Donald Trump’s Ku Klux Klan supporters in Nevada could have been anti-Trump liberals

Speculation has arisen as to the KKK members' allegiance at the same time as the press discovers Trump's father was arrested in a KKK brawl in 1927

Donald Trump is getting swamped with KKK-related accusations (YouTube)

Two alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan holding Donald Trump banners outside a caucus in Nevada caught the attention of the worldwide media, yet speculation has arisen over the last few days as to whether these men were actually anti-Trump protestors.

The controversy has arisen at the same time as it was discovered that Fred Trump, the Republican's father, was arrested in 1927 after getting involved in a KKK brawl in Queens.

Several pictures of two people in white robes and headpieces circulated the internet last week. They prompted outrage and concern from high-profile figures like Nevada Senator Aaron D. Ford.

After the news broke that the men’s hands were black, not white - although some people insisted they were wearing gloves - Senator Ford said the race of the "perpetrators did not matter" and penned this response on Facebook.

“The fact that anyone — whether an actual member of the KKK or one pretending to be one to make a point — found it appropriate to wear white sheets and hoods yesterday should astound all but the purest of racists in our society,” he wrote.

Historian and Washington-based The Atlantic journalist Yoni Applebaum posted an archived excerpt of a newspaper which alleged that in 1927, one of a large group of rioting Klansmen in Queens was Fred Trump.

The Washington Post reported that the brawl was led by Italian fascist sympathisers and the role of his father was not clear. Donald Trump vehemently denied the claims when they surfaced last year, saying it "did not happen" and his father was not present at the march.

The controversy over the KKK members in Nevada has come at the same time as Donald Trump has been endorsed by former Klan “imperial wizard” David Duke.

Mr Trump refused several times to disavow the endorsement, but later blamed the incident on a malfunctioning earpiece which meant he could not hear the question properly.

Commentators have speculated that Mr Trump's delayed reaction in denouncing the KKK might have something to do with his father's past, a claim which rivals like Marco Rubio have jumped on during campaign rallies.