Whether protesting Covid lockdowns, attending school board meetings or confronting Black Lives Matter protesters, the far-right Proud Boys were always present to support Donald Trump’s first term.
When Trump left office in 2021, the group’s leaders were languishing in prison for their roles in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. With reported infighting destabilize the movementit seemed like the band’s glory days were behind them.
But the return of Trump a year ago and his release of all prisoners of January 6reported that a The Proud Boy Returns could be in the cards. And although there was intermittent signs While the group could return to peak activity levels, the reality is that Trump’s militarization of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and the border patrolin collaboration with the administration adoption of white nationalist rhetoricleft the Proud Boys without a role to play. The Proud Boys have little incentive to leave their homes when heavily armed representatives of the Trump administration are already fighting with left-wing protesters.
This has never been more evident than over the past week, as anti-ICE protesters have flooded city streets across the country ever since. a masked federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
Instead of taking to the streets to confront protesters and defend Trump’s hard-line immigration crackdown, the Proud Boys were relegated to posting inflammatory memes while promising to ensure their personal safety. right-wing influencers who track every aspect of ICE’s anti-immigrant raids.
A WIRED review of hundreds of Telegram channels run by Proud Boy chapters across the country, as well as other far-right groups and militias, reveals there are no public calls for members to mobilize and defend ICE against protesters.
Instead, members of Telegram channels are posting deeply misogynistic and homophobic images, videos and AI-generated content featuring Good and his wife, with one extremist expert telling WIRED that channels have been almost stunned in recent days in response to the shootings.
“They are very excited about what is happening, because for many of them, [ICE and the DHS are] “There is no reason for the Proud Boys to be on the ground,” says Wendy Via, co-founder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “When law enforcement seems so willing to abuse their powers, why bother.”
Proud Boy channels, in between celebrations of Good’s death, are also praising ICE’s work in the city.
“You are an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Five and a half years after George Floyd, in the same city, you overpower a prisoner with your knee. Imagine being based on that,” wrote a member of a North Carolina chapter of the group known as the Cape Fear Proud Boys in a Telegram post this week.
There were, however, some promises of action. After the right influencers Nick Sortor and Cam Higby Former Proud Boys leader claimed he was attacked while filming content in Minneapolis this week Enrique Tarrio claimed he wanted to help. “I contacted both [Nick] and Cam with an offer of personal details,” Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sent to prison for his role in the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, wrote Monday on We have a great solution for both of them,” he added.
Higby and Sortor are part of a group of right-wing influencers who have produced a steady stream of pro-ICE propaganda from Minneapolis in recent days, intended to reinforce the administration’s decision to flood the city with federal agents. Tarrio did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment on what type of protection he or the Proud Boys would offer influencers.
It’s not surprising that groups like the Proud Boys are so supportive of what ICE is doing, given that the administration continues to explicitly signal that they are all on the same side. Over the weekend, the official X account of the Department of Homeland Security exhorted subscribers to join ICE using a graphic with the caption: “We will have our home again. »
To most, these words would not have meant anything, but to white nationalists and extremists, it was a very clear and direct message. “By God We’ll Have Home Again” is a song sung to the tune of a 19th-century sea shanty, which became popular in white nationalist circles and particularly among Proud Boy chapters, many of whom understood this message to be a direct signal for their movement.
“Message received,” the Cape Fear Proud Boy wrote on his Telegram channel alongside a screenshot of the DHS message and a photo of a dog whistle.
“The official ProudBoys TM️ track,” Tarrio wrote on X, quoting the DHS message.
“Calling anything you don’t like ‘Nazi propaganda’ is tedious,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email in response to a request for comment from WIRED that did not mention “Nazi propaganda.” “DHS will continue to use every tool to communicate with the American people and keep them informed about our historic effort to make America safe again.” »
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the nature of the DHS position.
Although the Proud Boys do not appear to be actively mobilizing in response to the anti-ICE protests, some far-right groups are using the protests to bolster their numbers, such as Active clubsfar-right groups that mask white nationalist ideology under a veneer of fitness and male bonding.
“The left will not be able to regain power” Ryan Sanchezan individual who was photographed giving the Nazi salute and who is associated with many white supremacists and leads a group known as the Nationalist Network, wrote on his Telegram channel. “If this administration fails to crush them, the young men of this country must be prepared to do it ourselves. Join your local active club.”
But for now, militias and far-right groups have become largely redundant, their members seeming content to sit back, watch and post.
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