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see xian nat'l 3

see white supreme

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an 8 25

The Oklahoman reports the Aryan Freedom Network and other neo-Nazi groups may sit “on the outermost edges of American politics,” but “several trends have converged since Trump’s re-election”.

“[Trump] awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years,” said Oklahoma resident and neo-Nazi Dalton Henry Stout. “He’s the best thing that’s happened to us.”

Stout wears the initials “AFN,” short for Aryan Freedom Network, on his hat, according to Reuters reporters, and he and his partner “oversee a network they say has been turbocharged by President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.” Stout claims Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives, his hardline stance on immigration and his invocation of “Western values” is “driving a surge in interest and recruitment” for his organization.

What was once extreme now blends more easily into the broader far-right, not because those extreme groups have changed, but because the terrain around them has, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and extremism.

IFrame Content

“A Proud Boy doesn’t even seem that scary anymore because of the normalization process,” Beirich told Reuters.

Reuters conducted interviews with “a dozen members of extremist groups, nine experts on political extremism and a review of data on far-right violence,” and discovered that ideas once confined to fringe groups are now more visible in Republican politics. This includes election denialism and rhetoric portraying immigrants as “invaders.” Researchers claim Trump’s public support and pardons for far-right figures and Jan. 6 insurrectionists helped normalize those views.

This coincides with a surge in white nationalist activity, with extremists committing a growing proportion of U.S. political violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project. In 2020, ACLED linked such groups to 13 percent of all U.S. extremist-related demonstrations and acts of political violence. By 2024, they accounted for nearly 80 percent.

Trump has denied that he supports white extremism, and the White House rejects the notion that his rhetoric promotes racism, but Reuters reports Kentucky resident William Bader, the leader of Klan faction the Trinity Knights, is nevertheless energized.

“White people are finally seeing something going their way for once.” Bader told Reuters.

Read the full Oklahoman report at this link.

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Rep. Scott Perry shared post from pro-Nazi and white nationalist account | Media Matters for America

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5 24 mma

during an April 30 stream, Holocaust denier and far-right media figure Nick Fuentes claimed that conservative student group Turning Point USA is being taken over by young extremists associated with his “groyper” movement.

Fuentes appeared on a Rumble stream with misogynistic pro-Nazi influencer Sneako (real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy). Also present on the stream — but not weighing in on Turning Point USA specifically — was white nationalist and self-described “raging antisemite” Keith Woods.

“I think that what is driving the trend right now is just that the young people are all with the groypers, you know, the young people are all with me,” Fuentes said. “You know, I think every conservative in America under the age of 25 has been influenced by the groypers.”

“Turning Point, we had a big rivalry with them and they hated us, they fired everyone that was associated with me, and then this past year, their CFO Tyler Bowyer said, well, you know, some groypers are OK,” he continued.

“That’s because they all work for Turning Point now,” Fuentes added. “They can’t hire anybody that isn’t a groyper because there aren’t anybody under 25 that aren’t a groyper.”

Video file

Video

CitationFrom an April 30, 2024, Sneako Rumble stream

Fuentes appeared to be referencing Turning Point Action Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer, who said that some of Fuentes’ groypers are “OK-ish” and “just want to have an honest debate” while appearing on TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk’s podcast to defend former Daily Wire host Candace Owens, who recently left the right-wing outlet following a string of comments against Jewish people.

Video file

Video

CitationFrom the March 30, 2024, edition of Salem Media Group's Thoughtcrime

Fuentes and Turning Point USA’s previous schism stemmed from claims that the student group is not radical or “pro-white” enough. The groypers regularly trolled Turning Point USA events by attacking speakers during Q&A sessions over issues such as immigration and support for Israel, and Kirk’s group barred groypers from attending its events and cut ties with members of its ambassador program for being linked to Fuentes and other white nationalists.

Kirk and Turning Point USA are now closely linked to the Republican National Committee while Bowyer, a GOP committeeman, was recently indicted by a grand jury in Arizona for being part of former President Donald Trump’s fake elector scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

Fuentes himself famously dined with Trump and the pro-Hitler rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022. Additionally, Sneako, the host of the Rumble show where Fuentes appeared, also has links to the Republican Party. In February, Sneako interviewed Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony at a Trump event, discussed collaborating with Donald Trump Jr. in 2023, and reportedly has an interview in the works with Trump Jr.

