Homeland Security speechwriter called LGBTQ+ people ‘freaks’ and asylum seekers ‘scum’

A Trump administration staffer has been linked to hate speech online, including the great replacement conspiracy theory and comparing the backlash right-wingers faced after the January 6 insurrection to slavery.

Eric Lendrum – whose Instagram account, before it was set to private recently, showed him posing with president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance – is a speechwriter at the Department of Homeland Security, a role he has been in since March 2025.

As first reported by Notus, Eric Lendrum has been linked to posts and statements on blogs and podcasts that espouse racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ views.

Both his LinkedIn and X accounts connect him with the platforms where the comments and statements are alleged to have been made.

In a December 2021 blog post on American Greatness – the “leading voice of the next generation of American Conservatism” – Lendrum claimed American conservatives were “on a course for being every bit as ostracized and alienated from broader society as Jews were in the years leading up to Nazi Germany”.

He went on to claim those who stormed the Capitol building were “peaceful protesters” and face “persecution for their patriotism”.

“It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance,” Lendrum wrote. “It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.”

His LinkedIn states he was a contributor for American Greatness between December 2017 and March 2025 – the same month he started at the Department of Homeland Security.

On an episode of his podcast “The Right Take“, Lendrum described seeing Democrats “crouching under their chairs” during the January 6 insurrection as “gratifying”.

“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, like, bubble masks, those anti-gas bubble masks, and then taking selfies,” he said just days after the insurrection.

In an October 2022 episode of the podcast, he espoused the Great Replacement Theory, a right-wing, white supremacist conspiracy that claims wealthy Jewish people are replacing white Westerners with non-white migrants undermine political power and culture of white-majority nations. It is both deeply antisemitic and xenophobic.

In the episode, Lendrum stated the conspiracy theory is “real, by the way” and said migrants were damaging Europe, saying: “Given the direction of Europe right now, we could use a far-right government at this point.”

“Don’t give these freaks an inch”

On his X account, Lendrum described people seeking asylum as “scum”.

“None of them are actually fleeing persecution, or otherwise coming here for reasons of legitimately seeking asylum,” he wrote.

“They just say they are because they know that’s how you game the system. They’re all illegal scum.”

Lendrum has also expressed anti-trans views, writing on his X account that “tr***ies” were comparable to “child molesters” and vowed to always “always properly deadname these tr***y freaks” in another podcast episode.

“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,” he said. “You control the language. Don’t give these freaks an inch on the language.”

He continued: “We need to eradicate transgenderism. Wipe it off the face of the Earth. Destroy it. Get rid of it.

“As a disclaimer, I’m not saying to wipe the people out. I’m not saying get rid of the people. I’m saying eliminate the ideology. Cure these people.”

“The evil ideology of transgenderism must be ERADICATED from the face of the earth, once and for all. Nothing of it must remain,” a different X post from November 2024 reads. “Real justice must be done.”

PinkNews has approached the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Responding to questions from both the NOTUS and The Independent, the department did not issue comments but shared a link to the text of the First Amendment.