Neo-Nazi groups share a hatred for Jews and a love for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. While they also hate nonwhite people, LGBTQ+ people and even sometimes Christians, they perceive “the Jew” as their cardinal enemy.
Top Takeaways
In an election year marked by extreme racist rhetoric and anti-immigrant sentiment, neo-Nazi groups found common cause with more mainstream right-wing groups. In Springfield, Ohio, radical-right figures and Republican politicians targeted the Haitian immigrant community with racist conspiracy theories that led to a rash of bomb threats, doxing (i.e., the act of posting someone’s personal information online) and demonstrations. Among those neo-Nazi groups that aided in this targeting Haitian immigrants and other members of the community in Ohio were members of Blood Tribe, the neo-Nazi group founded by Chris Pohlhaus.
Still, some groups in this ideology faced significant setbacks. Amid a series of arrests on criminal charges and civil cases, some prominent neo-Nazi groups withdrew their in-person activism or adapted their tactics.
Key Moments
Neo-Nazis held fewer in-person demonstrations than 2023, in part due to legal hurdles impacting several of the more active groups.
In September, federal authorities arrested Dallas Humber of California and Matthew Allison of Idaho on charges related to their involvement with the so-called Terrorgram Collective, a loose network of neo-Nazi channels on the messaging app Telegram. For years, neo-Nazis and other white power activists have used the Terrorgram network to distribute materials encouraging attacks on U.S. infrastructure, guides to 3D-printed weaponry and violent propaganda celebrating acts of extreme racist violence. The indictment identifies Humber, who uses the name “Miss Gorehound” online, and Allison, who operated under the alias “BanThisChannel,” as the key figures behind the network. The indictment lists 15 counts and accuses Allison and Humber of soliciting hate crimes, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, and soliciting the murder of federal officials.
Though Terrorgram administrators and affiliates tend to eschew traditional modes of in-person organizing, the network has been central to multiple mass shootings and attempted attacks, including on U.S. infrastructure. Juraj Krajčík, who murdered two people and wounded a third at a gay bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, cited Terrorgram as an inspiration in his manifesto and communicated with Humber prior to the attack, according to reporting from Wired. The indictment against Humber and Allison also references the arrest of Andrew Takhistov, who was charged in July with soliciting the destruction of energy facilities.
Because of Terrorgram’s connections to these plots and acts of violence, U.K. authorities proscribed the network in April.
Authorities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts brought civil lawsuits against Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131), a prominent neo-Nazi group active in multiple states in New England. The most recent cases focus on NSC-131’s activities disrupting multiple events, including ones celebrating LGBTQ+ communities and targeting shelters for migrants. In response, NSC-131 has drawn back on much of its activism. In February and April, it held demonstrations in Massachusetts and Connecticut respectively. An affiliate of NSC-131, known as the People’s Initiative of New England, continued to hold some in-person events throughout the first half of the year, as well as encouraging their members to contact or otherwise engage their elected officials to lobby for anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ legislations.
A court sentenced Sarah Beth Clendaniel to 18 years in prison for her involvement in a plot to attack power substations near Baltimore, Maryland. Authorities arrested and charged Clendaniel along with her apparent romantic partner, Atomwaffen Division co-founder Brandon Russell, last year. Russell’s case is still pending trial.
Despite the downturn in activism, several groups managed to stage high-profile demonstrations or stunts throughout 2024. Members of Blood Tribe held marches in Tennessee, Ohio and South Dakota. This included multiple demonstrations in Springfield, Ohio. In October, members of the Goyim Defense League, an antisemitic group, and the Order of the Black Sun, a Florida-based neo-Nazi group, took part in a pro-Trump boat parade in Jupiter, Florida. The group flew swastika flags and shouted racist slurs.
While the National Socialist Movement, once one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the country, has continued to decline in activity, some more traditional organizations appear to have taken its place. Aryan Freedom Network, which is based out of Texas, held multiple meetups throughout the country, including its annual Aryan Fest in Georgia. Still, AFN has faced its own hurdles. In February, authorities arrested Andrew David Munsinger, one of the group’s members in Minnesota, on charges of illegally possessing ammunition as a felon.
