Ex-NBA player running for US Senate comes under fire for resurfaced comment that 'bad guys' won WWII

A Republican candidate for Minnesota's seat in the U.S. Senate has come under criticism for a resurfaced social media post from 2022 in which he said "the bad guys won" World War II.

“It dawned on me today … The bad guys won in WWII,” reads the old X post from Royce White , a former NBA player now running against Democratic incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar in Minnesota. “There were no ‘good guys’ in that war. The controlling interests had a jump ball. If you look closely, you see the link between liberalism and communism in the Allied forces.”

Backlash quickly ensued after the post was resurfaced by Heartland Signal . It comes as White lags behind in polls against Klobuchar. One recent poll from Minnesota Star Tribune/MPR News/KARE shows Klobuchar with an 11-point lead over White.

White replied to the resurfaced tweet on X, decrying the "reconstruction of our global economy" after World War II. "It’s embarrassing to see how many of you liberals have become pro war and pro crony capitalism," he said.

Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed more than 6 million Jewish people during WWII.

"I said what I said, I said the bad guys won in World War II and they did win," White told USA TODAY. "If people interpret that as me saying that the Allied forces defeating the Axis powers makes them the bad guys in the equation, that's just stupid."

Asked for clarification, White said that "neither the Allied forces nor the Axis powers won or lost the war" and that "there was a group of people who benefited from all the institutions that sprang out and sprang up after World War II."

He said the people he's referring to were "globalists" and "the post-World War II democratic order."

Who is Royce White?

A Minnesota native, White is making another attempt at a political career. In 2022, he failed to advance past the Republican primary for the Minnesota District 5 House of Representatives Seat.

This isn't the first controversy White has been involved in, as reported by the St. Cloud Times, part of the USA TODAY Network . He has also come under fire for allegedly using campaign funds at a strip club , admitted to being transphobic and has told voters in the state that he is farther right than former President Donald Trump .

White is a former professional basketball player who played a total of three games in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings.

White was also the 16th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft being drafted by the Houston Rockets after attending Iowa State for college.

He later played in the Big 3 league after being selected first overall.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-NBA player running for US Senate comes under fire for resurfaced comment that 'bad guys' won WWII