Here is a breakdown of some of Fuentes and Sneako’s pro-Nazi and antisemitic rhetoric:

Fuentes has repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and compared himself to him.
Fuentes has denied the Holocaust and called for “perfidious Jews” to be executed.
At an antisemitic rally, Fuentes called for a “holy war” against Jewish people.
At that same event, Sneako said Fuentes will be president one day.
While probing a German woman about her sex life in a stream uploaded to X (formerly Twitter), Sneako made antisemitic comments and said he wanted to do the fascist Roman salute “so bad.”
On X, Sneako posted a picture of Hitler and wrote, “this nigga had aura.”
During a livestream on Rumble, Sneako said that “the Nazis had drip” and that the swastika is “aesthetically pleasing.”
While livestreaming with influencer Adin Ross, Sneako refused to call Hitler evil.
Sneako wrote on X that people should not “bash” Hitler for killing Jewish people and wished him a happy birthday.
On the No Jumper podcast, Sneako pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish people.

A short history of Turning Point USA's racism

05/10/19 3:36 PM EDT

### Turning Point USA chapter enlists two cronies of white nationalist Nick Fuentes as featured event speakers

09/12/22 12:15 PM EDT

### Charlie Kirk: “Jews are experiencing the hate that we white people have been experiencing the last decade”

04/30/24

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Fox News’ highest rated evening programs spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments | Media Matters for America

Fox News’ highest rated evening programs spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments

Immigration segments in January on Jesse Watters Primetime and Hannity each contained white nationalist talking points in over half of the segments, at 55% and 53%, respectively. The Five spread white nationalist rhetoric in 45% of such segments.

WRITTEN BY ALICIA SADOWSKI & ISABELLA CORRAO

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ROB SAVILLO

PUBLISHED 02/13/24

Exacerbated by the upcoming presidential election, a constitutional fight over security measures in Texas, and right-wing opposition to a bipartisan border security deal, issues related to immigration received significant media coverage in January. Media Matters found that Fox News’ three highest-rated evening shows — Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, and The Five — spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments that month.

Immigration segments on Jesse Watters Primetime and Hannity each contained white nationalist talking points in over half of the segments, at 55% and 53%, respectively. The Five, the most-watched cable news show in January, spread white nationalist rhetoric in 45% of such segments.

Fox News has a history of spreading white nationalist rhetoric, including the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which warns of a nefarious plot to “replace” white citizens with nonwhite immigrants in order to ultimately threaten “the political power and culture of white people.” This theory has led to multiple acts of violence, such as the 2022 shooting in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Five ran 5 episodes containing white nationalist rhetoric, including one on January 10 in which co-host Jesse Watters claimed that Democrats “were literally replacing American kids” after migrants were sheltered at a New York City public school. Later in the segment, co-host Jeanine Pirro warned that Democrats would give migrants “a license sooner or later” and work visas to entice them to vote. Pirro continued, “They are now talking about them voting. You want to know why? Because they're going to vote. That's why they're here.” Her co-host, Jessica Tarlov, even clarified that Pirro was endorsing the “replacement theory,” noting that the immigrants will “vote blue.”

Video file

CitationFrom the January 10, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Five

Fox hosts and guests have also pushed the white nationalist grievance that migrants entering the country constitute an “invasion” of national sovereignty. According to the conspiracy theory, the “invasion” is sanctioned by Democrats and “globalists”, with the intention of providing migrants pathways to citizenship in order to vote Democratic.

Jesse Watters Primetime, which the network elevated last July to the prime-time slot vacated by the network’s previous top white supremacist, Tucker Carlson, aired at least 11 immigration segments that contained white nationalist discourse, the most of any prime-time host.

Watters peddled “invasion” fear tactics when he declared that “foreign nationals are breaching our shores by boat and then sprinting through the beaches and just disappearing onto the streets.” He concluded, “What you're seeing on the screen is what every country in the world calls an invasion.” This iteration of the great replacement conspiracy theory inspired the 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, where a shooter targeted Latino Walmart shooters because of fears of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Video file

CitationFrom the January 25, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Closely following Jesse Watters Primetime, Sean Hannity’s prime-time show featured white nationalist talking points in 10 immigration segments. Hannity further pushed invasion rhetoric when he hosted conspiracist John Solomon to discuss a letter by former “high-ranking FBI officials” that argued current immigration was tantamount to an “invasion.” Hannity further entrenched himself in white nationalist rhetoric when he theorized that the migrants represented a threat to the country. He asked, “Do you think they're all coming here because they want a better life or are the odds likely 100 percent the terrorist cells have now entered our country as a result of unvetted Joe Biden illegal immigrants?”
Video file

CitationFrom the January 25, 2024, edition of Fox News' Hannity

Overall, Fox News’ evening programming featured white nationalist rhetoric in 26% of total immigration segments.

## Methodology.....

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January 22, 2024 rww

Michael Luciano @ Mediaite: Trump Confuses Nancy Pelosi with Nikki Haley, Blames the Latter for Jan. 6 Capitol Riot: ‘Nikki Haley Is in Charge of Security.’

Former President Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday.

Sanjana Karanth @ HuffPost: In A Surprise To No One, DeSantis Ends His Campaign By Falsely Quoting Winston Churchill.

