Now that Trump is president again, the right’s moment of unity is over.  Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Allen Eyestone / Alamy; Somodevilla / Getty; David Dee Delgado / Getty; Kimberly White / Getty. January 23, 2025, 2:20 PM ET On Sunday night, in the basement ballroom of the Salamander Hotel in Washington, D.C., Charlie Kirk was happier than I’d ever seen him. “I truly believe that this is God’s grace on our country, giving us another chance to fight and to flourish,” Kirk, the head of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth-outreach organization, said to cheers from the hundreds of MAGA loyalists who had come out for his pre-inaugural ball. “What we are about to experience is a new golden era, an American renaissance.” The celebrations have continued now that Donald Trump is back in the White House, as he has signed a flurry of executive orders to make good on his campaign promises. But this might be the best mood that MAGA world will be in for a while. The president’s coalition is split between two distinct but overlapping factions that are destined for infighting. On one side are the far-right nationalists and reactionaries who have stood by Trump since he descended down his golden escalator. Among them are Stephen Miller, [who is seen as a chief](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump.html) [architect of Trump’s anti-immigration agenda](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump.html), and Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and the former executive chair of _Breitbart News_. On the other side is the tech right: Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley elites, including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, who have become ardent supporters of the president. Already, these groups are butting heads on key aspects of Trump’s immigration crackdown. In Trump’s second term, not everyone can win. During the campaign, it was easy for these two groups to be aligned in the goal of electing Trump. Members of the nationalist wing took glee in how Musk boosted their ideology on X, the social platform he owns. With his more than 200 million followers, Musk has helped spread far-right conspiracy theories, such as the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio [are eating people’s pets](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/donald-trump-cat-memes/679775/). Meanwhile, the tech right has relished attacks on DEI efforts in the workplace—attacks that have allowed them to more easily [walk back hiring practices](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/01/the-end-of-the-dei-era/681345/), against the wishes of their more liberal employees. But the two groups also want different things. The nationalist right wants an economy that prioritizes and assists American-born families (specifically, traditional nuclear ones), sometimes at the expense of business interests; the tech right wants a deregulated economy that bolsters its bottom line. The nationalist right wants to stop almost all immigration; the tech right wants to bring in immigrant workers as it pleases. The nationalist right wants to return America to a pre-internet era that it perceives as stable and prosperous; the tech right wants to usher in a bold, globally focused new economy. Already, the cracks have started to show. Last month, Trump’s pick of the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as an AI adviser led to a bitter and very public spat between the two camps over visas for highly skilled immigrants. (“FUCK YOURSELF in the face,” Musk at one point told his critics on the right.) At the time, I argued that [the MAGA honeymoon is over](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/12/elon-musk-maga-fight-h1b/681187/). The disagreements have only intensified. Last week, after former President Joe Biden used his farewell speech to warn about the influence of Silicon Valley oligarchs and the “tech industrial complex,” the white-nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes posted on X that “Biden is right.” Bannon in particular has not relented: Earlier this month, he [told an Italian newspaper that](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/politics/steve-bannon-elon-musk.html) Musk is a “truly evil person” and that would get the billionaire “kicked out” of Trump’s orbit by Inauguration Day. (Considering that [Musk is reportedly getting](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/elon-musk-office-west-wing.html) an office in the West Wing, Bannon does not seem to have been successful in that quest.) In an [interview](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/01/tech-zuckerberg-trump-inauguration-oligarchy/681381/) with my colleagues Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, Bannon described the tech titans as “nerds” whom Trump was humiliating. Seeing them on Inauguration Day was “like walking into Teddy Roosevelt’s lodge and seeing the mounted heads of all the big game he shot,” Bannon said. In a sense, he is right. During the inauguration ceremony, tech billionaires—including Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Apple CEO Tim Cook—sat directly behind Trump’s family on the dais. They are not all as forcefully pro-Trump as Musk, but they have cozied up to the president by dining with him at Mar-a-Lago and making million-dollar donations to his inaugural fund (in some cases from their personal bank accounts, and in others from the corporations they head). In doing so, they’ve gotten his ear and can now influence the president in ways that might not line up with the priorities of the nationalist right. On Monday, during his first press conference from the White House this term, Trump defended the H-1B visa program: “We want competent people coming into our country,” he said. Later, Bannon responded on his podcast, lamenting the “techno-feudalists” to whom Trump is apparently listening. Both factions still have overlapping interests. They are both fed up with a country that they see as having grown weak and overly considerate to the needs of the vulnerable, at the expense of the most productive. America lacks a “masculine energy,” as Zuckerberg recently put it. Some members in both camps seem interested in trying to reconcile their differences, or at least in not driving the wedge further. On the eve of the inauguration, just before Turning Point USA’s ball, the right-wing publishing house Passage Publishing held its own ball in D.C.—an event intended to be a [night when](https://x.com/PassagePress/status/1876350531679244480) “MAGA meets the Tech Right.” The head of Passage Publishing, Jonathan Keeperman, has been keen on playing peacemaker. Last month, he went on Kirk’s podcast and tried to frame the debate over visas as one where his reactionary, nativist wing of the right could find common cause with the tech right. By limiting immigration and “developing our own native-born” STEM talent, he said, Silicon Valley can “win the AI arms race.” Kirk couldn’t keep his frustration toward the tech elite from seeping out. “Big Tech has censored us and smeared us and treated us terribly,” he said. “Why would we then accommodate their policy wishes?” It’s easy to imagine Musk asking the same question. He and his peers run some of the most powerful companies in the world. They’re not going to give that up because a few people, on the very platforms that they own, told them to. Each side is steadfast in what it wants, and won’t easily give in. We already can guess how this will end. During his first administration, despite making populist promises on the campaign trail, Trump eventually sided with the wealthy. Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist during the start of his first term, pushed for tax hikes on the wealthy. Seven months into his presidency, Trump fired him, and then proceeded to pass tax cuts. In his new administration, the nationalist right will certainly make gains—it is thrilled with Trump’s moves around birthright citizenship and his pledge to push forward with mass deportations. But if it’s ever in conflict with what Trump’s rich advisers in the tech world want, good luck. Remember, it was Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk who sat on the dais at Trump’s inauguration. Bannon, Keeperman, and Kirk were nowhere in sight.

