success, having racked up more than $9 million in the past few days.
Still, Kolfage told NBC News if there is another “big” conservative cause that emerges in the coming months, somebody “else is gonna have to take it.”
“I have two kids and a wife. I wasn’t planning for this thing to be massive — maybe just in the conservative circle,” he added.