It turns out the Florida governor can’t even drop out of the race for United States president right.

Angry White Men: North Dakota Lawmakers Share Far-Right, White Nationalist Content On X.

At age 22, North Dakota State Reps. Matthew Heilman and Brandon Prichard are two of the youngest state legislators in the country. Elected in 2022, Heilman and Prichard are close friends who espouse far-right views on immigration, LGBTQ rights, and abortion. They also use their official accounts to share, like, and interact with content by white nationalists and other extremists on X.

Nicholas Confessore @ The New York Times: ‘America Is Under Attack’: Inside the Anti-D.E.I. Crusade.

The backlash against “wokeism” has led a growing number of states to ban D.E.I. programs at public universities. Thousands of emails and other documents reveal the playbook — and grievances — behind one strand of the anti-D.E.I. campaign.

Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby @ Popular Info: Moms for Liberty activists starting taxpayer-funded charter school.

Activists from a South Carolina chapter of Moms for Liberty — a group best known for opposing LGBTQ rights, pushing for the removal of library books, and fighting racially inclusive curriculum — are starting their own public charter school.

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in his new book, "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future," author Robert P. Jones — founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) — examines the role that far-right Christian nationalism has played in white supremacy. Jones discussed his book and the disturbing results of PRRI's latest American Values Survey during an interview with Salon's Chauncey DeVega.

The survey, Jones warns, found a "rise in support for political violence" to be "particularly troubling."

Jones told DeVega, "The main findings of the survey are pretty stark, troubling and worrisome. We're clearly in for a pretty rough ride in this country over the next 12 months. There is all the awful violence in Israel, and that is spilling over into the U.S. A child was stabbed to death near Chicago by his landlord in a hate crime against Palestinians. Many Jewish students are not feeling safe on university campuses. There are threats against both synagogues and mosques around the country. These are tough times."

The author/PPRI founder added, however, "But I do have hope. This fall, as I’ve been touring the country in the wake of the publication of my new book, 'The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future,' I've encountered countless people working in local contexts doing the hard work of reckoning with the injustices of our past, repairing the rifts in their communities, and protecting our democracy — not just in blue states, but in places I feature in the book like Mississippi and Oklahoma."

Jones discussedTrump's popularity among Christian nationalists, who, he warns, have a very racist mindset.

"For many of these leaders, be it Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, or Mike Johnson, when they use the word 'Christian,' it is racially coded," Jones told DeVega. "When they say 'Bible-believing Christians,' they are not talking about Black folks and the AME Church. They're not talking about Latino Catholics. They are specifically talking about white evangelical Protestant Christians."

Jones was vehemently critical of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) during the interview, citing him as a prime example of how dangerous "white Christian nationalism" is.

"Mike Johnson is a white Christian nationalist in a tailored suit," Jones told DeVega. "He believes that America is a promised land for white European Christians and that protecting that reality and future is above everything else. Johnson is deeply steeped in that white Christian nationalist worldview, which also includes not believing in the separation of church and state. Behind Johnson's polished public persona is a fairly extreme kind of vision of a white Christian America and a willingness to make the country fit that reality. And that includes overturning an election, such as on January 6, which Johnson supported."

*Read Chauncey DeVega's full interview with Robert P. Jones at this link.

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texas GOP chair stays silent on allies’ connections to antisemitic extremists" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Faced with ongoing scandals this month involving his allies' ties to antisemitic extremists, the leader of the Republican Party of Texas has come out strongly — to attack other conservatives who’ve criticized his friends.

For three weeks, Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi has been defiant in the face of calls from members of his own party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty leader Jonathan Stickland, who recently hosted avowed white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his office for nearly seven hours. And he’s gone after those who’ve been critical of Defend Texas Liberty, a political action committee that is funded by two of the Texas GOP’s most prolific donors.

Separately, Rinaldi is at the center of a parallel controversy involving a group for young conservatives that he recently embraced despite warnings about its leaders’ openly antisemitic views and ties to white nationalist figures.

*[Nick Fuentes is just the latest white supremacist embraced by Defend Texas Liberty]

For some Republicans, the dual scandals have raised serious questions about the party’s willingness to denounce racists — and its leader’s proximity to those who embrace them.

“He has put his friends’ interests above what is in the best interest of the party,” said Mark McCaig, an attorney and chair of the Texas Republican Initiative. “He is more concerned about protecting them and their gang.”

To be sure, Rinaldi was quick to distance himself from Fuentes. The Texas Tribune spotted Rinaldi earlier this month at the office building where Fuentes, an Adolf Hitler admirer who has called for a “holy war” against Jews and encouraged his followers to beat women, was being hosted by Stickland.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/Tx3aOZlJrASWXLs0KnK2qMjNwb8=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/58ae5caba94100de08d475567b4f1c15/1006%20Fuentes%20TT%2008.jpg)

Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi is seen entering the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside of Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023. Credit: The Texas Tribune

Asked about the Oct. 6 meeting, Rinaldi told the Tribune that he had no idea Fuentes was inside and would never meet with him. As for Stickland? Rinaldi said he would wait until more facts came out before commenting on his longtime political kin.