A disgraced speechwriter gets a second shot at the State Department.  Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: John Rudoff / AP; Getty. February 5, 2025, 3:06 PM ET Darren Beattie may not be a household name, but you are almost certainly familiar with his long-standing ideas and preoccupations. Beattie, a speechwriter whom Trump fired in 2018 and appointed to a top State Department job this week, is a fixture in far-right conspiracist circles. Over the years, Beattie has [reportedly](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/kfile-darren-beattie-state-department-controversial-tweets-white-nationalist-conference/index.html) spoken alongside white nationalists, alleged that the FBI orchestrated January 6—his preferred term is [_Fedsurrection_](https://x.com/DarrenJBeattie/status/1661785756245929999)—and repeatedly posted online that various Black personalities and politicians should “take a KNEE to MAGA.” In his new role as under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, he will help shape the tone of America’s public messaging abroad, oversee “the bureaus of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Global Public Affairs,” and participate “in foreign policy development,” according to the State Department’s website. Beattie’s ascent is another sign that the new administration has no interest in catering to norms established by its critics or perceived political foes. What was a scandal in Trump’s first term is grounds for a promotion in his second. Beattie’s 2018 firing came after [CNN reported](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/kfile-darren-beattie-state-department-controversial-tweets-white-nationalist-conference/index.html) that he had spoken at the 2016 H. L. Mencken Club, an event whose attendees have included prominent white nationalists such as Richard Spencer and Peter Brimelow. Beattie then launched Revolver News, a right-wing website that trumpeted his appointment and described him as “a relentless force in exposing the left’s DEI agenda, their censorship schemes, and the J6 entrapment operation.” Many of the site’s articles are standard conservative fare: attacks on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats alongside criticism of powerful technology companies that purportedly censor the right, including Revolver itself. Other content on the site veers sharply into conspiracism: It often posts external links to content from the likes of [Bronze Age Pervert](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/), a pseudonym of the pro-authoritarianism writer Costin Alamariu, who has posited that “Black Africans” are so genetically ”divergent from the rest of humanity that they exceed the threshold commonly used in other species to draw sub-species boundaries,” and Steve Sailer, another prominent booster of [pseudoscientific racism](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/08/race-science-far-right-charlie-kirk/679527/). Beattie has also used Revolver as a platform to advance his nationalist views, including [pushing for mass deportation and](https://revolver.news/2024/06/american-people-demand-mass-deportation-squads-now/) “America-first [trade policy](https://revolver.news/2024/08/trump-manufacturing-victories-and-the-right-way-of-doing-america-first/).” [From the September 2023 issue: How Bronze Age Pervert charmed the far right](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/) Beattie is a “well-regarded” and “beloved” figure in Trump world, as [_Semafor_](https://www.semafor.com/article/02/02/2025/maga-intellectual-darren-beattie-will-fill-key-state-department-role) and [_Politico_](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2025/02/03/the-brits-take-on-the-next-trump-era-00202177) describe him, respectively. (Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson both praised Beattie in text messages to _Semafor_’s Ben Smith_._) His appointment will likely be seen as a win for the nationalist wing of the Republican Party, which has been fighting against tech-right figures including Elon Musk and the venture capitalist David Sacks for influence in the Trump administration. While the tech-right and nationalists have been aligned in many areas, they vocally diverged on H-1B visas for highly skilled immigrants in [a very public internet fight](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/12/elon-musk-maga-fight-h1b/681187/) in December. More recently, as my colleagues Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer [reported](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/elon-musk-doge-green-card-trump/681575/), Trump advisers stopped Musk from hiring a noncitizen at DOGE, the team he leads within the Trump administration. Bannon, who sits squarely in the populist-nationalist camp and is friends with Beattie, has aggressively criticized Musk and other tech elites and said publicly that he wants to impede their influence. True adherents to the nationalist-populist wing of MAGA are almost nonexistent in Trump’s Cabinet. For as long as he is in his acting role in the State Department, however, Beattie joins a small but powerful group of nationalist Trump appointees. The immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller, who is now Trump’s deputy chief of staff, and his fellow conservative intellectual Michael Anton, who is also at the State Department, are among this cohort. The ascendant intellectual wing of the nationalist right will be particularly pleased with Beattie’s appointment. Prior to his time in the Trump administration, Beattie received a Ph.D. in political theory from Duke University, where he wrote his dissertation on the prominent German philosopher Martin Heidegger, and he has contributed to _The_ _New Atlantis_, a publication with a reputation among the right for its rigorous critiques of technology. If nothing else, Beattie’s eccentricities—buttoned-up intellectualism on one hand, crude and offensive polemic on the other—demonstrate one underlying truth of Trump world: It’s a big tent. Kiss the ring, and you may just be welcomed back.

Paul Ingrassia, an online reactionary, is in place at the DOJ.  Pete Kiehart / The Washington Post / Getty February 8, 2025, 6 AM ET Paul Ingrassia is just your average right-wing edgelord with a law degree and a high-level position at the Justice Department. In the past several years, on X, he has likened Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer, to the “ancient ideal of excellence”; he has written a Substack post titled “Free Nick Fuentes” in support of reinstating the white nationalist’s X account (when it was still banned); and he has called Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former United Nations ambassador who ran against Trump in the Republican primary, an “insufferable bitch” who might be an “anchor baby” too. On Inauguration Day, Ingrassia was sworn in as the new White House liaison for the DOJ. In his new job, Ingrassia—who did not respond to a request for comment—is [responsible for managing](https://oig.justice.gov/news/doj-oig-releases-management-advisory-memorandum-regarding-lack-department-justice-process) other White House appointments within the DOJ, and for identifying and recommending people to potentially be hired or promoted within the agency, according to a department memo. As such, Ingrassia is part of a small but growing class of important Trump officials with a history of posting things (and doing things) that might have been disqualifying for any other administration in recent memory, up to and including Trump’s own four years ago. This group includes [Darren Beattie](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/darren-beattie-state-department/681582/), appointed to a top post at the State Department despite having been dismissed from his job as a Trump speechwriter in 2018 after reportedly appearing at an event alongside white nationalists, and having claimed online that January 6 was orchestrated by the FBI. And also Gavin Kliger, an employee of Elon Musk’s DOGE, who appears to have [shared](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/musk-doge-techies-young-what-we-know-1235256687/) a Fuentes post that disparages white people who adopt Black children and uses the pejorative slang term for women, “huzz.” (Kliger did not respond to a request for comment.) [Read: A speechwriter gets a second shot at the State Department](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/darren-beattie-state-department/681582/) Not every such indiscretion has been completely ignored by the Trump administration and its allies. Another DOGE employee, Marko Elez, resigned on Thursday, [reportedly](https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93) over having made racist posts including “Normalize Indian hate” and “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” Within 24 hours, however, Vice President J. D. Vance was [lobbying](https://x.com/JDVance/status/1887900880143343633) to rehire him under the justification that “stupid social media activity” shouldn’t “ruin a kid’s life.” Later that afternoon, Musk [announced](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887957783783391423) that Elez would be brought back. Ingrassia’s appointment represents another win for young, online reactionaries in Washington. He praised and reposted an article from the fitness enthusiast and proponent of [”race science”](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/08/race-science-far-right-charlie-kirk/679527/) Raw Egg Nationalist. He has worked for the Gateway Pundit—a conservative news site that frequently publishes lies and conspiracy theories. And he has extensive ties to Tate, having worked on his legal team; he even [posted a picture](https://jasonahart.com/2025/02/05/meet-doj-white-house-liaison-paul-ingrassia/#:~:text=Joseph%20McBride%2C%20Andrew%20Tate%2C%20Paul%20Ingrassia%2C%20and%20Tristan%20Tate) of himself with Tate and Tate’s brother. Tate is currently being investigated by Romanian authorities for alleged rape and human trafficking, and he has been separately accused of rape and assault in the United Kingdom. He has denied all of the allegations against him. Ingrassia’s “Free Nick Fuentes” post called for Musk to end a ban on Fuentes’s account that dated to 2021. (Fuentes was banned after what a Twitter spokesperson described as “repeated violations” of the company’s rules.) Such a move was necessary, Ingrassia argued, to [“shift the Overton Window”](https://x.com/PaulIngrassia/status/1655271622092128257) on social media. People who argue against content moderation on social platforms often do so by arguing that more speech is always better. (In Fuentes’s case, that meant more Holocaust denial, more praise of Adolf Hitler, and more denigration of women and Black people.) But Ingrassia also appears to be drawn to at least some of the substance of what Fuentes posted. And although there were almost certainly members of the first Trump administration who shared Ingrassia’s views, few if any publicly said so, or discussed their ideas online under their own name. They seemed to understand that there were stakes and consequences for airing such beliefs in public. Ingrassia’s presence in the new administration reflects a departure from that era. It also shows that not all young, online reactionaries are the same. Ingrassia appears to represent the populist, nationalist wing of the MAGA coalition, which [stands in opposition](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/01/maga-trump-tech-nationalist-conflict/681422/), in certain ways, to the tech-right faction including Kliger and led by Musk. The two groups were aligned through the election and still have many shared goals: Witness Ingrassia and Kliger’s shared interest in Nick Fuentes. But they have also [aggressively diverged](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/12/elon-musk-maga-fight-h1b/681187/) on some issues. The tech industry generally supports the use of H-1B visas for highly skilled immigrants, whereas MAGA nationalists tend to oppose them. Ingrassia, in the latter camp, has written that the United States should end the H-1B-visa program as well as birthright citizenship, and institute a “20 year moratorium on legal immigration.” That this internal disagreement has been spilling out into public view may be the flip side of the no-longer-need-to-hide-it administration. The H-1B fight, which took off at the end of December, was very visible online. People like Ingrassia, Kliger, and Beattie, with their freewheeling and unapologetic social-media personas, have helped make these internal tensions very clear. They’re just posting through it.

