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A white nationalist group called the National Policy Institute (NPI) held a conference in Washington, DC on 19 November 2016 billed as a central gathering point for alt-right writers, activists, and supporters. Among the featured speakers was the president of the organization, Richard Spencer (the man credited with coining the euphemism alt-right), who railed against what he called the Lügenpresse (German for lying press, a term the Nazis used to defame critics), called Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election a victory of will, and said the only option for white people is to conquer or die. On 21 November, The Atlantic posted a three-minute video of excerpts from Spencer's speech, including a moment when he saluted Donald Trump with the words, Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory, which were echoed by the attendees, some of whom raised their arms and shouted Hail Trump! in a Nazi-like fashion: The New York Times reported that civil rights groups were quick to condemn the incident and urge President-elect Trump to disavow such groups and their white supremacist message: Anti-Defamation League national director Jonathan Greenblatt echoed the call: Early on in the 2016 presidential race, Trump pleaded ignorance of the existence of the alt-right movement, saying nobody even knows what it is. After the release of the video by The Atlantic, however, a Trump spokesperson issued a statement saying the President-elect unequivocally disavows the group: Donald Trump himself affirmed that disavowal on 22 November 2016. For Richard Spencer's part, NBC News reported that the NPI president later claimed his Trump salute was intended as ironic: Apart from trying to spin the incident as fun and a bit cheeky, Spencer made no attempt to deny or disavow what was shown in the video.
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