If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. Chances are it’s probably a duck.

That said they may be taking it as a sign of the other person’s larger ideology. For example if they have a strong anti immigration stance they might come to the conclusion that the person is racist.

There’s sometimes the mentality if you give this person an inch they’ll run with it so they may say it to stop things from derailing

There’s also a ton of dog whistles the alt right use. Remember when the milk emoji was used on Twitter? What about the okay sign? Hawaiian shirts?