How Republicans paved the way for white nationalists to invade DC
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/11/800068157/series/how-republicans-paved-the-way-for-white-nationalists-to-invade-dc/
How Republicans paved the way for white nationalists to invade DC
Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
The white supremacist group Patriot Front brazenly marched in Washington, D.C., on Independence Day. Their faces covered in white ski masks and their eyes obscured by sunglasses, the identically dressed group of men celebrated our country’s 250th anniversary by waving the pro-slavery Confederate flag, chanting about wanting to “reclaim America,” and carrying signs and banners promoting their pro-white racist ideology.
Even in an era where President Donald Trump regularly spouts racist rants from his position as the head of the U.S. government, the Patriot Front display was shocking to millions.
In a television appearance on CNN the next day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum steadfastly refused to condemn the Patriot Front when anchor Dana Bash questioned him about the racist display.
“I think what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with, but one of the foundational principles of the United States that makes democracy messy is free speech,” Burgum said.
At best, Burgum’s statement was a tepid signal at disagreement. But it was far from a full-throated repudiation of the group’s white supremacy.
Prominent conservative media figures went in an even more absurd direction.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said the protest was “fake” and “looks more like Antifa in costume.” Ingraham even added, “No one should be allowed to cover their faces.”
That position is at odds with the tactics being employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents currently detaining and abducting immigrant families—part of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda that she supports.
Radio show host Joe Rogan has argued that the Patriot Front protesters are “feds” and not a real right-wing protest.
In reality, the Patriot Front is deeply intertwined with the bigoted sentiment that has led Trump to become the leader of the Republican Party and the most prominent conservative figure in America.
The group reportedly launched around 2015, right as the mainstream right and the Republican Party were in the full throes of a racist reaction to the election and subsequent reelection of President Barack Obama, the first Black president in American history.
Patriot Front was among the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 as part of the “Unite the Right” rally meant to reclaim white dominance in America. They were a part of the pro-Confederate, pro-Nazi crowd that Trump infamously referred to as “very fine people.”
Related | Trump’s big birthday bash for America was a bust
To be sure, racism and nativism certainly didn’t pop up out of nowhere in the 2015-2017 era. In addition to the racism intertwined in U.S. history, the modern conservative movement has backed leaders like former President Ronald Reagan, who promoted anti-Black myths about “welfare queens” for years. Before Reagan, there were notorious figures like radio host Father Charles Coughlin, who laced his broadcasts with odious antisemitism.
But the mainstream right preferred to court the support of bigots while also going to great lengths to keep their noxious rhetoric off of the main stage. Republicans were happy to use coded language about welfare and “traditional families,” but full-throated bigotry was usually kept behind closed doors.
After Obama won in 2008, the mask was ripped off. Trump transitioned from the host of a fading reality TV show to a prominent political commentator by pushing the racist and false “birther” conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore ineligible to be president. He launched his presidential campaign by smearing Mexican people as “rapists.”
Instead of rejecting Trump and denouncing his positions, Republicans and mainstream conservatism embraced him. Republicans at the national, state, and local level now regularly engage in open, gutter bigotry and echo Trump.
By the time he was running for reelection in 2020, Trump put the full backing of the American presidency behind the racist extremist group Proud Boys. In his debate with soon-to-be President Joe Biden, he told the group to “stand back and stand by.”
Now in his second term, Trump gave the group even more support. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, part of a plan to keep Trump in office after he lost the November 2020 election to Biden. Then in January 2025, Trump pardoned him—along with hundreds of other Jan. 6 rioters.
Instead of focusing on right-wing extremism, which the U.S. government has repeatedly identified as a major security threat, Trump is now involved in a plan to silence dissent from the left by designating anti-fascist protesters as a security concern. He is even trying to enlist foreign governments in the crusade (and reportedly being rebuffed for it).
In a situation like this, it is no wonder that the Patriot Front and similar groups feel they can operate so publicly. The president and his Republican Party have made clear that they are working along the same lines and are happy to put the government’s backing behind many of their shared ideas.
Figures with openly pro-Nazi ideology like podcaster Nick Fuentes are now in a position of influence on the mainstream right. Republican candidates and officials are starting to go even further than Trump in expressing racial and religious animus. That inclides Florida House member Randy Fine, who has doubled down on anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Even if Trump’s presidency totally collapses, the fates of the Patriot Front, the Republican Party, and the neo-Nazi/neo-Confederate movements are linked. They are all banding together in infecting the American system of government—and that’s why they marched unimpeded in America’s capital city on the Fourth of July.
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