Last week, a friend alerted me to a Reuters article exploring the recent rise of explicitly Nazi organizations–a rise attributed to the favorable climate produced by the Trump administration. The lede really says it all:
HOCHATOWN, Oklahoma – Wearing cargo shorts, flip-flops and a baseball cap shading his eyes from the sun, Dalton Henry Stout blends in easily in rural America.
Except for the insignia on his hat. It bears the skull and crossbones of the infamous “Death’s Head” SS units that oversaw Nazi Germany’s concentration camps – and the initials “AFN,” short for Aryan Freedom Network, the neo-Nazi group Stout leads with his partner.
From a modest ranch house in Texas, the couple oversee a network they say has been turbocharged by President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. They point to Trump’s rhetoric – his attacks on diversity initiatives, his hardline stance on immigration and his invocation of “Western values” – as driving a surge in interest and recruitment.
Trump “awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years,” Stout told Reuters. “He’s the best thing that’s happened to us.”
As the article reports, Trump’s re-election turbo-charged the activism of America’s neo-Nazi organizations. Trump’s rhetoric, especially, has served to galvanize far-right and white supremacist activists, and encouraged growth in their numbers. That growth has been abetted by a variety of Trump’s actions: his pardons of the January 6 rioters, his use of ICE and federal law enforcement to terrorize and “disappear” immigrants of color, the virtual abandonment of federal investigations into white nationalism–and, of course, the administration’s consistent attacks on diversity and inclusion.
The Trump administration has scaled back efforts to counter domestic extremism, redirecting resources toward immigration enforcement and citing the southern border as the top security threat. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reduced staffing in its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section. The Department of Homeland Security has cut personnel in its violence prevention office.
The article also reported what most observers (especially those of us who once called ourselves Republican) have seen; Ideas that were once considered ridiculous, unAmerican and fringe, have moved into the mainstream of Republican politics. Election denialism and rhetoric portraying immigrants as “invaders”–joined by Trump’s public support and pardons for far-right figures–have served to normalize those views with today’s Republican voters. There is no longer a bright line between “mainstream Republicanism” and the neo-fascist far right.
That shift has coincided with a surge in white nationalist activity. White extremists are committing a growing proportion of U.S. political violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, a nonprofit research outfit that tracks global conflicts. In 2020, such groups were linked to 13% of all U.S. extremist-related demonstrations and acts of political violence, or 57 of the events ACLED tracked. By 2024, they accounted for nearly 80%, or 154 events.
The article reports that Stout’s beliefs, and the beliefs of many of the neo-Nazi groups, are rooted in the Christian Identity movement. That movement claims that white Europeans, not Jews, are the true Israelites of the bible and are therefore God’s chosen people. They also claim that Black Americans, under Jewish influence, are leading a Communist revolution – a fusion of racial supremacy ideology with far-right conspiracy theories.
The pseudoscientific notion of a superior white Aryan race – essentially Germanic – was a core tenet of Hitler’s Nazi regime. AFN gatherings brim with Nazi memes: Swastikas are ritually set ablaze and chants of “white power” echo through the woods. AFN’s website pays specific tribute to violent white supremacist groups of the past, including The Order, whose members killed a Jewish radio host in 1984.
The article documents the relationship of these emerging neo-Nazi groups to the KKK, and documents both their recent growth and their advocacy of race war.
When Stout was asked about why he believes these groups have been gaining momentum, he offered a chilling explanation:
“Our side won the election.”
Yes, it did.
I wonder if they’ll peacefully crawl back in their holes when they lose the next elections? Yes, I know better.
I have had problems getting anti-Trump/MAGA people to believe the situation today is as bad as it is and that it is actually neo-Nazi at its Trump/MAGA foundation. Hiding behind their claim of being Christians is not the same as Christian Nationalism as they watch the Catholic majority Supreme Court support and encourage Congressional support of Trump’s Fascism based leadership as he slowly builds his military takeover of our cities with states supporting his actions as his personal Gestapos.
When all other groups of population have been taken away and disposed of, the non-believers will find themselves with no salvation…Christian or physical protection from our home-grown Nazis and their ICE and military terrorism. It only happens to other people.