“I’m not going to make assumptions based on what I'm told by a reporter,” he said on Oct. 8.

Since then, neither Rinaldi nor the Republican Party of Texas has commented on Stickland, even as other major figures — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Kyle Rittenhouse — have issued statements that confirmed the Tribune’s reporting. Nor has Rinaldi responded to concerns from fellow Republicans and some party executive committee members who’ve called for a break with Defend Texas Liberty, which has donated $257,000 to the party since 2021.

Instead, Rinaldi has reserved his ire for House Speaker Dade Phelan, accusing the Beaumont Republican of politicizing antisemitism before demanding his resignation. Phelan has also demanded Rinaldi step down as the party’s leader and give money the Texas GOP received from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities.

Since news of the Fuentes meeting broke, Rinaldi has posted or amplified attacks on Phelan or the Texas House on X, formerly Twitter, more than 40 times. He has not, however, publicly criticized Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty at all — even as new information continues to emerge about their close ties to white supremacists.

:{*:{[Here’s who gets money from Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC whose leader met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes]}:

On Monday, the Tribune reported that, in just the last month, at least five current and former Fuentes associates have worked with groups that are closely tied to Stickland, Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty. That includes True Texas Project, whose leaders have sympathized with the racist gunman who murdered 22 people at an El Paso WalMart in 2019, and who are set to host Rinaldi for a fundraiser and softball game this weekend.

On Wednesday, the Texas Observer reported that a swastika-clad neo-Nazi who was spotted handing out antisemitic flyers in Fort Worth this month had previously interned for Luke Macias, a longtime GOP consultant and Rinaldi ally who just replaced Stickland as president of Defend Texas Liberty, according to the group’s website.

And this week, the Tribune reported that the president of Texans For Strong Borders, Chris Russo, has for years been a prominent figure in Fuentes’ racist movement, and has continued to post on anonymous, hate-filled social media accounts as his group —with help from Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty — has emerged as an influential voice that’s pushed lawmakers to crack down on legal and illegal immigration.

Rinaldi and the Texas GOP did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

‘A moral obligation’

The controversies come amid an internecine fight between the state’s far right and the Texas GOP’s more moderate, but still deeply conservative, wing. That strife has exploded into all-out war since the impeachment and acquittal of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Rinaldi ally who has received nearly $4.65 million from West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris and Dan and Farris Wilks. Those billionaires also fund Defend Texas Liberty and, before that, bankrolled Rinaldi’s career in the Texas House.

Defend Texas Liberty has been one of the most important players in the state party’s ongoing civil war. Campaign finance records show that, since 2021, it has given nearly $15 million to right-wing movements and candidates. The group made headlines this summer after giving $3 million to Patrick, months before he presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial. Defend Texas Liberty also gave $3.6 million to Don Huffines, a former state senator who helped push Gov. Greg Abbott to the right by attacking him on immigration and other issues during last year’s Republican primary.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOP’s far right has continued to embrace groups and individuals that others have warned are a bridge too far. Fuentes was the best-known of those extreme figures; but his visit and the ensuing controversy were punctuated by a separate-but-related, scandal involving the party and white supremacists.

That ordeal dates back to August, when the 66-year-old Texas Young Republican Federation voted to end its partnership with the Texas GOP until Rinaldi — who the group accused of initiating a “smear campaign” and partnering with far-right figures to undermine their newly-elected leadership — was removed from his position.

Things escalated last month, when Rinaldi pushed for the Texas GOP to bring a newly-formed spinoff group into the party despite warnings that its leaders included avowed white nationalists.

The warnings proved to be right: Days after the Tribune first reported on Fuentes’ visit with Stickland, an independent journalist reported that leaders of the new young Republicans group had praised Hitler online, and published photos of some of its leaders outside of an event for Fuentes’ vitriolically antisemitic “groyper” movement.

“There was a time in my life when I hated Nick Fuentes and his white supremacy views,” one of the group’s leaders, Rylie Rae, reportedly wrote on social media last year. “Now I recognize that he is one of the smartest people in our country and we need white nationalism. Oh how the tides have turned.”

Responding to the controversy, the new group’s leadership said in a statement that it “condemns bigotry in all forms” and had removed the individuals in question.

But before that, other young Republicans said they made clear to Rinaldi and the leaders of the new group that they were in bed with extremists. Those concerns were rebuffed, a move that one person said is emblematic of a broader problem and power struggle that has allowed extremists to flourish in Republican circles.

