Warning: This analysis contains highly offensive and potentially triggering language and imagery. Where possible, slur words are marked with asterisks, but in cases where that may make the content unclear, offensive language is cited.
Within moment’s of Trump recapturing the presidency yesterday, activity on fringe platforms included hateful and violent rhetoric in support of Trump, including calls for mass executions. The violent and hate-filled messages emanated from several organized far-right, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi groups, now emboldened to spread hate and violent rhetoric with the promise of Trump returning to power.
One of the most vocal groups following the election has been the white supremacist Proud Boys, whose leader and members helped orchestrate the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Several chapters posted messages celebrating Trump’s victory, signaling their preparedness to mobilize for him. Both the Villain City Proud Boys and the Toledo Proud Boys invoked the “stand back and stand by” slogan made famous by Trump during a presidential debate in 2020, to signal their readiness to mobilize on his command. The Toledo Proud Boys announced they were “stand[ing] ready to help President Trump,” while the Villain City Proud Boys posted an image of Trump wearing a gold and black (Proud Boy colors) hat and a gold tie with the caption “STAND BY.”
The accounts also spewed vile misogyny at Kamala Harris. One account affiliated with the Proud Boys referred to Harris as a “Cackling hyena b**ch, race card playing wh*re” who “has been denied.” The message was followed by a salute, “Hail Trump,” reminiscent of how Nazis addressed Hitler.
Following the election results, which they were pleased didn’t go in favor of a woman candidate, the Proud Boys of Columbus announced that “now the real work begins” to “unfuck the damage done by the Biden/Harris administration.” Different Proud Boys chapters aimed to manifest this “real work” in several ways. Some endorsed the Heritage Foundation’s Christian Nationalist Project 2025 agenda. For example, Proud Boys Ohio declared that “project 2025 was real!” and called to “RELEASE THE PROJECT 2025 HANDMAIDS TALE RAPE SQUADS.” Others called for Trump to do as he promised and pardon those convicted for offenses on January 6, which includes much of the Proud Boys leadership. The Bluegrass Proud Boys demanded, “PARDON EVERY JANUARY SIXER, NO EXCEPTIONS.” This sentiment was echoed by several other Proud Boys chapters.
And there were calls to violence. Proud Boys Ohio made two posts featuring pictures of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance looking at the camera captioned “we are going to fucking kill you” and “we’re going to kill you.” The Proud Boys made sure to clarify who their threat was targeting, saying “The message is to libtards, you fucking shit-for-brains.” “Libtard” is a derogatory term commonly used by the far right to describe liberals or anyone on the political left. A couple of follow up threats, such as “RIP fa***ts,” combined with the usage of terms like “rape squads,” serve as a worrying indicator of the targeting of marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community and women, who the Proud Boys are seemingly feeling emboldened to threaten in a more explicit way.
Proud Boys Ohio posts a series of threats directed at “libtards” (i.e., liberals) and fa***ts using a doctored photo of J.D. Vance, vice president-elect. (Source: Telegram)
Other neo-Nazis and white supremacists such as the Blood Tribe, which was largely responsible for making disinformation about Haitians in Ohio eating household pets go viral, the Active Club movement, White Lives Matter (WLM), and other online influencers all took turns celebrating Trump’s victory. Christopher Pohlhaus (“Hammer”), a former marine and leader of the Blood Tribe, said Trump’s supposedly cheaper gas prices will “make it easier to spread White Power across the whole country.” An administrator of the Blood Tribe New England’s Telegram channel posted a hateful voice note, referring to Trump as the “great white hope,” encouraging his followers to “enjoy the white man dunking on a subhuman” and to “enjoy the tears of women and the lower-born” before promising to “continue to push [Blood Tribe’s] narrative into the public consciousness and into the Republican party” and to “take our nation back.” A high-ranking Blood Tribe member, Drake Berentz, who is skeptical of Trump’s support of Jews, who goes by “Nathaniel Higgers,” a derivative of “Nate Higgers” (switching the initials turns the phrase into a hateful slur), took Trump’s victory as one for the Blood Tribe, noting that “[Trump’s] campaign has adopted numerous talking points from Blood Tribe, specifically. So there are plenty of opportunities to continue pushing our rhetoric through him and normalizing our ideas.”
Drake Berentz celebrates Trump’s victory as a sign for “plenty of opportunities to continue pushing our rhetoric through him and normalizing our ideas” (Source: Telegram)
White Lives Matter (WLM), a white supremacist movement which gained infamy after one of their members attacked a Church with molotov cocktails in 2023 in an attempt to stop drag shows, also showed support for Trump. Despite WLM’s umbrella account on Telegram previously discouraging voting unless “white interests” were on the ballot, their Montana chapter posted a message on Telegram saying “Trump won” followed by an audio file of a song called “My President is Trump.”
The Alamo Active Club, part of Robert Rundo and Denis Kapustin’s neo-Nazi, and usually apolitical Active Club movement, told their followers after Trump’s victory that “the public figure in office does matter” and capitalized on the far right’s celebration of it by beginning “recruitment… sometime after tonight. Stay tuned.”
Online influencers like neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes celebrated Trump’s election as a “TOTAL GROYPER VICTORY,” targeted women’s reproductive rights by saying “your body, my choice. Forever.,” and thanked “men for saving this country from stupid bitches who wanted to destroy the world to keep abortion.” Self-proclaimed “theocratic fascist” Matt Walsh admitted that “Project 2025 is the agenda” and hoped that with this election that “the trans movement is dead.” Chaya Raichik, who runs the rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ “LibsofTikTok” account on Twitter, echoed some Proud Boys in calling for Trump to “pardon the January 6th political prisoners.” Zoomerwaffen, a neo-Nazi Telegram “meme” account, claimed Trump’s win as a “Total. Aryan. Victory.”
The neo-Nazi “ZoomerWaffen” Telegram channel declares the election a “Total. Aryan. Victory” after Trump was announced to be the favorite to win (Source: Telegram)
According to the FBI, hate crimes increased following the 2016 election, the last time Trump was elected President, and this new activity within 24 hours of the election is a warning sign for increased levels of hate and targeted violence.