The [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration)’s promotion of white Christian nationalists and prosperity gospel preachers to key government roles will lead to the “further dismantling of government institutions” and the chilling of free speech, experts have warned. Donald Trump announced the creation of an “anti-Christian bias” taskforce and a White House Faith Office (WHFO) [in February](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishment-of-the-white-house-faith-office/), saying it would make recommendations to him “regarding changes to policies, programs, and practices” and consult with outside experts in “combatting anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and additional forms of anti-religious bias”. Both initiatives are dominated by rightwing Christian loyalists – a stark contrast to similar faith-based efforts under Joe Biden and Barack Obama, both of whom welcomed Muslim and Sikh leaders. This has prompted concern that a specific brand of [Christianity](https://www.theguardian.com/world/christianity) will be prioritised over other faiths and Christian denominations. With Trump having recently been pictured being prayed over in the White House by a host of white Christian nationalists, concerns are rising about what a government influenced by those beliefs could mean. White Christian nationalists typically are anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigration and anti-[efforts to ensure racial equality](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/27/bad-faith-documentary-christian-nationalism), and broadly believe that America was founded as a white Christian nation and must be returned to such. “We will see the further dismantling of government institutions. We will see an abandonment of democratic principles and a further perversion of the institutions of justice,” said Katherine Stewart, a journalist and author of [Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy](https://www.amazon.com/Money-Lies-God-Movement-Democracy/dp/163557854X), which explores what Stewart calls the “antidemocratic movement” – a mix of Christian nationalists, billionaire or super-rich oligarchs and conservative ideologues who have seized control of the Republican party, and aim to fundamentally change the US. “Trump’s anti-Christian bias taskforce will lead to a further chilling of free speech, political opposition, and investigations of corruption. We will see public funds flowing directly to religious institutions, and the insertion of the Bible and sectarian messaging in public schools, town meetings and other places that serve religiously diverse populations. The intention is to make anyone who is not onboard with their agenda feel that they don’t belong.” The faith office [is headed by Paula White](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/paula-white-faith-office-trump), the tongues-speaking, multimillionaire televangelist who called the Black Lives Matter movement the “Antichrist” and said Jesus would have been “sinful” and not “our Messiah” if he had broken immigration law. And the other appointees to the WHFO are also Christian. Trump appointed Jennifer Korn as deputy assistant to the president and faith director of WHFO. Korn was previously senior adviser of the National Faith Advisory Board, [the rightwing, Trump-backing](https://religionnews.com/2021/09/04/trump-and-his-religion-advisors-launch-new-national-faith-advisory-board/#:~:text=The%20Pentecostal%20megachurch%20pastor%20said,we%20are%20one%20strong%20voice.%E2%80%9D) Christian group founded by White. Jackson Lane will serve as deputy director of faith engagement. Lane graduated from Missouri Baptist University and was previously deputy director of faith outreach for the Trump-Vance 2024 campaign. Barack Obama had a similar faith-based office, but his leadership notably [included people of Muslim and Jewish faith](https://fedsoc.org/commentary/publications/an-overview-of-the-white-house-office-on-faith-based-and-neighborhood-partnerships-and-the-council-on-faith-based-and-neighborhood-partnerships). In announcing his own office, Joe Biden said that “when Methodists and Muslims, Buddhists and Baptists, Sikhs and Secular Humanists serve together, we strengthen one another and we strengthen America,” and his office sought to include a range of religious voices, including at [its 2022 United We Stand](https://religionnews.com/2022/09/16/biden-includes-faith-leaders-in-summits-charge-to-rise-together-against-hate/) anti-hate summit. The makeup of Trump’s faith office is so far “not at all” representative of the various religions practiced in the US, said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor at Calvin University and research fellow at the center for philosophy of religion at the University of Notre Dame. “It’s not even representative of Christianity in the United States,” said Du Mez, who authored the book ​​[Jesus and John Wayne](https://kristindumez.com/books/jesus-and-john-wayne/): How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. “It’s a pretty narrow slice of rightwing, predominantly, but not exclusively, white conservative Protestantism. But that is the Christianity that Trump thinks of when he thinks of Christianity.” Trump appears unlikely to reach out to non-Christians, however, and the contrast between him and his predecessors was shown in [a White House post on X](https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1902462717010575809/photo/1) in March. “The White House Faith Office and Faith Leaders from across the country joined President Trump to pray in the Oval Office,” the post read, beneath a photo showing more than a dozen people, most of them white, looking solemn behind Trump, some with their arms on his shoulders. The trophy for the upcoming Club World Cup soccer competition was next to Trump’s desk, apparently left over [from a photoshoot](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/12/gianni-infantino-donald-trump-2026-world-cup) that had, oddly, taken place a week earlier. [The Daily Mail](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14519421/trump-prayer-army-faith-leaders-advising-president.html) identified all 15 of the faith leaders, and found that each of them was Christian, including some who are openly Christian nationalist. They included William Wolfe, who worked in the first Trump administration and who [told the rightwing Daily Signal](https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/03/19/christian-leader-urges-white-house-faith-office-protect-unborn-life/) that he had used the March meeting with Trump to “push aggressively” for pro-life policies. Wolfe claimed that “Christians were not welcome in the Biden administration or the Obama administration,” and according to the Daily Signal said mass deportations were a Christian issue. “We actually believe it is directly related to the preservation of America as we know it,” Wolfe said. Du Mez pointed to other figures who carry a lot of influence in the Trump administration, including Russell Vought, who [Associated Press reported](https://apnews.com/article/trump-russell-vought-confirmation-budget-project-2025-7d1c476694176876256e95cecbd49231) has “unabashedly advanced ‘Christian nationalism”. Vought, one of architects of Project 2025, the rightwing plan for Trump’s second term, was appointed White House budget director in February. It’s one of the less glamorous roles, but holds sprawling responsibilities including managing the development and implementation of the federal budget and overseeing federal agencies. In [a 2021 opinion article](https://www.newsweek.com/there-anything-actually-wrong-christian-nationalism-opinion-1577519), Vought wrote that Christian nationalism was “a commitment to an institutional separation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society”. That influence could extend beyond social issues, Du Mez said. “When people hear ‘Christian nationalism’, they tend to think of a narrow set of \[beliefs\] prioritizing Christian faith, Christian supremacy – people tend to think of these kind of moral values issues,” Du Mez said. “But it is also anti-woke. It is also anti-immigration, and it is also, if you look historically at the Christian right ideas of Christian America and returning America to its Christian foundations, have always been, for almost a century, intertwined with deregulationism, free market capitalism.” Stewart warned that Trump’s appointment of Pete Hegseth to defense secretary could also be problematic. Hegseth drew scrutiny in March after it emerged he had a tattoo of what the Council on American-Islamic Relations described as “a display of … anti-Muslim hostility”, along with other tattoos tied to the Christian crusades. Last year [the Idaho Capital Sun reported](https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/11/21/trumps-defense-secretary-nominee-has-close-ties-to-idaho-christian-nationalists/) that Hegseth “has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church”. Also concerning is [the sheer number of people](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/key-project-2025-authors-now-staffing-trump-administration-rcna195107) involved in Project 2025, which the Charles F Kettering foundation, a non-partisan research foundation which seeks to preserve democracy, [described as](https://kettering.org/project-2025-the-blueprint-for-christian-nationalist-regime-change/) “The Blueprint for Christian Nationalist Regime Change”, who are now in Trump’s government. “It’s not unimportant that there are some people who identify as Christian nationalists who are playing a big role in the administration,” Stewart said. “But what’s important to understand is that the movement is driving policy, whether or not the people who are pushing that policy identify themselves as Christian nationalists or adhere to Christian nationalist ideas. “Part of what we’re also seeing is the favoring not of Christians per se, but of a certain kind of Christianity. Trump and his people are aiming not to just work with the movement, but to shape the movement itself, to make it more faux-populist, demagogic and frankly authoritarian.”