“There is a tendency among the populist right to essentially say, ‘It doesn’t matter how awful the person is, as long as they are on our side,’“ said Matt Wiltshire, finance director for the Young Republican National Federation. “We believe that we have a moral and ethical duty to be uncompromising in our stance that there is right and there is wrong.”

One of those removed was Konner Earnest, who led the group’s Parker County chapter and also recently became involved with the European American Community, a white nationalist group that argues American citizenship should be based on European ancestry.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/HK5Swe5A-hEjGNXJHBmn64A1VbQ=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/d7f8232dbebbc8c49e23f6ff0c924add/Konner%20Earnest%20TT%2003.jpg)

Konner Earnest outside of the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023. Earnest is an associate of Nick Fuentes and also worked on former state Sen. Don Huffines' gubernatorial campaign in 2022. Credit: The Texas Tribune

Earnest has other ties to Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty: He was spotted outside the Fuentes meeting with Stickland, and has appeared in videos for Russo’s Texans For Strong Borders, which has received considerable financial support from Defend Texas Liberty. Earnest has also written anti-immigration articles for Texas Scorecard, a prominent right-wing media website that is financed by Defend Texas Liberty’s billionaire funders.

Rinaldi does not appear to have released any public statement or made any comment on social media about the young Republicans scandal.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOP’s executive committee remains at an impasse over how to respond to the party’s ongoing white supremacist problem.

Last week, after Stickland was quietly removed as Defend Texas Liberty’s president, roughly one-third of the executive committee's 64 members, including Vice Chair Dana Myers, signed a letter saying that the party had a “moral obligation to speak boldly, publicly, and clearly on this matter” and demand an explanation for the Fuentes meeting.

“Fuentes' views and Stickland’s tactics are abhorrent and totally antithetical to the principles of the Republican Party of Texas and to the conservatives who have trusted [Defend Texas Liberty] for the cause of liberty and patriotism,” they wrote. “Whether this was caused by a lapse in judgment, conscious disregard, poor leadership, or a faulty moral compass –– Stickland and [Defend Texas Liberty] must ultimately accept responsibility.”

*..."}:

Since then, the party’s disagreements have continued to escalate in public view, as Rinaldi and his allies remain largely silent on the scandal. Two weeks ago — and after a Tribune reporter reached out to more than a dozen members of the party’s executive committee regarding Defend Texas Liberty — the Texas GOP removed contact information for executive committee members from its website.

The Texas GOP did not respond to a request for comment on the move, which has been publicly blasted as an attempt to keep members from being contacted by the public.

“You don’t stand for ‘we the people’ unless they have access to you,” said Cat Parks, a former executive committee member and vice chair of the Texas GOP. “It’s not like controversy didn’t happen during my tenure.”

For now, it’s unclear what comes next for the Texas GOP and its relationship with Defend Texas Liberty, which released a two-sentence statement saying it opposes Fuentes’ “incendiary” views but has yet to provide any other details on the meeting. Stickland may no longer be leading the group, but his removal is likely cosmetic given that he also owns Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm that is used heavily by Defend Texas Liberty-funded groups and candidates.

Members of the party’s executive committee have said as much this week, and reiterated their calls for the party to speak out against Defend Texas Liberty and Stickland.

The Texas GOP “must renounce [Defend Texas Liberty] until a full explanation of the Fuentes meeting is provided, those responsible are held accountable and there’s new entirely new leadership (not just the same players swapping job titles),” executive committee member Rolando Garcia wrote this week on social media.

“Don’t excuse the inexcusable just to spite your political enemies,” he added.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/27/matt-rinaldi-texas-gop-republicans-nick-fuentes/.

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Trinity Broadcasting Network’s nightly news program Centerpoint repeatedly promoted Christian nationalism. Anchors and guests argue that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and encourage viewers to support Donald Trump in order to fulfill God’s wishes.

TBN is an explicitly Christian broadcaster known globally for its televangelism and Christian lifestyle content. The network reaches around 95 million households via satellite, broadcasts 14 languages across 175 countries, and contains an extensive streaming portfolio. In 2022, TBN set its sights on a new type of programming ahead of the 2024 election: news.

On March 23, 2022, TBN launched Centerpoint, a 30-minute nightly news program produced by former Newsmax CEO Michael Clemente and initially anchored by ex-Fox correspondent Doug McKelway. According to Axios, the network claimed the “programming isn't meant to be politically biased, but will lean into Christian values.” The anchor lineup has shifted multiple times featuring various Christian voices such as Pastor Allen Jackson and former politician Rob Astorino, but recently TBN successfully poached yet another Newsmax expat, Lyndsay Keith.

Keith joined former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on the May 20 edition of his TBN program, Huckabee, where she said, “You know, a lot of times news comes to you through a lens, a liberal lens or a conservative lens, and we have opportunities to show through a biblical lens.”

