Category Archives: Far right (US)

Trump pardons January 6 loyalist and commutes jail time of Hunter Biden associate

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President issues full pardon to veteran Thomas Caldwell and commutes Jason Galanis’s 14-year prison sentence

Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to another person involved with the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and commuted the sentence of a former business associate of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s scandal-plagued son.

Thomas Caldwell, 69, of Berryville, Virginia, has been granted a pardon for his alleged role in the Capitol attack following a series of pardons Trump has given out to those involved with or present during the events on 6 January 2021.

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Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals

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Exclusive: Terrorist group the Base appears defiant as new administration aims to deprioritize threat from far right

An international neo-Nazi terrorist group with origins in the US appears to be quickly rebuilding its global and stateside ranks, according to information obtained by the Guardian from its digital accounts.

Founded in 2018, the Base has been the intense focus of a years-long FBI counter-terrorism investigation that has resulted in more than a dozen of its members arrested. It has plotted an assassination, mass shootings and other actions in Europe, which made it a proscribed terrorist organization in several countries.

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Trump’s Gaza plan unites jihadist and far-right circles, experts warn

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Trump’s threat to take over Gaza is galvanizing two of the most dangerous and organized extremist movements

As Donald Trump continues to threaten to take control over the Gaza Strip, an unlikely consensus has emerged across hardcore jihadist and far-right circles: both strongly oppose any new US military actions in the territory.

Now experts are warning that Trump’s plan is galvanizing two of the most dangerous and organized extremist movements with track records of domestic terrorist attacks.

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What does Elon Musk believe?

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The man given free rein by Trump to crusade against the federal government supported Democrats until 2022. But some of Musk’s longstanding positions lead a straight line to his far-right sympathies

Elon Musk is not a people person, as millions around the world will be able to attest after the planet’s richest man cut off food supplies, healthcare and probably even life itself to some of the most vulnerable without so much as a fore- or afterthought.

Musk sees himself as a data man, wielding numbers like a machete to slash and burn his way through government waste and corruption as he leads the rightwing charge to capture the US state.

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The Maga backlash against Trump’s crypto grab: ‘This is bad, and looks bad’

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Trump’s meme coin has some conservatives complaining over ‘most blatant ponzi scheme in history’

When Donald Trump announced – three days before assuming the presidency of the United States, and followed shortly by Melania Trump – that he was launching a self-named “meme coin” cryptocurrency, many in the crypto industry were quick to express frustration. Ethics experts were also alarmed.

Among Trump’s base, however, a similar backlash – smaller, more muted, but similarly anguished – has been taking hold.

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Fears for ‘security of Jews worldwide’ in wake of Elon Musk AfD speech

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Top US Jewish advocate Halie Soifer calls Trump adviser’s address to far-right Germany rally ‘incredibly dangerous’

Elon Musk’s remarks to a German far-right party that Germans should not focus on their country’s Nazi past should prompt “deep concern” about “the security of American Jews” and “of Jews worldwide”, a leading US Jewish advocate has told the Guardian.

“Speaking as a deeply concerned American Jew,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), “I am deeply concerned about the security of American Jews, of Jews worldwide, given our president’s clear alignment with dangerous rightwing extremists.”

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Energized neo-Nazis feel their moment has come as Trump changes everything

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Far-right chatrooms are abuzz as extremists plan to use the next four years as ‘breathing room’ and look to expand

One week into Donald Trump’s second administration and the verdict among far-right activists and neo-Nazis is that the next four years will be a time to relax, organize and take advantage of the popular awakening of American fascism.

“Be ready to cash out the next four years,” wrote one delighted neo-Nazi account on Telegram, in a post viewed more than 1,000 times. “Get the bag, infiltrate existing institutions with power, build new institutions while we have breathing room, and tear down anything leftist.”

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Recent school shooters appear to have crossed paths in online extremist groups

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Report reveals that teen who killed one student in Nashville area interacted with Wisconsin shooter who killed two

Two teenagers who carried out deadly shootings before killing themselves at their respective high schools in attacks roughly a month apart from each other appear to have crossed paths online, according to a new joint report from ProPublica and Wisconsin Watch.

The first shooting took place on 16 December at the Abundant Life Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin. Two people – a teacher and a 14-year-old student – were killed by the shooter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, before she killed herself.

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Trump rewrites the violence of January 6 and ‘legitimates future ones’

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If criminal charges were meant to deter acts of violence, the pardons of over 1,500 people do the opposite, say experts

Donald Trump spent the four years after the January 6 insurrection attempting to rewrite the violence and chaos he inspired as his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

On the first day of his second term as president, he took the rewriting to its final step by issuing pardons and reducing sentences for those involved in the insurrection, including the leaders of far-right militias and those who battled with police that day.

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Trump v Bannon, Musk v Farage: who hates who in Magaland

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The feuds and rivalries within the US president-elect’s Maga ecosystem – including some British sympathisers

The task of deconstructing the internal manoeuvrings of the leadership of the Soviet Union was once regarded as little short of a science such was the paucity of information. Today, the court of Donald Trump is perhaps no less enigmatic – but for quite different reasons. Trumpologists trying to keep up with the machinations of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement and its sympathisers in Britain are faced with a torrent of information via social media posts and podcast rants. Sworn enemies today can easily be the closest of conspirators tomorrow. Steve Bannon has let it be known that he intends to bring down fellow Trump acolyte Elon Musk in time for inauguration day (with days to go). It is no easy task to make sense of it all but here is what we know of the current feuds and rivalries in the Maga ecosystem:

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Former Proud Boys leader asks Trump for January 6 pardon

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Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy related to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol

Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys group who received a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021, has formally asked Donald Trump for a pardon.

