The Southern Poverty Law Center works to dismantle white supremacy in public forums and online, exposes hate and anti-democracy extremism and counters disinformation and conspiracy theories with research and community resources. The Intelligence Project monitors and exposes white supremacy and its impact on communities.
Anti-democracy efforts
- In mid-November, a central figure of Turning Point USA’s political arm pleaded guilty to forging a signature on one of his candidate nomination petitions and trying to deceive the Arizona secretary of state by knowingly filing petitions with forged signatures. Former Arizona state Rep. Austin Smith, who has led Turning Point Action, had been indicted on 14 counts of election fraud. Smith will be sentenced in January 2026. The situation is laced with irony as TPUSA is one of the hard-right groups that, between 2020 and the 2024 elections, promoted so-called “election integrity” conspiracy theories.
Anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim activity
- Joel Webbon, a Christian nationalist pastor who frequently airs his racist and male supremacist views on his online livestreams, posted on X, “It’s long past time to admit that Donald Trump is NOT our guy. He was merely the ‘precursor’ to another. MAGA is dead. America First is ASCENDANT.” Immigration has splintered parts of the hard right, with activists who want to severely curtail or suspend immigration to the U.S. criticizing those who fail to endorse this uncompromising view. Webbon made the post after President Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem gave interviews supporting the use of H1B visas, which allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers.
- Various anti-Muslim demonstrations took place in Dearborn, Michigan, in November after far-right agitators and provocateurs descended on the city to protest the so-called “Islamification” of the area. The demonstrations were sparked by conspiratorial rhetoric around Shariah, or Islamic law, which has once again become a flashpoint for some lawmakers and anti-Muslim figures alike. The protests were reminiscent of other Islamophobic protests over the years, including some organized by anti-Muslim hate groups.
Militia and antigovernment movement activity
- On a podcast for the John Birch Society’s The New American in early November, Stewart Rhodes announced he is relaunching Oath Keepers, the nationwide antigovernment militia he ran prior to his conviction for his role in the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol. On the podcast, he talked about how 100 of his members had helped respond to flooding in Texas earlier this year. Calling his group an “essential mission,” Rhodes told the hard-right Gateway Pundit website a few days later that he hoped Trump would call up Oath Keepers as a nationwide militia. Rhodes also blasted “pretend people or posers” who used the Oath Keepers name while he was in prison. Oath Keepers USA operated out of Utah during Rhodes’ incarceration and is comprised of former Oath Keepers leaders and board members. Later in November, Rhodes claimed President Trump’s secondary pardon of Jan. 6 participant Dan Wilson also applies to himself and others whose sentences were commuted instead of pardoned. Despite the pardon’s direct reference to Wilson’s case, Rhodes claimed the document’s language of “an unconditional pardon” for any citizen’s “conduct relating to” Jan. 6 was broad enough to include himself. Rhodes further stated he “has faith” in U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin. As acting U.S. attorney for D.C. in January, Martin struck down any supervised release for pardoned Jan. 6 participants.
- Edward Durfee, a former member of the Oath Keepers, recently won a seat on a New Jersey school board. Durfee was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 but wasn’t charged with a crime. He told the media the school district was no longer teaching fundamentals but had veered into “social engineering” around transgender issues.
- Bill Null, the founder of the Michigan Liberty Militia who beat federal charges in 2023 that he conspired to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, is now coming for her job. In November, he filed paperwork to run for governor as a Republican. His campaign treasurer, Eric Molitor, also stood trial for the alleged conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer. “The chances of winning are slim to none,” he told the media, “but I’d like to see my name on the ticket anyway.”
- U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has gone from a MAGA favorite to persona non grata after questioning President Trump, claims extraterrestrials are demons. During a segment about UFOs on a talk show, the host asked Greene if she thinks demons and the devil are real. “Absolutely. I’m a Bible-believing Christian,” she said. “And I believe those could be fallen angels.” She said that made “sense in my worldview.” Greene has appeared with Dutch Sheets, an important leader of the New Apostolic Reformation.
- In a unanimous vote, the Florida Board of Education adopted the “Phoenix Declaration” to serve as the state’s guiding principles on education. The declaration, written by the Heritage Foundation, aims to give students access to an education that “fosters the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful, so that they may achieve their full, God-given potential.” Ten state representatives signed a letter against the ratification of the Phoenix Declaration, calling it indoctrination.
- A great number of hard-right figures descended on San Marcos, California, on Nov. 8 for an event called Take Our California Back, which was coordinated by the group Take Our Border Back and held at Awaken Church. The event featured QAnon aligned Michael Flynn; far-right journalist Lara Logan; fringe radio host Kim Yeater; election denier Douglas Frank; Lewis Herms, leader of the group Screw Big Government; and Che Ahn, a leader in the Chrisitan supremacist New Apostolic Reformation. Ahn has declared, “We are the family of God, but we are also in the army of God. And the moment you’re born again, God calls you to warfare.”