This line between a “biblical lens” and outright Christian nationalism — the belief that America is a fundamentally Christian nation that should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs — is often muddy on Centerpoint. The growing trend of Christian nationalism poses a real threat to a multicultural democracy. From the think tank, the Center for American Progress:

At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities.

Different forms of Christian nationalist rhetoric are regularly spread on TBN's supposedly apolitical evening news show by both guests and network personalities.

Christian nationalism is apparent in TBN’s nightly news show

Anchor Doug McKelway questioned if God would “allow for revolution” to get the United States “back in order.” McKelway asked his guest, “If we are unable to get our house back in order according to God's tenets, Jesus’ tenets, … is he willing to allow for revolution?” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [4/10/23]
TBN host and former actor Kirk Cameron pushed the Christian nationalist claim that America was built on “biblical principles” and advocated for Christians to assume postions of power. He further claimed that Christianity “is in our DNA as Americans. This is a nation that was built with the idea of biblical principles and a free constitutional republic as our framework.” Cameron concluded, “If we don’t assume positions of leadership in the country, it will be given to those with lesser values.” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [3/30/23]
Pastor Jentezen Franklin warned of a godless society and promoted the pro-Trump America First Policy Institutes' new Biblical Foundations project that aims to instill God “back into every aspect” of daily life, calling for the “merging of faith and politics.” “America was founded by our founders that had faith,” Franklin said. “What we believe is that Christianity will survive without America. But America will not survive without Christianity and without the foundations of the word of God.” Franklin went on to claim that foundations of Christianity are vital to American life, further tying the country to a single religion. TBN, *Centerpoint*, [3/27/23]
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) said during an appearance on Centerpoint “God wants us to make America great again” and encouraged viewers to “vote for candidates that represent biblical values.” According to Allen, God is personally invested in the U.S and Trump’s success, saying, “God wants us to make America great again, for crying out loud. Who would be against that?” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [3/22/23]
Anchor Lyndsay Keith used the Uvalde shooting mourning to call for displaying the Christian Ten Commandments in public schools. Over footage of grieving families on the one-year anniversary of the school shooting, Keith said, “It was quite clear that they were honoring their loved ones in prayer. So we raise the question, why would anyone think that a dose of faith, religion, or a poster of the Ten Commandments be such a bad thing in our classrooms?” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [5/24/23]
Centerpoint guest and Former NFL player Jack Brewer advocated for the Ten Commandments to be taught in public schools, and blamed teen violence on the lack of prayer in these institutions.According to Brewer, “It goes back to morality and not having that fear of God, you know, being in the school system that doesn't teach God, that removes prayer, that doesn't even teach the basic Ten Commandments to set some type of morality in these children.” He concluded, “We’re not going to be able to play the secular route like we have in the past because there really is a line in the sand, and which side are you going to be on? ” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [4/14/23]
TBN host Shawn Bolz praised Trump and said he also advocated for Jesus and prayer to be taught in public schools. Despite constitutional issues, Bolz claimed Trump said, “We need religion like we never needed it before. We need Jesus back in schools and prayer back in schools, and he really stood with the faith community and said part of the reason why this is happening is because we have gone so far from religious core values in America and for morality.” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [4/5/23]
Centerpointguest and Former Trump Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson argued for more federally sanctioned prayer and claimed that Christianity is a key component of America's identity because of the message “in God we trust” on U.S. currency. According to Carson, “When you think about the fact that our pledge of allegiance says we're one nation under God. All of our coins, all of our bills say, “In God we trust,” so it should be an essential part of our identity and who we are and how we act.” TBN, *Centerpoint*, [1/30/23]

Christian nationalism on TBN goes beyond Centerpoint

TBN has a large range of shows that blend Christian lifestyle and talk show-style programming with politics, news, and religion. Takeaways with Kirk Cameron is one such show that sometimes crosses the threshold of Christian media into Christian nationalist propaganda.

In one episode, Cameron incorrectly claimed U.S. culture was rooted in the Bible: “We’ve got an incredible legacy and an incredible culture here, and it's rooted in the Bible. And if we turn back to thinking biblically, I think that we can again see the fruit of liberty and justice and the fruit of the spirit characterizing the country."

In another, Cameron gushed over the National Monument to the Forefathers, a relatively unknown monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrating the Mayflower Pilgrims. Cameron praised the monument for supposedly representing that “man's laws must always line up under God's laws or they're not good laws.” (Cameron appears to have fixated on this monument, creating a full movie about it and selling replicas from his online store.

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cameron has a history of promoting Christian nationalism both on and off TBN. He is currently pushing a campaign against local libraries that involves reading conservative children’s books to “win back Story Hour and stand up for truth and Biblical values.” The books are intended to instill “pro-God, Pro-America” values, and Cameron has threatened to sue “woke libraries” if he is unable to read them.

