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Senator Schmitt Declares America Belongs to European Descendants at National Conservatism Conference

White nationalist rhetoric enters Senate chamber·September 3, 2025

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt (R) delivered a speech titled "What Is an American?" at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 2, 2025, declaring America belongs to European Christian descendants "and only us." Schmitt's office had hired Nate Hochman — fired from DeSantis's 2023 campaign after circulating neo-Nazi imagery — as a policy adviser in February 2025. Civil rights organizations condemned the speech as mainstreaming ethnonationalist ideology within the Republican Party.

Key facts

Sen. Eric Schmitt spoke at the National Conservatism Conference on Sept. 2, 2025, in a plenary titled "What is an American?".

Schmitt repeatedly stated 'America doesn't belong to them — it belongs to us,' and praised pilgrims and settlers as the nation's founders.

Major outlets reported Schmitt's language as exclusionary and tied it to national conservatism's focus on cultural and religious heritage.

Nate Hochman joined Schmitt's staff in Feb. 2025 after earlier being fired from the DeSantis campaign in Jul. 2023 over a video containing neo‑Nazi imagery.

The conference featured senior Trump administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and White House budget director Russell Vought.