A national network of American neofascist fight clubs is endorsing youth-oriented offshoots aimed at grooming the next generation of racist activists. So-called “active clubs” have proliferated across the US and are a combination of fitness and mixed martial arts groups that often espouse neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies, openly taking their historical cues from the Third Reich’s obsession with machismo and European soccer hooliganism. Active clubs have emerged as perhaps the most dangerous form of far-right political organizing today. With links to other militant organizations, including Patriot Front, they encourage a seemingly mainstream version of masculinity, layered with ideologies promoting a US race war and using the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a gateway to recruiting. Earlier this month, their main Telegram account, endorsed “youth clubs”, which are chapters beginning to spring up online across the country, showing pictures of 18-year-olds and under engaging in mixed martial arts, racist meme-ing, and posts referencing genocidal and bigoted literature. “Youth clubs are for those under 18 that still want to get active,” said the recent active club post with thousands of views, linking to the central account of all youth clubs. By all appearances, these youth clubs are proliferating. On Telegram alone, there are accounts showing nationwide chapters with photos of teens between the ages of 16 to 18 in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, the New England states, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, lowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan, among others. The chapters have close to a thousand followers in total and in some cases list the same recruitment contact, suggesting a certain level of national coordination and vetting – an important aspect of far-right recruiting done to prevent against police or antifascist infiltration. “Unapologetically Pro White”, posted one of the youth clubs, adding they were also “American Nationalist”. Combined with the massive popularity among teen boys of [the Tate brothers](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/06/im-andrew-tates-audience-and-i-know-why-he-appeals-to-young-men), mixed martial arts enthusiasts in their own right, young men and boys have emerged as the prime targets for far-right recruitment in recent years. “The youth clubs are part of the same concept of active clubs’ white supremacism ‘3.0’ strategy: a decentralized movement focused on combat sports, fitness, propaganda activities, and building local groups,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, an analyst of the American far right who has documented its rise for nearly 10 years. “The youth clubs are self-described white nationalist activist groups for young men 18 and younger who train in combat sports and participate in extreme right propaganda activities.” Their direct links to active clubs aren’t a secret or hidden, either. Fisher-Birch continued: “Several youth club Telegram channels have also shared posts from active club-affiliated accounts. Additionally, youth club chapter logos are modeled on active club symbols. The logos are nearly identical in some cases.” [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/28/active-youth-clubs-neo-nazi-groups#EmailSignup-skip-link-14) Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion The network of active clubs’ original founder, Robert Rundo, [pleaded guilty in 2024](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/13/neo-nazi-founder-robert-rundo-sentencing) to conspiracy to riot at 2017 political rallies in California. During that period, he was the leader of the [Rise Above Movement](https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise-above-movement), a violent neo-Nazi gang that promoted combat sports and physical assault of perceived enemies. [Four](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/02/charlottesville-arrests-far-right-rally-protests-police-latest) of its members were charged for their part in the infamous [2017 Unite the Right rally](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/19/charlottesville-white-nationalist-torch-marchers-indicted) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rundo and other members of the active clubs network made it clear in the past that they saw young men and boys as the next and important frontier for building the new American fascist movement. Writing in a 2022 post on one of its main websites Rundo and others described how their “tools of persuasion” can draw underage boys to join them. Along with flyers and stickers of local areas with their Nazi propaganda they told followers to “target boxing and [MMA](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/mma) tournaments, gyms, and motocross courses”, but then went further. “Ground-level intelligence collection might then inform that same activist crew that changing demographics at a local high school have led to gang-beatings of minority White youth,” they said. “The cunning and resourceful activists see this news as \[an\] opportunity for a campaign focusing on the importance of a Brotherhood of young White men having each other’s backs.” During the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler made it a staple of his regime to create the Hitler Youth organization for minors to learn combat and survivalism skills under the guise of self-improvement and nationalist pride. Ever since, modern neofascists and Nazis like active clubs, have always placed particular emphasis on securing the next generation of white supremacy. “You will grow up to be men,” Hitler once said at [one of his German rallies](https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/1936/sep/13/life1.lifemagazine) for his young acolytes.

The number of white nationalist, hate and anti-government extremist groups in the US has dropped not because of their declining influence, but because many of their proponents feel their beliefs have become normalized in government and mainstream society, according to a new [report](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/year-hate-extremism-2024/) by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC’s annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, published on Thursday, said it documented 1,371 hate and extremist groups across the country in 2024, down from 1,430 groups in 2023. These groups use “political, communication, violent, and online tactics to build strategies and training infrastructure to divide the country, demoralize people, and dismantle democracy”, the non-profit group said. The 5% drop in hate and extremist groups in 2024 can be attributed to the fact that many feel a lesser sense of urgency to organize, because their beliefs have infiltrated politics, education and society in general, according to the report. In 2024, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives became “ground zero” for many of these groups, the report said, some using threats of violence and “creating chaos that opened the door for political strongmen and authoritarian measures”. These efforts built a foundation for nationwide policy actions to follow by [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump), including legislative measures to restrict discussions of race and gender in classrooms, and cutting funding for programs that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. The SPLC said there were 533 active hate groups in 2024, including ones that express views that are anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-Muslim. Last year’s report saw “record numbers” of white nationalist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups, as well as an increase in direct actions such as hate crimes, flyering, protests and intimidation campaigns. The groups featured in this year’s report make up the “hard-right movement that has long been behind rhetoric and actions that target Black people, women, immigrants, Jewish people, Muslims, and low-income, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ people”, according to the SPLC Intelligence Project’s interim director, Rachel Carroll Rivas. “Their power comes from the use of force, the capture of political parties and government, and infesting the mainstream discourse with conspiracy theories.” The report’s release comes as a Japanese American college professor is scheduled to make his first public appearance after he was brutally attacked in Los Angeles last month in a possible hate crime. Aki Maehara, 71, was struck by a vehicle and called a racial slur while riding his bike in Montebello, 10 miles (16km) east of downtown Los Angeles. He suffered serious injuries to his elbow, neck, cheekbones, jaw, hips and lower back, [according](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-13/asian-american-professor-attacked-possible-hate-crime) to the Los Angeles Times. Maehara teaches a course on the history of racism in the US at East Los Angeles Community College. “There’s a long history,” he told the paper. “They’ve picketed my classroom at East LA College. Chicano Republicans came after me and picketed me at Cal State Long Beach. The KKK came to my classroom at Cal State Long Beach when I was teaching a course on the US-Vietnam war. This is not the first time I’ve been targeted.”

The nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki has been sworn in as the Polish president, using his inaugural address to criticise the EU as he vowed to represent “sovereign” Poland, in a sign of potential clashes to come with the country’s pro-European government. In a combative speech in parliament aimed squarely at the prime minister, [Donald Tusk](https://www.theguardian.com/world/donald-tusk), and his allies, Nawrocki said on Wednesday that the voters in June’s presidential election had “sent a strong message … that things cannot continue to be governed in this way”. The 42-year-old attacked his rivals for the “propaganda, lies … and contempt” to which he said he had been subjected during the polarising campaign. He said he opposed “illegal migration … and joining the euro”, and wanted a “sovereign [Poland](https://www.theguardian.com/world/poland) that is in the European Union … but is and will remain Poland”. A devout Catholic, Nawrocki ended his speech with a cry: “May God bless Poland, long live Poland.” Backed by the populist rightwing opposition Law and Justice party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, Nawrocki ran under a Trumpesque slogan of “Poland first, Poles first”. [](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/nationalist-karol-nawrocki-sworn-in-as-polish-president#img-2) Nawrocki and his wife, Marta, arrive at parliament before his swearing-in ceremony in Warsaw. Photograph: Paweł Supernak/EPA He defied the polls to narrowly beat the Oxford-educated liberal Warsaw mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, and replace the conservative incumbent, Andrzej Duda, who was stepping down after two terms. Nawrocki, who faced controversy during the campaign when it emerged he had taken part in an organised brawl between football hooligans in 2009, has little experience in frontline politics. He served as the head of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, a state research institute. His manifesto – going far beyond presidential powers – contained 21 promises, including to lower taxes and energy costs, stop the EU’s green policies, block irregular migration and ensure “safe childhood without ideology”, a phrase taken to mean opposition to same-sex adoption and gender education in schools. After an unexpected visit to Washington in the final weeks of the campaign, Nawrocki sought and secured Donald Trump’s endorsement before the vote. A White House delegation also took part in the swearing-in ceremony. As it tries to stand up to an increasingly aggressive Russia, Poland will hope that his personal relationship with Trump will help in defence talks with the US administration. Marek Magierowski, Poland’s former US ambassador, said in an analysis for the Atlantic Council that the links could “help keep both countries aligned in the contest against Russia”. [](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/nationalist-karol-nawrocki-sworn-in-as-polish-president#img-3) Karol Nawrocki with Donald Trump at the White House in May. Photograph: The Whitehouse/X On Ukraine, Nawrocki has pledged to continue support for Kyiv, but opposes its Nato membership. Domestically, the new presidency is expected to directly challenge Tusk’s pro-European coalition government. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/nationalist-karol-nawrocki-sworn-in-as-polish-president#EmailSignup-skip-link-15) Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion While the role of the Polish president carries limited powers, it gives him some influence over foreign and defence policy, a high public profile, and the ability to veto new legislation. The veto can only be overturned with a majority of three-fifths in parliament, which the government does not have, potentially stymying its ability to pass promised changes on contentious issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. Nawrocki is expected to make the most of his powers, seeking to stand up to the increasingly unpopular Tusk. He is expected to put forward his first legislative proposals this week in an attempt to set the political agenda for the autumn. On Wednesday, Nawrocki drew some early battle lines. He challenged the government’s plans to restore the rule of law after the previous administration’s clashes with the EU, accusing Tusk’s government of undermining the country’s constitution and calling for its broader rewrite by 2030 – an ambition with a clear political implication. Any change to the constitution would require a two-thirds majority in parliament. The Law and Justice party hopes to use Nawrocki’s success in the buildup to the 2027 parliamentary election to return to power, potentially in a coalition with the libertarian far-right Konfederacja party. [](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/nationalist-karol-nawrocki-sworn-in-as-polish-president#img-4) Nawrocki supporters gather near St John’s Archcathedral in Warsaw’s old town during a mass after the swearing-in ceremony. Photograph: Radek Pietruszka/EPA “He spoke about a confrontation with the government, and, of course, we are ready for that,” Tusk told reporters after the speech. He said he hoped “the rather defiant and confrontational tone won’t lead to any practical consequences”. Still, he added that “if needed, we will stand firm”. He also pointedly criticised Nawrocki’s comments about the rule of law, putting them in the context of investigations into alleged irregularities under the previous Law and Justice government. He said: “Even if some people complain that the reckoning process is going slowly, I’m not surprised PiS \[the Law and Justice party\] is desperate for President Nawrocki to somehow paralyse the work of the prosecutor’s office. But let me just say: dream on.”

Poland’s conservative nationalist president is due to meet [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) at the White House in a visit that has prompted fresh tensions with the nation’s pro-European government led by Donald Tusk. Backed by the populist rightwing opposition Law and Justice party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, Karol Nawrocki [unexpectedly won Poland’s presidential election](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/exit-poll-in-polish-presidential-run-off-puts-candidates-neck-and-neck) after running a campaign under a Trumpesque slogan of “Poland first, Poles first”. The historian turned politician had met the US president before the election, securing his highly prized endorsement and presenting himself as someone who could safeguard Poland’s interests with the conservative US administration. When he won, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Such a great win in Poland by [Karol Nawrocki](https://www.theguardian.com/world/karol-nawrocki). He will be a great president!” Nawrocki’s visit to the White House on Wednesday will be his first overseas trip since [taking office last month](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/nationalist-karol-nawrocki-sworn-in-as-polish-president), and the first serious test of his foreign policy credentials. He hosted a summit in Warsaw last week involving the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and [Ukraine](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine), and spoke with other EU leaders by phone to prepare for the meeting, as he wants Poland to play a broader role in representing the region’s interests. His chief foreign policy adviser, Marcin Przydacz, told reporters on Tuesday that talks would “primarily concern security issues”, as he stressed that [Poland](https://www.theguardian.com/world/poland) – Nato’s top spender, for which it gets regular praise from Trump – wanted to “maintain the best possible relations with the Americans”. Nawrocki will also present Trump with the Polish view on the Ukraine war and his talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska, “pointing to the causes of this aggression and identifying the aggressor, the Russian Federation”, Przydacz said. But the visit has exacerbated tensions with Tusk, the centrist prime minister who was formerly president of the European Council. Nawrocki, a fierce critic of Tusk who has pledged to continue supporting Kyiv [but opposes Ukraine’s membership in Nato](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/24/poland-presidential-debate-puts-ukraine-and-europe-centre-stage) and pushed for [tightening the benefits paid out to Ukrainian refugees](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/25/polands-president-vetoes-legislation-to-prolong-benefits-for-ukrainian-refugees) in Poland, signalled his intention to pursue a foreign policy [independently of the government](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/nationalist-karol-nawrocki-sworn-in-as-polish-president). [](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/03/polish-president-karol-nawrocki-meeting-trump-tensions-tusk#img-2) Karol Nawrocki, before being elected president of Poland, with Donald Trump at the White House. Photograph: The Whitehouse/X Shortly before the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, he joined a leaders’ phone call with the US president sidelining Tusk, who had previously represented Poland in similar discussions. Presidential aides said Nawrocki had got involved at Trump’s personal invitation. The move locked Tusk out of a prestigious call, reducing his role to participating in preparatory and debriefing calls with other European leaders instead. Poland subsequently skipped the high-level Zelenskyy-Trump meeting altogether, sending no representative to join the Ukrainian president and a group of European leaders at the White House, with both camps trading blame for the absence. The Polish president is also expected to stress to Trump the importance of keeping US forces in the region, with approximately 10,000 troops stationed in Poland and reports that the number may be under review. The meeting comes amid growing frustration on both sides of the Atlantic with what is seen as Russian attempts to obstruct efforts to end the war, with Trump repeating on Tuesday night he was [“very disappointed” in Putin](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/03/ukraine-war-briefing-no-action-from-trump-as-another-putin-deadline-passes). Just hours before Trump and Nawrocki were to meet, Poland was forced to scramble its own and allied aircraft [to monitor its airspace](https://x.com/DowOperSZ/status/1963045862680019361) during another major night attack on Ukraine, with more than 500 strikes across the country. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will take part in a meeting with Nordic and Baltic countries in Denmark on Wednesday, said Putin was “demonstrating his impunity”. The turf war between the Polish president and prime minister was brought back to the spotlight before the White House visit, after ministers repeatedly asked Nawrocki to toe the government’s line in his talks with Trump. The president’s aides responded by insisting the visit could instead be an opportunity for “a new opening” in relations, which they argued had been damaged by Tusk and his ministers’ past critical comments on Trump. As the row deepened, a one-page memo outlining the government’s advice for the president was leaked to the media. Presidential aides publicly ridiculed the document, describing it as “resembling a college essay”, and rejected the ministerial insistence on following their instructions as “impertinent”. Nawrocki also did not invite any government officials to join his delegation, breaking with a tradition that a junior minister would sit in the president’s meetings overseas. Przydacz said he would instead send a memo to inform the government of any developments. Despite Nawrocki’s meeting with Trump on Wednesday, Tusk said he would be representing Poland during a hybrid meeting of the “coalition of the willing” on Thursday. The internal divisions could weaken the country’s influential role in shaping Europe’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after it welcomed more than a million Ukrainian refugees and turned into a major logistics hub for military and humanitarian aid deliveries for the war-torn neighbour.

