As events in Iran and the Middle East unfold, by now we’ve all seen National Conservative figure Tucker Carlson demonstrate that Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) doesn’t know much about Iran; and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) fume that the attack “feels like a complete bait and switch to please the neocons,” even as she now declares Trump “our champion.”[1]
Also walking both sides, after retorting before the bombing that another Middle East war would “tear the country apart” and that “the Israelis have to finish what they started,” longtime MAGA figure Steve Bannon backpedaled. On June 25, his WarRoom: Official Telegram Channel defended the Trump regime’s claims that Iran’s nuclear capacity had been “obliterated” in their attack, posting,
“BANNON: President Trump was clear: mission done, nuclear site obliterated, we’re moving on. But the regime change crowd is furious. Fox News and their ‘Israel First’ chorus won’t stop. They want boots on the ground. Trump shut it down. Now it’s time for a reset.”[2]
Alongside the flurry of disagreements and posturing in the Trump coalition, white nationalists also displayed their hands—offering, variously, antisemitism and immigrant bashing; attacks on elements of the core Trump coalition alongside efforts to recruit disaffected MAGA adherents; grappling with what is salvageable from the whitest aspects of the regime’s policies; and raising the specter of white nationalist vanguardism, enclave nationalism and white revolution.
Left anti-war activists should be aware of how some fascists are framing their anti-war stance, including making appeals of faux concern about the Israeli genocide in Palestine, and attempting to downplay a left-right dichotomy in the service of fostering an “us versus Jews” antisemitism.
Nick Fuentes: “There is no ‘the left’”
In response to the bombing of Iran, Nick Fuentes, the petulant young fascist who leads the Groypers, lashed out at several segments of the Trump coalition – the Silicon Valley wing exemplified by anti-democratic Palantir head Peter Thiel and neo-reactionary Curtis Yarvin, TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk (Fuentes’ favorite target in the early days of the Groypers), Jack “Pizzagate” Posobiec, National Conservative leader Yoram Hazony, and others.
At the same time, Fuentes took a page from a long-used fascist playbook, attempting to blur the distinction between left and right in favor of assailing Jews. Intoning listeners to “follow the money,” he elaborated,
“The Republican Party would have you believe, Bronze Age Pervert, Ben Shapiro, Joe Lonsdale, Peter Thiel and his network, Sovereign House, all these assholes, and [Vice-President J.D.] Vance for that matter too, they would all have you believe that the problem is ‘the left,’ and the Democrats. Trump is better than Kamala. They would all have you believe that Israel really is our closest ally, because the Palestinians, well, they’re like the BLM [Black Lives Matter] of Israel. Remember that one, the BLM Hamas-ification of our Universities, is what they said. They said the same people that are criticizing Israel are with the left and BLM. The same people that don’t want a genocide in Gaza that we pay for, the same people that don’t want to get dragged into this Middle Eastern War, they said that’s…a specimen of left-wing thinking, and of our enemies and of brown people and non-white people and the Third World…And who was telling them that? Curtis Yarvin, a Jew, Bronze Age Pervert, a Jew. They both get money from Peter Thiel, who works with Alex Karp at Palantir for the CIA, doing facial recognition in Gaza, and they’re all Zionists. That’s who was telling you this.”[3]
The lesson, according to Fuentes, is “It is not about right and left…There is no ‘the left.’ There is no ‘Democrats’. There are Americans and there are Israelis. There are Americans and there are the Jews that support this.” Driving home his disdain for Jewish life, Fuentes, who has himself flirted with Holocaust denial, declared that the Hamas massacre of “October 7 was fake.” [4]
As with the rise of the Groypers, Fuentes remains on the outside looking in, coupling attacks on Trump with messages appealing to a specific audience,
“the young people…all of you young white men, and other men for that matter, all of patriotic young men who love America and that love Jesus Christ…We have been at war for a quarter of a century for Israel, for an anti-Christ state, that wants Americans to die to pave the way for their new empire and their third temple…Trump sold you out to the Israel Lobby…If you believe in the paleocons and Pat Buchanan, he’s been talking about it for 35 years.”[5]
Those holding Trump would not attack Iran, Fuentes continued, “were wrong…They either got tricked by the Jews, or they’re in on it. Either way, they can’t be trusted.” Concluding, he coupled his articulation of American white nationalism to the antisemitic canard that Jews killed Jesus:
“It’s America First. It’s America First until we die. It’s Jesus Christ first until we die… We’re on the side of European civilization, European white civilization. The Romans, the Greeks, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, the German Empire, the Renaissance…We are on the side of Jesus Christ and his church. The Jews put him on the cross; never forget that. And we’re on the side of the United States of America.”[6]
American Renaissance, the Vanguard, and Enclave White Nationalism
In a conversation video between Michael Thompson (AKA “Paul Kersey”) and American Renaissance staff writer Kevin DeAnna (AKA “Gregory Hood”) released on June 23, the two offered their “thoughts” on the current situation.