I’m sure Hitler and Satan worshipper, Stephen Miller, is proud of stories like this, but these are ignorant people, not violent. If they have to praise a group of racists from 40 years ago for killing a Jewish reporter, they are rather pathetic. The Israel Defense Force does that daily in Gaza.
The truth is, once I saw the article was from Oklahoma, I immediately thought this was going to be about a bunch of ignorant rednecks. VOILA!
These are noisemakers or attention seekers. Now we have the media from “both sides” fearmongering the other. Send the racists into Gary, Indiana, and let’s see what they can do. Let’s see if they will ride their Nazi laden pickup truck down Main Street in Gary. LOL
They’ll skedaddle back to Hochatown and clean up Airbnb’s.
One look at the picture of the January 6th insurrectionists (called rioters by Reuters) and you can’t convince me that many of these men work for ICE. I bet many even volunteer to head down to the border in campers.
Once again, it’s another group waiting for “the Day.” They won’t predict what will happen or when, but they’re “ready for it.”
We need to just lock them up for mental illness…and why are there so many loonies in Texas?
Of course Trump is the best thing to happen to the American NAZI movement. And Stephen Miller epitomizes that happening. Trump read the room before he ran for President in 2016 and saw how he could gain power. My guess is that Trump doesn’t really give a shit about the NAZI hate-fest, but uses them – as he has everyone/everything else in his pathetic life – to advance his personal agenda of greed and avarice. It’s what con men do.
To Todd’s point about Texans: Having lived there and visited there (in-laws) for 25 years, the political culture there is still caught in the grip of institutionalized ignorance fostered by their churches and inherent racism. It’s a cultural thing. After Ann Richards was defeated by Doofus Bush, the Republican grip on that cultural “room” deepened. Tom DeLay, a somewhat successful pest control businessman, became the Lee Atwater for the Texas Republicans and the militant disinformation campaign took hold. Bush … being Bush … had no control over any of this, and only prepared himself to be President Doofus. That culture is embedded in a simple premise: They’d rather sell their mothers into slavery than vote for a Democrat. Full stop. That stop is actually the end of their intellectual agility too.
There are, in my estimation when I wrote op-eds for two newspapers there, about 40% of Texans who actually think and try to do the right thing politically and socially. I hope things are changing, but seeing the re-elections of corrupt idiots like Cornyn and Cruz and the others in the House makes me think that the voices of that 40% will never be heard in government.
Trump is great at supporting Nazis and when s**t hits the fan, blaming Individuals – for their misdeeds. I would not under-estimate the potential power of some of such Groups- Fear and Hatred- help build Fascism! Gather with like minded folks- resist how we/you can. Don’t presume future elections will rescue our country!
Lester Levine, scroll past this at warp speed lest you be offended!
Vernon, thanks for giving me this ammunition; “My guess is that Trump doesn’t really give a shit about the NAZI hate-fest,…”, Nicole Wallace used the term “…Trump doesn’t give a shit…” and her regular program was removed entirely from MSNBC yesterday. Is this a one-time event or is she, like Joy Reid, gone forever? I will probably be permanently removed from Facebook for repeating Trump’s first term statement that “…Haiti is a shithole nation…” and quoting Nicole but went steps further to state Trump is fucking up America and Americans while we watch. Trump had demanded Nicole Wallace be fired and arrested and now we wait to see if the Supreme Court will back him up. Nicole, a former Republican, is strongly American and speaks out about saving democracy from Trump’s Nazi administration; this destruction of truth, free speech and protection of the press is now part of “The Best Thing That’s Happened to the Nazis” here in the former United States of America.
I am so sick of it all I have actually researched information regarding suicide as the only way to escape it being death. My only fear is of failure rather than success. Vern; just being old isn’t enough anymore, not for me.
The Democrats following the curse-free speaking format as being polite as they follow democracy, Rule of Law and upholding the Constitution has weakened our national standing and lost all trust and faith in America by our once strong allies. Not unlike those “good Germans” who allowed Hitler’s Fascism takeover of Europe and claimed no knowledge that it was happening after the war.