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2022 fail?!

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in the United States, Christianity isn't necessarily synonymous with right-wing politics. The Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are ordained Baptist ministers. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and centrist Democratic President Joe Biden consider themselves devout Catholics, as does Sister Mary Scullion — a Catholic nun and Philadelphia-based activist known for supporting liberal and progressive causes.

But the Republican Party, since the early 1980s, has closely allied itself with far-right white evangelicals and the Religious Right movement. And author/UC Berkeley history professor David Hollinger, in an interview with The Nation's Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins published on March 29, stresses that white evangelicals are moving more and more to the right at a time when the United States on the whole is becoming increasingly secular.

Hollinger, author of the 2022 book, "Christianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular," told The Nation, "The Republican Party has cultivated white evangelicals as a key voting bloc, and it has worked wonderfully. The epistemic closures in which many evangelicals lived in the 1970s or 1950s or 1930s were formidable, but they were not encouraged and relied upon by a major political party, or kept enclosed by the availability of Fox News and other mass media freed of the 'Fairness Doctrine' that regulated news media until the Reagan Administration."

The author/UC Berkeley professor notes that within Christianity, there is a major divide between fundamentalist evangelicals and non-evangelical Mainline Protestants — who he also refers to as "ecumenical Protestants." In the United States, Mainline denominations include Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

Hollinger told The Nation, "If the ecumenicals could reclaim the franchise, so to speak, the country would be a lot better off. Non-Christians may think they don't have a dog in that fight, but they do. Even at this time, when Christians are a smaller proportion of the American population than ever before, lots of power is in the hands of anyone who convincingly claims to speak for Christianity…. Lots of post-Protestants and post-Catholics — people who were culturally formed by Protestantism or Catholicism but no longer affirm their ancestral faith — are splendid allies for liberal Protestants. They can work together."

Hollinger argues that the United States' 2022 midterms were largely a rejection of authoritarian "Christian nationalism."

The author observes, "About 80 percent of evangelical voters supported Republican candidates in the midterm elections, which is the same level of support they gave to Trump as a presidential candidate…. Yet here's the big thing about the midterms: In the electorate as a whole, the strong support for abortion rights indicates a willingness of many voters to resist the theocratic trend of recent American politics. Since my book calls for exactly such resistance, I am heartened by this result. Yet the struggle to save democracy is far from over, and evangelically inspired Christian nationalism remains a formidable threat to it.”

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Greene (R-GA), a far-right Christian nationalist extremist,kicked off her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)Friday morning by telling the room filled with many empty seats that the left is “coming for our children,” in her hate-filled, lie-filled, fear-mongering, anti-LGBTQ speech portraying her cause as virtuous because, she preached, “our God is bigger.” That God, she promised, would help her pass anti-transgender legislation that “will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender-affirming care on children.”

“The left has told us something that should put fear in the heart of every parent,” Greene said as she began her speech. “Not just parents – every single person.”

“They said they’re coming for our children,” Greene declared.

“I think the Republican Party has a duty. We have a responsibility, and that is to be the party that protects children,” her speech (video below) continued.

Greene again falsely claimed that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “he wants our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine,” which is the exact opposite of what he said. She attacked the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus for “literally singing we’re coming for your children,” referring to a 2021 “tongue in cheek” song the group received right-wing death threats over because it advocated for teaching children to love and “not to hate.”

She did not offer any other examples where “the left” said they are “coming for our children."

she called medical experts who support transgender children a“billion dollar industry that mutilates the genitals of children” and claimed “they have a target, or should I say a victim?”...

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) celebrated Presidents Day by calling for red and blue states to separate in a "national divorce."

"We need a national divorce," Greene tweeted Monday morning, barely weeks after calling President Joe Biden a "liar" in the nationally-televised State of the Union. "We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this."

Greene also called Democrats "traitorous," and angrily accused them of shoving down Republicans' throats "sick and disgusting woke culture issues."

"From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat'straitorous America Last policies, we are done."

Some blasted Greene's choice to make her remarks on the national holiday, officially Washington's Birthday, some noted she sits on the Homeland Security Committee, whileothers noted blue states contribute more to the federal coffers than red states, which are more likely to be supported by blue states. (The "red" and "blue" state descriptors are not only somewhat subjective, but fluid, as Democratic voters flipped two states from red to blue and held all the others in 2022.)

One Twitter user reminded that Greene is a "key advisor" to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Her support of the embattled McCarthy helped put the gavel in his hand, and he has pledged loyalty to her. "I will never leave that woman," McCarthy reportedly said after becoming Speaker. "I will always take care of her."

attorney, journalist, and SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah had just four words in response: "This is treasonous. Period."

Others also called it "treason," and still others "sedition."