Sep 23, 2025 5:30 AM For years, influencer Nick Fuentes was too extreme even for MAGA. Now he's working his way into the mainstream—and has a plan for his secret followers to seize the levers of power.  Nick Fuentes speaks to America First demonstrators gathered in front of the Gracie Mansion in New York City to protest vaccination mandates in 2021.Photograph: Anadolu; Getty Images White nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes finds it very difficult to hide his contempt for his own followers, known as Groypers—even when they are sending him money. “Can you fuck off and kill yourself and die,” Fuentes muttered during a livestream on the alternative streaming platform Rumble earlier this month. The [antisemitic](https://x.com/FuentesUpdates/status/1945353016615559649), [anti-trans](https://x.com/MaxxPowerNation/status/1964544289175912771), [misogynistic](https://x.com/CozyGoyda/status/1957512878975774805), and [racist](https://x.com/ImperiumFirst/status/1965273782907797647) influencer was responding to a follower who sent him a $10 Super Chat message, offering advice on how to treat the cold Fuentes was suffering from. Groypers are a group of extremely loyal supporters of Fuentes’ white nationalist and Christian nationalist ideology, which he describes as “America First.” Their leader’s undisguised disdain for them, which at times edges into outright hatred and name-calling, is part of his appeal. Younger viewers in particular view his unvarnished responses and unwavering views on immigration, Israel, and Donald Trump (he’s against them all) as genuine and authentic, especially compared to what other right-wing influencers offer up. Now, Fuentes is looking to leverage his rapidly growing audience, and a new level of influence among more [mainstream figures in the GOP](https://www.turtlediaries.net/p/the-texas-gop-cant-get-enough-of) and MAGA movement, to build a nationwide secret society of sorts, which he believes will help bring his vision of an America dominated by white Christians to fruition. “The country overall, I think, is closer to accepting our position than they were 10 years ago,” Fuentes said in a recent livestream. “I think we're kind of still waiting for that inflection point, and once that happens, I think it happens all very quickly.” After a decade of livestreaming hate-filled diatribes in which he has said certain types of rape are “[not a big deal](https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1196605327124451328?s=46&t=mth2WpQ0iT0nJ5yYk3ZOaw),” [denied the Holocaust,](https://www.adl.org/resources/article/nicholas-j-fuentes-five-things-know) and [compared himself to Hitler](https://x.com/rightwingwatch/status/1490738194974920710?s=21), Fuentes believes he, and the white nationalist movement generally, have very little to show for it. But in the wake of [the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk](https://www.wired.com/story/charlie-kirk-obituary/), things have been happening very quickly. For the last six years, Fuentes had [relentlessly attacked](https://x.com/waltermasterson/status/1967750573903753218) the Turning Point USA cofounder, focusing especially on his support for Israel. Fuentes also repeatedly called out Kirk’s unwillingness to debate him. In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, Fuentes struck a more conciliatory tone, urging followers not to pick up arms, but also repeated that he believes Kirk was “complicit in the Israeli capture of the right wing for a very long time.” Rather than damaging Fuentes’ popularity, Kirk’s death has accelerated it. His X following has grown by almost 175,000 since Kirk’s death, and he has seen his following on Rumble increase by more than 100,000. His livestream commemorating the death of Kirk was among his most watched by far, with over 2.5 million views. His livestream the following Monday discussing who was responsible for Kirk’s death also saw a higher-than-normal viewership. In the space of less than an hour, Fuentes earned over $5,500 from the top 50 Super Chat donations made by supporters, according to a review by WIRED. Fuentes did not respond to repeated requests for comment. **“A Generational Run”** ------------------------ For years, Fuentes was viewed as a pariah by people within the Republican Party and the MAGA movement. “I don’t think anybody should be spending any time with Nick Fuentes,” then House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said in 2022, days after Trump had dined with the antisemitic musician and fashion mogul Ye and the America First leader at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But over the course of the last year, [coinciding with Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate](https://www.axios.com/2024/05/03/elon-musk-nick-fuentes-x-account) Fuentes’ X account, his influence has skyrocketed, despite—or perhaps because of—his criticism of Trump’s failed campaign promises around the Epstein case and mass deportations, as well as his support for Israel. “He is on a generational run. I don’t care what anyone says, he is on fire right now,” comedian Vincent Oshana said while appearing on the podcast of right-wing influencer [Patrick Bet-David](https://x.com/FuentesUpdates/status/1955641639785095453), who interviewed Trump last year. Fuentes has been praised—albeit usually with heavy caveats—by, among others, manosphere star [Myron Gaines](https://x.com/DelGroyp/status/1899606162053726389), right-wing commentator [Dinesh D’Souza](https://x.com/FuentesUpdates/status/1940235907833229640), and livestreamer [Adin Ross](https://x.com/etherXwave/status/1955520985916195168), who hosted Trump during last year’s presidential campaign. Fuentes has also been at the center of [a very public fight](https://www.thebulwark.com/p/infamous-groyper-nick-fuentes-vs-former-fox-bigwig-tucker-carlson-candace-owens-cory-mills?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=87281&post_id=170362087&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2xyc0x&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNzc5NjE1NjksInBvc3RfaWQiOjE3MDM2MjA4NywiaWF0IjoxNzU0NTc4NzAyLCJleHAiOjE3NTcxNzA3MDIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi04NzI4MSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.3KBlgKlPrB5MDIAzTLZW48v4WI5OGvbVhShjY7edFWg&triedRedirect=true) with mainstream right-wing media figures Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. Carlson called Fuentes a “weird little gay kid in his basement” and suggested he was part of a deep-state plot to undermine real right-wing figures; [most observers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S8w6mdmZ3E), especially his own supporters, concluded that Fuentes came out on top. “Young Trump supporters listen to Nick Fuentes, and if they don’t listen to him, they listen to people who have been influenced by him,” says Michael Edison Hayden, an extremism researcher and author of the forthcoming book _Strange People on the Hill_, which follows a small town’s takeover by a white nationalist group. “He’s absolutely influential on immigration, on antisemitism and optics—whether establishment Republicans want to admit that or not.” Born in 1998, Fuentes, grew up in a well-off suburb of Chicago. By the time he was 18, a freshman in Boston University, he was already livestreaming, launching what he would call _America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes_ on YouTube. Having gained a cult following, in February 2017 Fuentes brought his show to the Trump-aligned Right Side Broadcasting Network. The so-called alt-right of which he was a part, and Fuentes’ brand of edgy nihilism specifically, fell apart in the wake of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. At the time, Fuentes wrote on Facebook that the event, which resulted in the death of antifascist activist Heather Heyer, would unleash a “tidal wave of white identity,” something that at the time didn’t happen. Fuentes returned to YouTube before he was [banned from the platform in 2020](https://www.dailydot.com/news/nick-fuentes-youtube-channel-terminated/) for violating the company’s hate speech policies. He continued broadcasting his show on DLive, an alternative streaming platform, but was once again suspended indefinitely [in 2021](https://www.dailydot.com/news/nick-fuentes-baked-alaska-dlive-bans/) after he was in attendance outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, where he was captured on video speaking to supporters. One of the rioters inside the Capitol on that day was captured on video waving an America First flag. Fuentes moved his show to a custom platform called Cozy TV that he built in collaboration with Alex Jones. More recently, he has found a welcoming home on [Rumble, the alternative media platform](https://www.wired.com/story/rumble-sends-viewers-tumbling-toward-misinformation/) that also hosts Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast and has been [backed financially](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-hillbilly-elegy-guy-is-bankrolling-the-anti-vax-version-of-youtube/) by both Peter Thiel and a venture capital fund cofounded by Vice President JD Vance. Despite being suspended from most major social media platforms, last year Fuentes was reinstated on X by Musk, who wrote that he could stay on the platform “provided he does not violate the law, and let him be crushed by the comments and Community Notes.” Rather than being crushed, Fuentes has seen his following skyrocket from 168,000 at the time his account was restored in May 2024, to almost 925,000 today. **“We Want Them to Have No Clue”** ---------------------------------- In a recent interview with Eric Orwoll, one of the