Subtitled “Is MAGA over?” they discussed the “good” things they saw emanating from the Trump regime. DeAnna opened,
“I do think that Trump is in many ways the last chance to save America as a meaningful concept, because once you go beyond that, we’re sort of back where we were in 2013, which is post-Americanism – we just talk about being white, basically, because what the United States of America, whatever that is, and whatever it does becomes somewhat irrelevant.”[7]
He dubbed the “immigration debate…the central battlefront in American politics right now,” adding, “I think these policy victories actually happening is something that is being overlooked far too often and something they don’t give enough recognition of President Trump for.”[8]
Responding to the idea expressed about Middle East wars in the movie American Sniper, that “we fight ‘em there so they don’t kill us here,” Thompson responded.
“All we have to do is not let them come here. They can’t resettle here, like Saracen immigration, and yeah, by the way, for those who don’t know Saracen, that was a word that the Crusaders used to describe Muslims…and I love using that term because, I think, it’s we need to bring it back, and it’s like guys, we don’t need to have any Muslim immigration…This was a choice. We could have stopped all immigration.”[9]
Thompson continued, “These are kind of the debates we’re headed toward to having,” embracing what he saw as the growing popularity of white nationalist frames and even questioning whether the efforts of groups like American Renaissance remain useful:
“And you’re seeing that more and more from very, not just popular, but influential accounts on the right that are embracing ideas that used to be consigned to the pages of V-Dare or American Renaissance. Let’s be blunt about that…In a lot of ways, a publication like American Renaissance,…it doesn’t serve that much of a purpose anymore when so many people on the right are passing the currency of race-baiting constantly.”[10]
Offering that, “My biggest frustration with the Israel intervention is that it’s a distraction from the battles that really matter,” DeAnna noted that the one thing Trump “really just couldn’t be seen to do is actively, militarily getting involved in these kinds of conflicts, and now he’s done that. And that jeopardizes everything else.” Searching for a silver lining, he summarized Scott McConnell at the American Conservative as arguing that, “a diverse America is not going to be able to sustain American empire in the way we’ve gotten used to it.”[11] Of this, DeAnna concluded
“And for that reason, there might even be something worthwhile in it. Essentially, once the empire dies…then…maybe whites…can kind of claw back some of our own sovereignty and build either a successor state or have some sort of a voice in what comes next.”[12]
But, for both of these American Renaissance allies, the “demographic” issue looms largest. DeAnna elaborated that,
“I mean, the demographic change is still taking place; and yeah, we’ve stopped the bleeding, or slowed the bleeding, more accurately, but you are still on course for a majority non-white America, and once you get there, you really have to start talking about solutions that the mainstream political process cannot tolerate; and you’re going to need to start talking them from the viewpoint of race, because whatever other system of values or highest goal that you put in there, it’s ultimately going to be overwhelmed by race… Demographics is destiny, not just in large-scale politics, but in terms of institutional behavior. And my first principle has always been white racial self-consciousness, white identity…[W]hat I want to see is a white right, where to be right wing is to be pro-white full stop.” [13]
DeAnna continued, “We have to ask ourselves, I don’t think the answer is yes quite yet, but we may be getting there – has Trump taken us as far as we can go? And, if so, what comes next?”
