Milo Yiannopoulos: Win or lose, America was ‘very triggered’ by the Trump campaign

Hunter Walker
·White House Correspondent
Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative columnist and internet personality, holds a press conference down the street from the Pulse Nightclub, June 15, 2016 in Orlando, Florida.  (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative columnist and Internet personality, holds a press conference down the street from the Pulse Nightclub, June 15, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — Milo Yiannopoulos, the self-proclaimed “dangerous faggot” columnist for the conservative site Breitbart News, was preening at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s election night party on Tuesday. Yiannopoulos, who delights in tweaking the sensibilities of so-called “social justice warriors,” declared that, win or lose, Trump has changed the national discourse “immeasurably for the better.”

“The complete destruction of political correctness in this country is the most important thing, the most important thing, the most important political project of the decade,” Yiannopoulos said. “He’s done most of the work for that. Of course, I’ve done a little bit too.”

A favorite target of Yiannopoulos and other conservatives fighting against political correctness are the so-called “trigger warnings” that liberals have demanded be given before sensitive material is taught on college campuses. Yiannopoulos said that no matter what happens, the country has clearly been “very triggered” by Trump, who has not been afraid to court controversy.

“I think America was very triggered, and most Trump voters were very happy about that,” he said.

Yiannopoulos, who was wearing a “TEAM TRUMP” windbreaker and dark aviator sunglasses, said he was “very hopeful” that Trump would win.

“I mean, it’s obviously very close,” he said. “We’ll know when we see Florida.” The Associated Press then called a win for Trump in Florida.

Yiannopoulos said he believed that the campaign had invited him to its election night party, but that he could not be certain of that, since he had found out about it from his “staff.” The chairman of Breitbart News is Steve Bannon, who took a temporary leave of absence to become CEO of the Trump campaign.

Democrat Hillary Clinton was heavily favored heading into election day. But Trump performed surprisingly well in key battleground states and traditional Democratic strongholds in the Midwest.

Yiannopoulos is often associated with the so-called “alt-right” fringe of the conservative movement. He told Yahoo News that he doesn’t identify in that way, but rather sees himself as “the only journalist who gave them a fair hearing.” Nevertheless, Yiannopoulos predicted that conservative movements would become stronger whether there was a Trump or a Clinton presidency.

“In fact, if she’s in, it’s probably going to grow even stronger and even larger,” Yiannopoulos said.

Still, Yiannopoulos said that a Trump victory would be “a nice moment of validation for this, you know, huge and growing slice of the American pop that is just sick of this s***.

“But irrespective of who wins, we’re not going anywhere,” he added.