What’s Ahead
Despite the neo-Nazi groups’ renewed focus on in-person organizing, attention from journalists, academics, nongovernmental organizations, activists and opposition researchers has continued to leave much of the movement weak, paranoid and unable to mobilize for the long term. Though neo-Nazi groups were among those white power activists who seized upon the momentum brought by the first Trump administration, it is unclear how the movement will capitalize on his reelection.
The size and influence of historically prominent groups will remain limited or continue to dwindle as the movement continues to reshape itself to cater to a new generation. Like other parts of the white power movement, many of those within this younger generation of neo-Nazis have tossed aside traditional organizing tactics in favor of decentralized online spaces. They gather on loosely moderated platforms such as Telegram, where they valorize and advocate for acts of terror. The arrests of Brandon Russell, who was active in Terrorgram chats prior to his arrests, as well as two of its administrators, Dallas Humbar and Matthew Allison, in 2023 and 2024 respectively caused the networks’ presence to wane. However, the intensely violent rhetoric and glorification of terroristic acts that defined Terrorgram has continued to empower the neo-Nazi movement.
For the past few years — and even more so after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — American lawmakers have pushed for more legislation governing domestic terrorism, citing several neo-Nazi groups tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Though this legislative pressure has ebbed and flowed since early 2021, it nevertheless represents one of numerous points of pressure for the white power movement, which includes, but is not limited to, its neo-Nazi wing.
Neo-Nazi content has also flourished on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, due to its increasingly lax approach to content moderation under its current owner Elon Musk, as well as other social media sites. Online neo-Nazi propagandists have also found ways to use the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence to produce racist propaganda, often using less-moderated services to avoid content restrictions. While racist material associated with this ideology has found a significant audience, it does not appear to have a considerable effect on growing in-person organizing at this moment.
Background
While some neo-Nazi groups emphasize simple hatred, others are more focused on the revolutionary creation of a fascist political state. Nazism, of course, has roots in Europe, and links between American and European neo-Nazis have, at times, been strong.
American neo-Nazi groups, protected by the First Amendment, often publish material and host websites that are aimed at European audiences — materials that would be illegal under European hate speech laws. Similarly, many European groups put up their internet sites on American servers to avoid prosecution under the laws of their native countries.
For decades, the most visible neo-Nazi group in the United States was the National Alliance. Until his death, it was led by William Luther Pierce, the infamous author of the race-war novel The Turner Diaries, a book believed to have served as the blueprint for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Today, one of the most vocal wings of the neo-Nazi movement advocates for a tactic known as white power accelerationism. Proponents of this form of accelerationism see terroristic violence as the sole method for ushering in the collapse of modern civilization so a fascist society grounded in white ethnonationalism can take its place. Though some prominent neo-Nazi groups, such as Atomwaffen Division, have embraced these tactics, more recent proponents have tended to completely eschew traditional organizing methods, favoring loosely knit online communities and, at times, very small, localized training cells.
2024 Neo-Nazi Hate Groups
2119 Blood and Soil Crew
Alabama
Pennsylvania
Texas
American Futurist
Michigan
Reno, Nevada
Ohio
American Nazi Party
New Hampshire
Aryan Freedom Network
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Minnesota
Montana
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Atlantic Nationalist Club
Connecticut
New Jersey
New York
Blood Tribe
Ohio
South Dakota
Wisconsin
Church of Aryanity/Order of the Western Knights Templar
Kentucky
The Daily Stormer
Worthington, Ohio
Dissident Minds Books
Fairfield, California
Folkish Active Clubs
Kentucky
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Tennessee
West Virginia
Hate Club
Missouri
Ohio
Injekt Division
Pennsylvania
National Alliance
Pennsylvania
Iowa
Mountain City, Tennessee
National Socialist German Workers Party
Lincoln, Nebraska
National Socialist Movement
Maricopa, Arizona
Highland City, Florida
Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131)
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
New England Minutemen
Massachusetts
New Order
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
North ‘Bama Brigade
Madison, Alabama
NS Publications
Wyandotte, Michigan
Order of the Black Sun
Florida
Pennsylvania
Texas
People’s Initiative of New England
Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
S14/National Socialist Youth Detachment
Pennsylvania
Third Reich Books
Fairbury, Nebraska
Vanguard News Network
Kirksville, Missouri
Vinland Rebels
Tennessee