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David Duke wants President-elect Donald Trump to go after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the white supremacist wrote tweeted on November 25.

De Blasio’s given name Warren Wilhelm, Jr. He was named after his father, who committed suicide in 1979, and has said took on his mother’s maiden name to honor her. How hateful and disrespectful, Duke implies, that someone with a Germanic-sounding name would proudly carry a Torah scroll.

“There’s a lot about NYC that the KKK probably hates,” De Blasio responded in a statement from spokeswoman Jessica Ramos. “Of our many diverse communities, Mr. Duke chose our relationship with the Jewish community to single out,” she wrote in her e-mailed response. “We should take a minute to be proud of that fact. And after this minute, we go back to work.”

De Blasio has denounced Trump and Duke is one of his ardent supporters.

De Blasio, who met with Trump last week in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, has said that the city under his leadership will resist federal anti-immigration proposals and that the president-elect’s rhetoric on the campaign trail was out of step with New Yorkers’ beliefs.

“We will fight anything we see as undermining our values. And here is my promise to you as your mayor – we will use all the tools at our disposal to stand up for our people,” he told a crowd of sanitation workers gathered at Manhattan’s Cooper Union last week.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

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