founders of [a whites-only community in Arkansas](https://www.wired.com/story/whites-only-community-arkansas/), Fuentes complained that for all that has happened since Trump came to power, there are very few groups who are operating right now in the “pro-white” sphere. He listed Jared Taylor’s white nationalist American Renaissance conference, and VDare, a white nationalist group founded in 1999 by Peter Brimelow that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Fuentes also mentioned his own show, and the antisemitic [Culture Wars magazine](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/12-anti-semitic-radical-traditionalist-catholic-groups/). But Fuentes believes that he and the Groyper army can change that. Despite his growing influence within the GOP and the Trump administration, as well as his rapidly rising support among young white men in America, Fuentes has repeatedly said that in order for his movement to make an impact, it needs to operate in the shadows. “No rallies, no protests, we don’t need to show everybody how many of us there are because the second that we do, they will identify, isolate, and destroy us,” Fuentes said on a recent livestream. “We want them to have no clue how many Groypers there are, where they are, who they are. We want them to be completely in the dark.” Fuentes says that he travels the country constantly to meet his supporters, who have started different groups and organizations across the country—everything from campus groups to book clubs, all founded on the racist, antisemitic doctrine he preaches on his livestreams. He described his movement as a “tech startup” and “a patchwork that eventually we're going to knit together … over time,” adding that he saw Orwoll’s whites-only community in Arkansas as part of that network. “There are certainly Groypers within the administration, and I believe \[Fuentes\] when he says that he has contacts within the administration, including probably pretty high up,” says Hannah Gais, an extremism researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center. There are signs that figures familiar with Fuentes’ movement play roles in the administration. Back in May, for example, Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia—who at one point allegedly grilled career FBI agents about their loyalty to Trump, [according to a recent lawsuit](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/us/politics/trump-fbi-lawsuit.html)—to head up the Office of Special Counsel. Ingrassia attended an impromptu rally in June 2024 after Fuentes had been denied entry to a Turning Point USA conference. Ingrassia [later claimed](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/30/nx-s1-5417902/trump-ingrassia-antisemitism-ethics) to have been unaware of who was speaking at the rally; however, he wrote [an X post](https://x.com/PaulIngrassia/status/1801961225833570790) at the time condemning the decision by Turning Point USA to eject Fuentes. It’s unclear at this point if a vote to confirm Ingrassia’s appointment will happen. Ingrassia and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. On one livestream earlier this month, a young supporter told Fuentes that he was getting some of his friends into the movement and said it was “growing at an exponential rate,” adding that “you have the youth in this country sold on this movement.” While this may be an exaggeration, Fuentes’ young supporters are sold to the point where they are willing to fund him and his ambitions. In addition to what he raises with Super Chats, Fuentes also has a subscription service called America First Plus. For $15 a month subscribers get access to the full America First archive. Thirty dollars a month gets you the archive plus “AI powered search.” For the most dedicated Groypers, there is a $100-a-month tier that also gets you access to a group chat that Fuentes is part of. In a recent video criticizing the people who are part of the group chat, Fuentes claims that [he’s got 400 subscribers to the $100-a-month](https://x.com/FuentesUpdates/status/1962741305714659796) tier, which would amount to $50,000 a year. Fuentes also earns money from his range of America First merchandise, including $40 baseball caps and $25 mugs. “I'll be honest with you, I made a lot of money this summer,” Fuentes said recently. “And I got a lot of support this month, this year, lots of views, lots of followers.” Those followers are helping to get the word out. Fuentes livestreams five times a week on Rumble, where his videos typically rack up hundreds of thousands of views. Clips from his shows are quickly spread by supporters on many other platforms, including X, Instagram, and TikTok, where they can quickly amass millions of views. Fuentes’ disdain for many of his supporters appears to have no impact on his popularity, but the 27-year-old is clear that what he refers to as the “grug-level” supporters are not what is needed in order for his movement to take control. Instead, Fuentes speaks about attracting “elite human capital,” supporters who will then become part of an “officer class” of “super intelligent, entrepreneurial” people. “Once we get 1,000, 5,000 of those guys, those are going to be the party officials, party apparatics as an analogy,” Fuentes said. “I'm kind of interested in inspiring those people, indoctrinating those people. They watch a show, they get the ideas, they get the inspiration, they kind of take a project into their own hands.”

A Russian street fighting organization that has raised money for Moscow’s illegal invasion of [Ukraine](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine) expanded into the US earlier this year with the help of prominent American white supremacists from the extremist neo-Nazi “active club” movement and the neo-fascist organization Patriot Front, the Guardian can reveal. The group, known as Streets Fight Club (SFC), also promoted violent, for-profit combat events featuring white nationalist extremists held in the US south to tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube. SFC stages bareknuckle brawls throughout the year, typically in Europe. Events are often held at abandoned sites, where improvised fight cages are set up using barricade fencing. One event the group posted about in July, for example, took place at the ruins of a coal washery near Carmaux, France. SFC generates income by selling live and recorded pay-per-view streams of the fights. One August 2023 stream was promoted on the Russian social media website VK as a fundraiser to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A post said proceeds would go to troops mobilized in the “special military operation”, the Kremlin’s propaganda term for the war, concluding: “Glory to Russia!” The pay-per-view stream was advertised on Instagram, although without mentioning its fundraising purpose. Many SFC fighters come from far-right backgrounds. Images of fighters brandishing neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbols, including sonnenrads and valknuts on apparel and in the form of tattoos, have been posted by the group on its social media for years. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-2) A post from SFC’s Instagram account promoting a fight. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian That includes verified accounts on Meta-owned Instagram and Google-owned YouTube, where it has over 25,000 subscribers. Meta did not reply to multiple requests for comment. SFC’s YouTube channel, which had more than 20,000 subscribers, was banned after the Guardian reached out to the company for comment. YouTube said it determined that SFC’s content violated its hate speech policy. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-3) A post from SFC’s Instagram account showing a fighter with neo-Nazi and white supremacist tattoos. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian SFC also maintains a Telegram channel, prominently linked to from its Instagram page, filled with years of images featuring fighters flaunting neo-Nazi and far-right insignia. When SFC established its US offshoot earlier this year, the extremist connections were even more prominent. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-4) A post from SFC’s Telegram account promoting a fight. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian Videos and images posted to Instagram, YouTube and Telegram by SFC in April advertised a US-based event dubbed “Slaughter Smokey Mountain”. The participants were drawn from the ranks of some of the most notorious white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in the US. Among them was Thomas Denton, fighting under the alias “Phoenix”. Denton [pleaded no contest](https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2022/05/17/convictions-secured-against-members-of-the-base) to felony firearm and conspiracy charges in Michigan in 2022 for his role in trying to set up a “hate camp” for [The Base](https://extremism.gwu.edu/base), an accelerationist white supremacist group that advocates overthrowing the government to establish a white ethnostate. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-5) A post from SFC’s Instagram account promoting the Slaughter Smokey Mountain tournament. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian The Base is a designated terrorist organization in [Canada](https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx#540) and the [EU](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/07/26/sanctions-against-terrorism-council-renews-the-eu-terrorist-list-and-designates-a-new-entity/). Denton also frequently appears on the website of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a nationwide [group](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/asatru-folk-assembly/) that [claims](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/minnesota-asatru-folk-assembly.html) to practice “native, pre-Christian spirituality” and which the watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a white supremacist hate group. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-6) A YouTube video promoting an SFC event. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian Another fighter, promoted under the alias “Dagda”, is Thomas Grady. A [former marine](https://www.dvidshub.net/news/204251/3-6-conducts-live-mortar-range), his online presence reveals he is a member of the Tennessee active club, which is led by the violent white nationalist and Holocaust denier [Sean Kauffmann](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/were-not-scared-these-parasites-violent-white-nationalist-leader-menacing-tennessee/). Grady left a negative Google review of a Tennessee-based Brazilian jujitsu gym that he claimed kicked him out for allegedly holding “neo-Nazi or white supremacist” views. The profile picture on his Google account is taken from Slaughter Smokey Mountain promotional footage. The Guardian was also able to identify him by linking a phone number he listed on Facebook to a Telegram account called “Dagda Tuatha”. The account is active in Telegram channels associated with the Tennessee active club and in SFC’s Telegram channel where, in May 2025, it sent a message indicating it belonged to a fighter in the Slaughter Smokey Mountain tournament. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-7) Thomas Grady’s negative Google review of a Tennessee-based Brazilian jujitsu gym that he claimed kicked him out for allegedly holding ‘neo-Nazi or white supremacist’ views. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian Active clubs form a loose network of decentralized white supremacist and neo-Nazi cells that pose as recreational sporting groups. Experts have warned their real purpose is the recruiting, indoctrination and training of violent far-right extremists. “If active clubs are allowed to continue to operate and multiply, the likelihood for targeted political violence and terrorism by their members against supposed enemies of the ‘white race’ (eg, Jews, people of color, Muslims and LGTBQI+ individuals) will increase,” Alexander Ritzmann, a senior researcher at the Counter Extremism Project who studies the movement, said. The Guardian [reported](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/19/active-clubs-charlie-kirk-killing-new-members) last month that active clubs had been using the killing of the far-right commentator Charlie Kirk to recruit new members with the promise of vengeance and, in June, revealed how one active club [infiltrated](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/21/tennessee-neo-nazi-martial-arts) a family-friendly grappling school. Meanwhile, Grady was not the only person with active club ties involved in SFC’s US expansion. His opponent at the Smokey Mountain event was a man billed as “Sporty”. Recognizable by his distinctive handlebar mustache, “Sporty” is Tristan Rettke. Images posted by the far-right propaganda outlet [Media2Rise](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/media2rise-propagandist-identified-montana-neo-nazi/) show Rettke participated in a boxing tournament held in Texas last year between members of the active club network and [Patriot Front](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/02/patriot-front-recruits-members-young-pyramid-scheme), a white nationalist hate group born out of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Southern Poverty Law Center [reported](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/patriot-front-active-clubs-network-influence/) in May that Patriot Front was secretly behind at least a dozen active clubs across the US. Rettke was charged in 2016 with civil rights intimidation for disrupting a Black Lives Matter rally at East Tennessee State University. While a student there, he showed up to the event wearing a gorilla mask, carrying bananas on a rope, and holding a sack emblazoned with the Confederate flag. The case sparked national outcry and Rettke was ultimately [convicted](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/student-arrested-wearing-gorilla-mask-black-lives-matter-rally-cleared-n1030961) of a lesser misdemeanor in 2019. Andrew Lindgren, another participant who SFC billed as “Drew”, has participated in Patriot Front and active club events, images posted to Telegram show. Lindgren also appears frequently in images and videos posted to the Telegram channel of Patria Gloria, Patriot Front’s Brazilian jujitsu team. Patria Gloria is helmed by Ian Michael Elliott, a longtime Patriot Front leader. In March, Nashville’s News Channel 5 [revealed](https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/this-isnt-your-granddads-kkk-inside-the-influential-hate-group-thats-expanding-in-tennessee) he was one of the organizers behind a 122-acre white nationalist compound in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. Patria Gloria and Elliott, who was [banned](https://www.thedailybeast.com/family-friendly-gym-training-partner-identified-as-alleged-neo-nazi/) from a Tennessee grappling school last year due to his extremist affiliations, link several of the men who participated in SFC’s US launch. Images and video posted to Telegram in November 2024 show his Brazilian jujitsu team hosted a bareknuckle boxing event at the Tellico Plains compound. Participants included Grady, Lindgren, Rettke, Patriot Front founder [Thomas Rousseau](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/thomas-rousseau/), and members of the Texas-based Lone Star active club. Elliott is also Facebook friends with another fighter who took part in SFC’s US expansion: Lucas Cheek. Billed under his first name, he posted a video of his fight with Denton on Facebook, set to the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army and featuring an SFC watermark. Grady replied to a request for comment by saying he would only answer if a Guardian journalist sent him a video showing them “doing 100 burpees”, a type of a full-body calisthenics exercise. None of the other men featured by SFC responded to requests for comment. Asked about its affiliation with US extremists and neo-Nazis, SFC replied via Telegram message: “Did we give you permission to interview us?” While SFC said in Instagram posts that the “Slaughter Smokey Mountain” event took place in Texas, the landscape shown in the promotional video more strongly resembles Tennessee, where most of the fighters reside. It is unclear if this was a geographical error by the Russian promoter or deliberate misdirection. However, SFC began promoting a fight in July that would take place in Texas. Social media posts related to that event also reveal the leaders of SFC’s US expansion. Featured in promos for the Dallas SFC tournament – billed as “Rise of Violence” – is a bleached blond, tattooed fighter who competes as “Panzzer”, standing alongside other competitors in front of the city’s Reunion Tower. He is Texas resident Avery Ross Ruiz and a member of the Lone Star active club, whose members [include](https://hotel-florida.ghost.io/fort-worths-new-nazi-fight-club/) Rousseau and [Kieran Morris](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/aug/11/2-more-patriot-front-members-convicted-of-conspira/), another leading Patriot Front figure. Ruiz identified himself as the man who “runs the SFC America sector” in a 17 May 2025 Telegram message seen by the Guardian. In a promotional image for SFC’s Dallas event, he is pictured alongside [Graham Whitson](https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/patriot-front-active-clubs-network-influence/), yet another Patriot Front activist. In addition to the SFC Dallas event, Ruiz [participated](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/09/15/active-club-fight-night-2025-san-diego/) in a southern California fight tournament between Patriot Front and active club members in August. He replied to a request for comment with three yawning face emojis. The full Dallas fight was offered as a $25 pay-per-view stream beginning in August on [Millions](https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-millions-sports-startup-athlete-streaming-e-commerce-funding-2024-7), a sports streaming and e-commerce startup. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/russia-street-fight-club-far-right-active-club#img-8) A webpage on the Millions website for an SFC event offering a $25 pay-per-view stream of a fight in Dallas from August 2025. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian Millions did not reply to a request for comment, though the stream was deleted after the company was contacted by the Guardian. Grady, the Tennessee active club member who fought in the “Smokey Mountain” event, also took part in the Dallas event. In a message to SFC’s Telegram channel, he wrote that footage of the “Smokey Mountain” event was never released because it “just didn’t fit the vibe”. Ritzmann, the Counter Extremism Project researcher, said “it is curious that active club US fighters are getting involved with a pro-Russian invasion group” as active clubs are “supposed to stay neutral in this war to avoid infighting” as white supremacists in the US have variously aligned themselves with far-right groups pledged to both sides of the conflict. _Sean Craig, [Tristan Lee](https://bsky.app/profile/tristanl.ee), and [Youri van der Weide](https://www.bellingcat.com/author/yourivanderweide/) contributed reporting_