Ryan Cooper, managing editor of The American Prospect, tweeted, "remarkable how casually these people suggest literal treason."

Another Twitter user observed, "This is a member of Congress, who sits on Homeland Security Committee, calling for secession. We fought a war over this once and 160 years later the losers still can't let it go."

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in an Instagram post on July 22, 2022, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) declared, "I’m a proud Christian nationalist." Al Mohler, president of theSouthern Baptist Theological Seminary, is embracing the term "Christian nationalist" as well, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) has complained that she is "tired of this separation of church and state junk" — inspiring The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative, to say that Boebert "can go to Iran" if she feels that way.

Another Never Trumper, Washington Post opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin, is also troubled by the popularity of Christian nationalism within the MAGA movement. In her February 9 column, Rubin cites a Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings Institution poll released a day earlier as evidence that "Christian nationalists, in fact, harbor a set of extreme beliefs at odds with pluralistic democracy."

Survey respondents were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements like: (1) "U.S. laws should be based on Christian values," (2) "Being Christian is an important part of being truly American," (3) "The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation," (4) "If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore" and (5) "God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society."

Rubin explains, "PRRI found that 10 percent('adherents') of American adults believe in these ideas overwhelmingly or completely; 19 percent agree but not completely ('sympathizers'); 39 percent disagree ('skeptics') but not completely; and 29 percent disagree completely ('rejecters'). Who are these people? 'Nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants qualify as either Christian nationalism sympathizers (35 percent) or adherents (29 percent).'"

The columnist adds, "Thirty-five percent of all Whites are adherents. Put differently, Christian nationalist adherents are a minority, but when combined with sympathizers, still comprise a stunning 29 percent of Americans — many tens of millions."

The poll, according to Rubin, shows that "Christian nationalists also make up the base of the Republican Party."

"If you thing this sounds like MAGA tripe," Rubin warns, "you’re right. This is the hardcore MAGA base…. To counteract Christian nationalism, we will need a positive, optimistic message that celebrates an inclusive, diverse democracy in which no American is more 'real' than another. What makes us unique — or 'exceptional' as the right likes to say — is that America isn’t defined by race or religion. Believers in American values have their work cut out for them."

Read Jennifer Rubin’s full Washington Post column at this link (subscription required).

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It’s been nearly a week since Donald Trump had dinner at his home at Mar-a-Lago with antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and yet he continues to refuse to denounce him or his extremist views.

“The former US president was urged publicly and privately to denounce Fuentes in the aftermath of the dinner,” The Guardian reports Monday.

Multiple advisers have urged Trump to denounce Fuentes, who has a long history of promoting white supremacism, but he has been “rejecting” their advice “over fears he might alienate a section of his base, two people familiar with the situation said.”

Fuentes, according to Trump, came to dinner at the behest of Kanye West, the former president’s invited dinner guest. He says the disgraced artist did not tell him in advance he was bringing “friends.” In addition to Fuentes, those friends reportedly include Milo Yiannopoulos, who has advocated for older men having sex with young teen boys, and Trump 2016 aide Karen Giorno, who was reportedly involved in a pay-for-pardon scheme.

West has also been increasingly viewed as antisemitic, especially after threatening to “go death con 3 on Jewish people.” That remark “conveyed a clear violence to many who saw it,” The Times of Israel reported last month.

Trump has a long history of refusing to denounce white supremacists and white nationalists. His refusal to denounce former KKK leader David Duke, when still a presidential candidate in 2016, has become an infamously defining moment for Trump.

“I don’t know anything about David Duke,” Trump told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with ‘white supremacy’ or ‘white supremacists,’” Trump insisted. “I know nothing about white supremacists.”

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“I have to look at the group,” Trump continued, when asked he would condemn white supremacists and say he does not want their vote. “You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about?”

That’s extremely similar to Trump’s initial response when news broke he had dined with Fuentes.

Trump on his Truth Social platform described the white supremacist as someone “whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”

On MSNBC Monday morning, Politico’s Jonathan Lemire noted, “this strain of white nationalism is becoming more central to what today’s Republican Party is about.” He added that Trump is “trying to play to the lowest common denominator to try and keep some supporters in check.”

Fuentes is not just a white supremacist, a white Christian nationalist, a Holocaust “denier,” and a supporter of authoritarianism – along with holding other extremist views. He is a political commentator who has a large following and is seen as the head of a white supremacist movement. Fuentes is also the founder of the annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), a white nationalism alternative to the already extremist Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)last year warned Fuentes is “a white supremacist leader and organizer and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.”

But ADL also notes Fuentes “promoted election fraud narratives and encouraged his adherents to participate in nationwide “Stop the Steal” protests,” and “served as an organizer and speaker at many ‘Stop the Steal’ protests,” which may be yet another reason Trump has refused to denounce him.

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