The United States has a neo-Nazi problem and it isn’t confined to trolls on internet forums, popular social media, or masked protests on the streets. There is an infestation of Nazism at the highest level of politics in the United States along with a concerted effort to normalize its presence. Nazism is losing its taboo in large part due to the prevalence of neo-Nazi influencers in the right-wing media sphere and the tolerance afforded to them by Republican politicians.
This phenomenon is most clearly evident in the developing prominence of Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi streamer seeking to create a “right-wing flank of the Republican party” to “eradicate [the] Jewish stranglehold over the United States of America.” His predominantly young followers identify themselves as “groypers” and are prolifically active online. But they also mobilize physically as they did on the January 6th assault on the Capitol, as well as with conservative campus organizations. As an active Holocaust denier, Christian nationalist, and self-avowed pedophile, Fuentes should be a pariah to anybody around him. Instead, he’s dined with Trump personally and faced no public condemnation from Trump for his views afterward.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual congregation of leading figures in the conservative movement, has often served as a barometer for the direction of the Republican Party. Fuentes was notably removed from CPAC in 2023 for “hateful racist rhetoric and actions” as well as interpersonal disputes with influential figures such as Charlie Kirk. However multiple Republican members of Congress spoke at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference, which he established as an alternative to CPAC. This is a sign that Fuentes has put his foot into the door of the Republican Party.
At CPAC 2024, numerous self-identified neo-Nazis with official CPAC badges mingled freely discussing race science and antisemitic conspiracy theories with “mainstream conservative personalities” without ejection. Video evidence acquired by NBC shows two prominent online Groypers — Ryan Sanchez and Greg Contes — giving the Nazi salute and laughing in the middle of the venue lobby. Sanchez declared during a live stream at CPAC, “We got multiple Airbnbs full of Groypers and our Aryan super soldiers. Everyone’s getting ready.” CPAC’s response merely emphasized the organizer’s support for “Israel and the Jewish people…and against the hatred of Jews” and did not respond to the Jerusalem Post’s inquiry on why Sanzches and other Groypers were allowed to attend. The Groyper brand had lost its taboo and was actually garnering the attention of prominent conservative organizations and influencers.
At the fourth iteration of Fuentes’ AFPAC, a notable attendee was Mark Ivanyo. Ivanyo is executive director of Republicans for National Renewal, a non-profit that describes itself as a force for organizing “national populists”, and was listed as a featured VIP guest. In 2024 Trump posted a photo of his face with the R.N.R. logo next to it cropped from a tweet where R.N.R. touted its influence with R.N.C. delegates. One cannot dismiss the extent to which Republicans have grown comfortable sitting with and adjacent to a table with Nazis.
A particularly insidious way Fuentes has been normalized is through numerous collaborations with major live streamers such as Adin Ross and Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy, known as “Sneako”. Both have millions of followers on numerous platforms and regularly collaborate with the biggest personalities in the entertainment industry such as the rapper Drake and fellow streamer Kai Cenat. Balinthazy regards Fuentes as “a friend” and has regularly brought him on to disseminate his views on race, the Holocaust, and contemporary politics. Balinthazy himself has attended AFPAC, wished Adolf Hitler a “happy birthday” and refused to condemn the dictator as evil. Additionally, Balinthazy has propagated a litany of Nazi apologia and antisemitic remarks to his audience. Trump joined both Ross and Balinthazy’s streams as a guest and received their endorsements without any subsequent distancing from their views. Where it had once been unacceptable to be even in a photo with Fuentes, it’s little news for the president to be just one step away.
What starts as cheeky dog whistles grows into foghorns. Nazism is festering within the Republican party and no concerted effort is being made to root it out. Rather, they only seem to be more incorporated into the party platform.
Jack Posobiec, another speaker who is identified by Republican campaign strategists as the social media influencer with “the most clout with Republican voters,” routinely joins Trump’s cabinet appointees on foreign policy trips as an invitee. Posobiec has a long history of directly working with white nationalist groups and runs numerous social media accounts to disseminate antisemitism, white nationalism, and conspiracies — something that has garnered him notable clout among not just Republican politicians but voters themselves. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and Trump’s right-hand man, has started a trend of Nazi salutes which has continued to be praised by extremists online and conservative influencers such as Andrew Tate. Emboldened, two other speakers at CPAC, Steve Bannon and José Eduardo Verástegui, emulated the gesture.
The continued use of thinly veiled Nazi salutes by powerful figures in the Republican Party raises the question for us all: are we stupid enough to watch Nazism become mainstream again?
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