- Matt Walsh called for the U.S. Department of Justice to file hate crime charges against protesters at Jake Lang’s Nov. 18 appearance in Dearborn, Michigan. At the Dearborn event, Lang told Muslims they were “violent, disgusting people,” waved bacon in their faces, repeatedly used the n-word, and made monkey noises at teenagers. On Nov. 24, Lang announced he filed a $200 million “federal hate crime lawsuit” against Dearborn’s city council and police department, claiming he and his colleagues were “violently attacked, stalked, threatened, and hunted for hours.”
- Ivan Raiklin, who previously called himself Trump’s “secretary of retribution,” has called for the arrest of Judge James Boasberg. Boasberg was involved in “Arctic Frost,” which allowed Special Counsel Jack Smith to request the call logs of U.S. senators allegedly tied to Jan. 6. Because of a nondisclosure order issued by Boasberg, Smith was not required to share this with the senators involved because of “reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses and serious jeopardy to the investigation.” On Dec. 1, Raiklin tweeted what he called the “exact wording” needed to “trigger the Senate’s inherent contempt power and authorize the Sergeant at Arms to arrest a sitting federal judge.” He addressed his message to the X accounts of Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and John Thune, and the Senate sergeant at arms.
Anti-LGBTQ+ movement
- Members of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Warriors for Christ are reportedly facing hate crimes charges for allegedly disrupting a prayer gathering held on Nov. 18 by Muslim students at the University of South Florida in Tampa. According to local media, “Christopher Svochak, 40, from Waco, TX, and Richard Penkoski, 49, from Canyon, Oklahoma, face a charge of disturbing schools and religious and other assemblies, which is upgraded to a felony due to the hate crime enhancement.”
- In a November email, anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom claimed that thousands of public schools are “secretly socially transitioning students — changing names, pronouns, even bathroom use — often without parents ever knowing.” The claim is based on ADF’s interpretation of public school nondiscrimination policies which protect transgender kids from harassment and bullying. The rhetoric is consistent with the use of the false so-called “social contagion” myth that suggests LGBTQ+ identity spreads like a disease when LGBTQ+ people are supported.
Conspiracy propagandists
- Alleged sovereign citizen Seamus Murphy of Grafton, New Hampshire, was arrested in mid-November for warrants including failure to appear, operating a vehicle as a habitual offender and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The operation to arrest Murphy was considered dangerous by the local and federal law enforcement involved. A search of Murphy’s property discovered a weapons stockpile that included explosives, body armor, firearms, and 3D printed gun parts and ammunition, which has led to a host of new charges.
White nationalist and neo-Nazi movement activity
- Three members of The Base, a white power accelerationist group founded in the United States, were arrested in Spain on Dec. 1. They face charges related to their alleged membership in a terrorist organization, training and indoctrination with terrorist aims, and the unlawful possession of weapons. According to police, the purported leader of the Spanish cell was in contact with Rinaldo Nazzaro, the group’s Russia-based founder and leader.
- Federal authorities arrested Lucas Alexander Temple, 20, a Florida-based grocery store worker, on charges of possessing an unregistered firearm. During a search of his home, agents reportedly found a flag bearing the symbol of Atomwaffen Division, a now-defunct neo-Nazi group founded in Florida, and other neo-Nazi paraphernalia, as well as handwritten plans for carrying out an attack. According to a complaint, Temple, under multiple pseudonyms, discussed building explosives and endorsed sexual violence against women in online chats.
Male supremacy
- Anti-abortion extremist Randall Terry has reportedly purchased a church building in Memphis, Tennessee, where he plans to “train pro-life warriors, in activism, politics, running for office, media production, and more.” Terry founded Operation Rescue, a group that obstructed access to abortion clinics and harassed clinic workers during the 1980s and 1990s. When abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist in 2009, Terry said he “reaped what he sowed.”
Confederate monuments
- In Statesville, North Carolina, a statue of a Confederate soldier has stood downtown since 1906. This spot was the site of multiple lynchings during Reconstruction and Jim Crow. In November, the Statesville City Council narrowly voted to place a historical marker across from the Confederate statue about the lynching of a Black man, Charles Campbell, in 1883. The marker has been the three-year effort of the Iredell Community Remembrance Project, dedicated to “truth-telling and racial justice” and of the Statesville NAACP. After Campbell’s murder, Black and white citizens, clergy, and Statesville’s white mayor gathered publicly and called for an end to racial violence. It is significant that this marker can commemorate acts of courage and resistance to white supremacist terror from Blacks and whites, representing a true Southern heritage that all Southerners can be proud of.
Image at top: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes appears at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 20, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/Alamy)