A jury convicted Tarrio of helping to orchestrate the insurrection. At the time of the attack, Tarrio had been banned from the city by prosectors for burning a stolen banner from a historic Black church in December 2020 during a protest march against Trump’s election loss.

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Trump Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth’s books foreground anti-Muslim rhetoric

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Hegseth’s conspiracy theory- and falsehood-laden book American Crusade depicts Islam as historic enemy of west

Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth, who has the crusader motto “deus vult” tattooed on his arm, has put bigoted anti-Muslim rhetoric at the center of several of his published books, according to a Guardian review of the materials.

Hegseth, especially in 2020’s American Crusade, depicts Islam as a natural, historic enemy of the west; presents distorted versions of Muslim doctrine in “great replacement”-style racist conspiracy theories; treats leftists and Muslims as bound together in their efforts to subvert the US; and idolises medieval crusaders.

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Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon pick, sparks alarm over far-right extremism

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Experts concerned over the Fox & Friends host, his Christian nationalist ideology and militant language

Extremism experts are sounding the alarm about Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, whose writings and online presence reveal someone immersed in a culture of rightwing Christianity, political extremism and violent ideation.

The Fox & Friends host, who has served in the US army but has no experience in government, drew shock from Pentagon officials when Trump nominated him. Hegseth’s books on American culture and the military, his commentary on Fox and his frequent posts on social media showcase his far-right ideology. On these platforms, Hegseth telegraphs paranoia and anger toward “leftists”, an ultra-masculine Maga persona and apparent revulsion toward service members who do not fit his vision – including women.

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Florida liberal arts college reinstates ‘wokeness’ course amid furore

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Course set to be taught by controversial British ‘anti-woke’ media commentator Andrew Doyle

New College of Florida reinstated a course on “wokeness” taught by controversial British media personality and culture warrior Andrew Doyle to its catalog, after appearing to remove it from an earlier version, amid an ongoing furore over the university’s transformation into a more conservative institution.

The course was also restored to an internal enrollment system but without Doyle’s name attached, according to students with access to the system. The moves followed criticism of the course online and local media reports on Tuesday night.

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‘Time for patriots’: global far-right figures celebrate Trump’s win

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Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei and Giorgia Meloni among those in Europe and the Americas paying tribute

Key members of the global far right have celebrated Donald Trump’s US election win, with tributes to the former president rolling in from Rio de Janeiro to Budapest.

The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán – who had vowed to toast a Trump win with “several bottles of champagne” – hailed what he called “a much-needed victory for the world!”

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Is Trump actually a fascist – and why does the answer matter?

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Given the comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini, experts say it’s important to remember that fascism is a process

While Democratic strategists debate whether or not their attack ads labeling Donald Trump a fascist have been effective, experts and academics told the Guardian his campaign and the Republican party he now heads have clear autocratic sympathies and political qualities that are firmly in line with fascism movements historically.

Put together, that makes any Trump victory this week and his return to the White House for a second presidential term a clear threat to US democracy, they added.

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Inmate Steve Bannon reportedly hangs with the white guys and teaches civics

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Former Trump White House aide set to be released after serving four months for contempt of Congress

Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist under the Trump administration, is set to be released from prison on Tuesday and details have emerged of his life behind bars, in which he gravitated to hanging out with other white prisoners.

The news website Notus posted an investigation in which it corresponded with several of Bannon’s fellow inmates at a prison in Connecticut.

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Trump’s pro-Israel stance alienates far right as it ramps up antisemitic attacks

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Unity has begun to crack over ex-president’s support for Israel in its military operations across the Middle East

As the presidential election season unfolds, the Trump campaign has increasingly leaned on xenophobic rhetoric born out of racist chat boards – even receiving the tacit help of neo-Nazis attempting to seed their own policy interests into the mainstream.

But one campaign issue where the Maga world and the extremists of Telegram and other fringe social media sites have diverged, is the former president’s support for Israel in its several military operations across the Middle East.

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Thousands rally at Christian nationalist event in DC to ‘turn hearts back to God’

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Jenny Donnelly, leader of anti-trans Don’t Mess With Our Kids, bills first pre-election event as rallying call for mothers

Tens of thousands of Christians poured onto the National Mall on Saturday to atone, pray and take a stand for America – which, in their view, has been poisoned by secularism and must be ruled instead by a Christian god.

Summoned to Washington DC by the multilevel marketing professional-turned-Christian “apostle” Jenny Donnelly and the anti-LGBTQ+ celebrity pastor Lou Engle, they streamed onto the lawn holding blue and pink banners emblazoned with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids – a nod to the myth that children are being indoctrinated into adopting gay and transgender identities.

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Russia shares AI images of Hurricane Milton as disinformation abounds in US

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Far-right trolls spout baseless theory that storm is a ‘simulation’ as Republicans jump on conspiracy train

As Hurricane Milton ripped across Florida, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, trolls and politicians alike spawned misinformation about the storm, questioning government preparations and calling it a “simulation” designed to hurt the Republican state.

But after it made landfall and exited into the Atlantic Ocean, there’s a new propaganda target among conspiracists: Walt Disney World in Orlando.

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