So, I recently wrote, here, that Trump was said to have Mein Kampf on his night table; true or apocrvaphyl, I do not really know, but I came across this as I read “THE GODS OF NEW YORK,” byJonathan Mahler, yesterday–Ivana told “Vanity Fair that the only book on his nightstand was a copy of Adolf Hitler’s speeches.”
‘Nuff said!
Much as we are still dealing with the SCOTUS clowns of the Bush era, we can expect the impact of this 2nd Orange Putz’ election, to go on for a very long time.
What Trump believes is one thing based on the persona he projects, but quite another inside, where the real person exists.
What he projects is a person superior to all others who deserves tribute for that superiority, no matter at whose expense.
Most psychologists who have written about Trump depict his inner memories as being the result of memories as the victim of authoritarian anger and disappointment by his father, the notorious Fred Trump, who seemed perpetually angry about his offspring not being ruthless enough.
Those are the ingredients of the sociopathology that we see and hear and read about every day.
That is also what leads to fascism when such a person encounters situations that don’t seem to be turning out in his favor. He cannot stand it and must conjure up reactions that can ensure him a personal win instead of the righteous loss he deserves.
He will go down in history as our country’s most egregious mistake, but as long as he’s alive, he will continue to fight to restore what he views as his place on the throne of an American King.
JoAnn, don’t go there! As someone who is dealing with the recent suicide of a loved one let me tell you that the harm you do by taking your own life is nothing compared with what you do to the many lives of all the others you claim to love. Your life has meaning and purpose even if you do not recognize it in these times. I see it and others on this blog do too.
JoAnn. Ditto to all that Teresa said. Now that the weather is cooler, I expect to be able to sit on your new front porch and chat with you. Plus, “it is always darkest before the dawn” is trite because it is true!
Theresa and Sharon; thank you for your words of encouragement and for caring. It all seems so futile when you turn on your most informative news broadcast and find that this poor excuse for a human being who is the president has had her fired from her job for disagreeing with him. I’m sure everyone knows it was not that one word of profanity that caused it. Nicole is the third influential woman journalist removed from MSNBC programming; Trump already has control of CBS and has begun threatening NBC, I’m not sure of the situation with PBS, NPR or VOA (another woman). He has no legal right to end any of these news sources yet he is doing it. My last regular visit to my primary physician I tried to explain my disability limitations to HER after repeated recommendations to do something I cannot do; her response was “Do you want to be known to have Meniere’s or that you are out of balance?” She then recommended a therapist for my depression; when I told her I don’t need a therapist, I need to find some Democrats to talk about what is going on and what to do. That gave her a big laugh.
Theresa, I do know what suicide of a loved one does to those left behind and Sharon, I hope we can sit on my porch or inside to talk and thanks to you finding the “talkie” app on my cell phone we can talk with no writer’s cramp on you. This blog is my primary source of solace each day; lately it has just seemed too much to try to put into words to respond in support or argue my point of view. Eighty-eight years is a long time to work to be of use, not always succeeding, but to come to this bleak end of America living in fear.
I’m trying to hang on; win, lose or draw. As Kenny Rogers sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away and know when to run.” I’m still considering my options as I look for a light at the end of this Trump tunnel.
JoAnn, I do not know if this will help, but if you leave in that manner, the jackass wins.
Even the people who left the country, because of him, are wins for him, though I certainly fantasized about leaving, too.
Remaining vertical, watchful, alert, and criticizing are all worthwhile. Still, it might help to lower expectations, recognizing that there is no bottom for him. He’ll say, and do insane crap, because that’s who he is, and his asskissers will go on kissing up.
He might not have long to go. I cheered, aloud, admittedly, when Scalia died, and while it is not “proper” to say it, will do so when he does.
JoAnn, they’re not worth you going against yourself at this time. They are hurting/scaring a lot of people and that’s what they want to do. Nicole Wallace will land on her feet. She’s a good, decent reporter that many including republican’s support. Maybe she’ll join up with the Maddow/Reid team forming their own programming. I hope you’ll keep speaking up here. I also benefit from this blog and the regular’s comments. You would be missed.
More thanks to Mitch and Rose and others here on the blog who may have caring thoughts; maybe I was looking at the idea selfishly rather than as helping this government by doing away with my one vote.
Have a great Labor Day Weekend!