At a campaign event last week for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, attendees waved placards emblazoned with a slogan that is also used by a notorious white supremacist group. Meanwhile, anti-drag and anti-LGBTQ hate sees a resurgence this week, and a new report shows extremists and conspiracy theorists spinning up lies in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
It’s the week in extremism, from USA TODAY.
White supremacist slogan at Trump campaign event
At a Trump/Vance campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan, late last week, attendees held up placards bearing the slogan “Reclaim America.” That’s the main slogan of the Texas-headquartered white supremacist hate group Patriot Front, which took to social media to question whether the signs were a tacit endorsement.
-
Video from the event shows Trump supporters waving placards with the “Reclaim America” slogan behind the speakers.
-
Patriot Front, which specializes in spreading white supremacist propaganda and holding events where chino-clad masked men march around chanting and waving flags, portrays itself as a protector of “European heritage.” Leaks and infiltration of the group have revealed it is a hardcore racist neo–Nazi organization.
-
Members of Patriot Front have been charged with conspiracy to riot and the organization is being sued in at least two high-profile cases.
-
This week, the official Patriot Front Telegram channel proudly announced the Trump campaign had “adopted” the reclaim America slogan, posting: “The phrase “Reclaim America” is a well-known slogan of Patriot Front. It remains unclear whether the Trump campaign is aware of this connection and PF’s use of the phrase, especially since a simple Google search of the slogan will return a plethora of results featuring the organization.”
-
The Trump/Vance campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Anti-drag, anti-LGBTQ+ hate rises again
America’s far-right spent much of 2022 and 2023 uniting in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly by targeting drag shows and the people who attend and perform in them. This trend had shown signs of easing off in 2024, but new incidents show far-right extremists have not given up on this line of attack.
-
K. Wayne, An English teacher at Peninsula High School in Seattle left their job after an online bullying campaign targeted them for their extracurricular performances as a drag king. The alternative newspaper The Stranger tells their story.
-
“My drag persona is a form of creative expression, completely separate from my role as an educator. Drag is not a crime, and I stand by my art and my right to express myself,” K. Wayne told USA TODAY in a statement. “This must stop. people must be able to exist without being doxxed, without being bullied and without fear of living private and personal lives.”
-
Meanwhile, across the country in Somerville, MA, a scheduled drag queen story hour at a library was canceled following a bomb threat that forced an evacuation. The event had been targeted by a small protest.
-
Throughout the last two years, dozens of drag events have been similarly disrupted by threats. USA TODAY outlined how drag became a major focus of the far-right in this story from the last day of 2022.
Report: Hurricane brings a storm of disinformation
Social media has been inundated with conspiracy theories and disinformation about the major hurricanes that hit Florida recently. Much of that disinformation has been spread by extremists, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
-
ISD researchers identified at least 31 false and antisemitic narratives surrounding Hurricane Helene accusing Jewish officials of sabotaging recovery efforts and endangering the public.
-
Analysts found that 33 posts on X, containing claims debunked by FEMA and the White House, had generated more than 160 million views.
-
From the report: “Falsehoods around hurricane response have spawned credible threats and incitement to violence directed at the federal government – this includes calls to send militias to face down FEMA for the perceived denial of aid, and that individuals would ‘shoot’ FEMA officials and the agency’s emergency responders.”
Statistic of the week: 46,000
That’s how many instances of online hate against South-Asians were identified by researchers from Moonshot, a research group that monitors extremist activity, in August on websites frequented by domestic violent extremists.
That’s double the amount from January 2023, according to a report from Moonshot and the organization Stop AAPI Hate.
The analysis notes that anti-South Asian slurs spiked in August 2024 amid the political ascendance of two South Asian political figures: Kamala Harris (the 2024 Democratic nominee for U.S. President) and Usha Vance (the wife of J.D. Vance, the 2024 Republican nominee for Vice President).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: White supremacist group’s slogan waved at Trump/Vance campaign event