Rejecting a retreat to “online critique,” DeAnna offered that,
“[Y]ou’re essentially already looking for the exits. And then you have to start talking about a lot of things that are going to make a lot of people really uncomfortable and divide what mass base we have – things like secession, things like white enclave-ism. If so, what are they going to be based on, because then everyone’s going to have their own little special religious, or regional identity that they think is all important.”[14]
DeAnna also rejected “playing vanguardist internet games,” adding that one
“thing that you have a problem with is that you no longer have anyone to protect you, if you start using, let us delicately call it, vanguardist tactics…And I understand the appeal of wanting a vanguardist movement and to start talking about the real issues instead of getting mired down in Capitol Hill’s nonsense.”[15]
Offering some praise for Trump’s attempt to hold the country together with “rubber bands and glue,” DeAnna concluded that,
“I think that process itself is actually an easy way to get to bigger and better things. I think you want the left to come at you, and you use state power to destroy them. I think that was always the smart play. But the one thing that you absolutely couldn’t fall into is the one thing that just happened. And we’re going to be looking at how that plays out over the next couple weeks, because I think that could very well define everything.” [italics added][16]
More of the Same, and White Revolution
Not to be left out, the small party-style white nationalist groups offered their less-than-one-cent. The neo-fascist American Freedom Party (AFP) declared, “Enough is enough. No more foreign wars. We demand independence from Israel.” AFP Executive Director John Fassbinder wrote sarcastically, “You’re now going to tell me that Trump is a war mongering Zionist, and is in fact not our guy? Who could have predicted that! Well, except,” listing, among others, National Justice Party’s Warren Balogh, former Identity Evropa leader Nathan Damigo and the AFP.[17]
InfoWars War Room with Owen Shroyer interviewing Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau.
In an interview on Infowars, Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau stated
“Support for Israel is less than it has ever been, perhaps since the creation of the State of Israel, and I think it’s important that Americans continue to turn their back on this very malicious, very perfidious element, not only in the Middle East, but in America. I think the Zionist lobby, backed by a number of, all the Jewish institutions, maybe except for very few, and there’s a lot of people, they say that the definition of antisemitism…is accusing a Jewish person of having split loyalties between Israel and the United States, but what does that make Ben Shapiro? What does that make Mark Levin? I think it’s incredibly obvious that some of those definitions of antisemitism are just examples of the truth. I think we need to be very open about, and honest about what these people are, where they’re placing their interests, and what our role as Americans is in this exploitative racket, and this, and it needs to be, it needs to be extracted from America like poison from a wound.” [italics added][18]
Responding to a Trump post hinting at regime change in Iran, Warren Balogh of the national socialist National Justice Party offered, “I’ve got a better idea, how about we have regime change right here? Instead of George Washington, here’s the Founding Father of our new country!” Balogh accompanied his call for white revolution with a photo of “Founding Father” Robert Mathews, the leader of the murderous neo-Nazi underground, The Order, formed in the 1980s by members of the Aryan Nations and National Alliance.[19]
Michael Hill of the secessionist Southern Nationalist League (formerly League of the South) offered attacks on Trump, threats aimed at Jews, and a call to revive the Monroe Doctrine:
“Trump may have just destroyed his Presidency… Trump has betrayed all those who voted for him on his promise to keep the US out of wars in which our own national interests were not involved. May God judge his actions… I don’t begrudge any people (nation) who act in their own self-interest as long as they don’t encroach on the interests of other peoples while doing so. If you have to fuck my people over to advance your people’s interests, then we’re going to have trouble. Consider this scenario with Israel/jews (sic) in mind… Perhaps the US should dust off the Monroe Doctrine and not worry about the wider world beyond the Western hemisphere.”[20]
Bringing things full circle, one group not publicly entering the debate about the Iran bombing, Eric Orwoll’s Return to the Land (RTTL), has already begun building out a white nationalist enclave community in Northern Arkansas – the kind of community touted by “Gregory Hood” in the event the “demographic” context doesn’t change.
