NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It would be hard to overstate how much former KKK leader David Duke has attempted to link his 2016 surprise Senate bid to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. References to Trump now compete for attention on Duke's website with anti-Zionist posts, including the theory that Jewish conspirators somehow worked passages from a Michelle Obama speech into Melania Trump's convention address last week. While Trump eventually disavowed Duke's support after facing repeated questions about it, analysts and observers say Duke can play on similar themes as Trump, such as fears of unchecked immigration, attacks against police, the loss of jobs to free trade and an outsider status. At work at the time, says longtime pollster Michael McKeon, were factors beyond any anti-black vote at the core of Duke's appeal: economic doldrums following a 1980s crash in the oil economy, broad disaffection with the federal government and a fear of "a loss of control." Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-free trade stance appears to dovetail with Duke's long-held insistence that white descendants of Europeans in America are the victims of discrimination. Pearson Cross, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, says Trump has adopted or co-opted many of Duke's longtime issues, such as the dangers of unfettered immigration or unfair trade deals. Trump faced criticism from some GOP leaders for failing during the primary season to immediately denounce the tacit endorsement from Duke, who once said on his radio show that a vote for any other candidate "is really treason to your heritage."