Yesterday, IREHR released the report From Alt-Right to Groyper, detailing efforts by white nationalists to rebrand their cause and support college campus activism around the country.
As that report was in its final stages, one of the key “groyper” influencers, white nationalist Nick Fuentes, signaled a new stage in the campaign.
On February 5, Fuentes tweeted that he was “exploring the possibility of an America First college tour this Spring.” An outreach form for interested students highlighted the “groyper” strategy of targeting campus conservatives, asking possible contacts if they are a leader or part of a “conservative student group on your campus.” The form also asked “Why do you believe Nick would be a good fit to speak at your school?”[1]
White Nationalist Nick Fuentes
Also yesterday, Fuentes elaborated on the close relationship between his “groyper” campaign and America First Students, a campus organization being incubated at Kansas State University (KSU) with an eye to going national.
In a February 11 episode of his “America First with Nick Fuentes” video stream, the white nationalist lashed out at IREHR’s report, unconvincingly claiming that the term “groyper” is not a marketing effort and, in the process, demonstrating the seamless relationship between his show, the campus group, and an upcoming conference being promoted by “groypers”:
We called them colloquially ‘groyper’ because they were like irl [in real life] sh**posters, but they’re America First, you know, the organization is called America First Students, our summit is called America First PAC, the show is called America First.[2]
America First PAC refers to the America First Political Action Conference, a February 28 event planned by Fuentes and company to coincide with the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C.
Fuentes also confirmed that the creation of America First Students was discussed at the December 20, 2019 Groyper Leadership Summit in Florida. At that event, he explained, “we gave Jaden some advice and we gave him some pointers and everything and… a group of people, right-wing people involved in the groyper wars, had some input in this, Michelle Malkin included, by the way.”[3]
Jaden McNeil is the founder of America First Students at KSU. Michelle Malkin is the conservative pundit who lost her position with the Young America’s Foundation for supporting Fuentes and the “groypers.”
America First Students Leader Jaden McNeil
Fuente’s podcast drove home another a point raised in IREHR’s report – namely, that this effort at white nationalist rebranding aims to take advantage of the manner in which Donald Trump has framed his own contributions to American racism. Once again claiming that he is not a white nationalist – an assertion disproven in some detail in our report – Fuentes stressed that the “groypers” were:
Completely legitimate, mainstream conservative people…anti-globalist, so like the president, nationalists, like the president, all of these terms are things that the president describes himself as…What they really are is everything the president describes himself as.[4]
IREHR will continue to report on efforts by Nick Fuentes, American Identity Movement leader Patrick Casey and other “groypers” to mask white nationalism behind the political frames of the Trump administration.
NOTES
[1] Fuentes, Nick. Twitter. February 5, 2020. https://twitter.com/NickJFuentes/status/1225274745001824256
[2] America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes. February 11, 2020. https://dlive.tv/p/dlive-93233454+-JaxwC8WR
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