Unlike Fuentes, however, Orwoll (an announced guest at Fuentes’ 2024 AFPAC VI conference) appears to have drawn inspiration from projects backed by Peter Thiel. For instance, Orwoll encouraged his supporters to undertake a study group based on Balaji Srinivasan’s The Network State—a project supported by the Peter Thiel-backed Pronomos Capital.[21]
The Network State advances the idea that various New Deal-style nation-states can be undermined by creating thousands of autonomous, libertarian-oriented, high-tech “exit” cities dominated by techno-elites.
Adapting this approach to his own goals, Eric Orwoll asked potential RTTL supporters to, “Imagine a network of a dozen high tech, high human capital, small White (sic) cities spread throughout the US south, exchanging workers, students and ideas…[I]t would absolutely, irrevocably, change White (sic) culture in the US.”[22]
In the current period, multiple racist and anti-democratic forces are in and around government power, existing in a flux of alliance and cooperation, tension and cross-pollination.
We need to understand these dynamics. If the conflict in the Middle East escalates, we also need to articulate an anti-war framework rooted in international human rights and genuine democracy—and we need to be able to drive denizens of white nationalism, antisemitism, and anti-Muslim bigotry away from our circles and back under the rocks from which they crawled.
NOTES
[1] Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Telegram. June 23, 2025. https://t.me/RepMTG/3773; Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Telegram. June 25, 2025. https://t.me/RepMTG/3778; Chidi, George. Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Iran strike – but her voters stand by Trump. The Guardian. June 24, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/24/marjorie-taylor-greene-iran-trump.[2] WarRoom: Official Telegram Channel. Telegram. June 25, 2025. https://t.me/BannonWarRoom/73966; WarRoom: Official Telegram Channel. Telegram. June 25, 2025. https://t.me/BannonWarRoom/73961; Klein, Rick. Bannon’s comments on Iran reflect growing division among Trump’s MAGA base. ABC News. June 18, 2025. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bannons-comments-reflect-growing-division-trumps-maga-base/story?id=122972849.
[3] Nick Fuentes. IRAN WAR: US ENTERS WAR WITH IRAN. June 21, 2025. https://rumble.com/v6v4vdz-america-first-ep.-1522.html.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] American Renaissance. Telegram. June 23, 2025. https://t.me/AmRenOfficial/1315.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] American Freedom Party. Telegram. June 22, 2025. https://t.me/AmericanFreedomParty/1009; John Fassbinder AFP. Telegram. June 21, 2025. https://t.me/JohnFassbinderAFP/1080.
[18] Patriot Front Updates. Telegram. June 22, 2025. https://t.me/PatriotFrontNews/1446.
[19] Balogh, Warren. Telegram. June 22, 2025. https://t.me/warrenbalogh88/11437; Balogh, Warren. Telegram. June 22, 2025.
[20] Southern Nationalist. Telegram. June 21, 2025. https://t.me/sonat61/3269; Southern Nationalist. Telegram. June 21, 2025. https://t.me/sonat61/3270; Southern Nationalist. Telegram. June 22, 2025. https://t.me/sonat61/32723; Southern Nationalist. Telegram. June 22, 2025. https://t.me/sonat61/3274.
[21] Ropek, Lucas. Worst New Trend of 2024: Techno-Colonialism and the Network State Movement. Gizmodo. December 27, 2024. https://gizmodo.com/worst-new-trend-of-2024-techno-colonialism-and-the-network-state-movement-2000525617; Aarvoll. X. February 12, 2025. https://x.com/Aarvoll_/status/1889724706107932881; Aarvoll. X. May 14, 2024. https://x.com/Aarvoll_/status/1790477012852727842; Eric. RTTL Non-Members Chat. Telegram. June 25, 2023. https://t.me/c/1662792614/1/766.
[22] Ropek, Lucas. Worst New Trend of 2024: Techno-Colonialism and the Network State Movement. Gizmodo. December 27, 2024. https://gizmodo.com/worst-new-trend-of-2024-techno-colonialism-and-the-network-state-movement-2000525617; Aarvoll. X. February 12, 2025. https://x.com/Aarvoll_/status/1889724706107932881; Aarvoll. X. May 14, 2024. https://x.com/Aarvoll_/status/1790477012852727842; Eric. RTTL Non-Members Chat. Telegram. June 25, 2023. https://t.me/c/1662792614/1/766.
