As election day draws near, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump just got what appears to be a ringing endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan.

AP/David Goldman - apimages.com

Trump was featured on the entire front page of The Crusader, "one of the most prominent newspapers of the Ku Klux Klan," the Washington Post reports.

The paper bills itself as "The Premier Voice Of The White Resistance" and uses Trump's own campaign slogan — "Make America Great Again" — as the front page spread's headline. Pastor Thomas Robb, who now serves as the head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, asked the following in his article:

"[...] But can it happen? Can America really be great again? This is what we will soon find out!"

It's not an "official endorsement"

When Peter Holley of The Washington Post reached out to Robb for comment, Robb said The Crusader "wasn't officially endorsing Trump." He added,

"Overall, we do like his nationalist views and his words about shutting down the border to illegal aliens. It’s not an endorsement because, like anybody, there's things you disagree with. But he kind of reflects what’s happening throughout the world. There seems to be a surge of nationalism worldwide as nationals reclaim their borders."

However "unofficial" it may be, many are still seeing it as an endorsement from The KKK for a Donald Trump presidency, with Trump's former ghost writer Tony Schwartz tweeting:

Some of Trump's supporters are upset with this apparent endorsement.

A quick look into 4chan's politics (or "politically incorrect") community reveals why some Trump supporters are seething. As several posters pointed out, it's a bad look for Trump to be heralded by the KKK so close to election day.

4chan/pol

One poster alleged that the Democratic party had coordinated with the KKK to craft the endorsement in order to make Trump look bad. 

4chan/pol - 4chan.org

The Trump campaign is distancing themselves from The Crusader

According to many news outlets, including CBS News, the Trump campaign has issued a statement on The Crusader's Trump praise, saying,

"Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form. This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign."

In February, Trump was less quick to distance himself from the Klan

When Trump was praised by David Duke, former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and asked on CNN whether or not Trump would condemn the endorsement, Trump's answer was "Just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke, OK?" He continued:

"I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So I don't know. I don't know -- did he endorse me, or what's going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke; I know nothing about white supremacists."

Later, Trump formally disavowed Duke at a press conference. As he explained on the Today show, he blamed his initial refusal to disavow Duke on a "very bad earpiece" claiming that "you could hardly hear what [CNN's Jake Tapper] was saying."

This latest endorsement suggests that no matter how firmly Trump attempts to disavow white nationalists, many are still standing by the candidate and his message.