A far-right activist and influencer best known for his racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic rhetoric. He first attracted attention at 18 as one of the most vocal marchers at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. Less than an hour after a neo-Nazi plowed a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person, the then–Boston University student posted on Facebook that a “tidal wave of white identity is coming.” Since then, Fuentes has built a large online audience of mostly young men. His X account, which Elon Musk reinstated in 2024, has 1.2 million followers, and his America First livestream show attracts about 1 million views an episode. In one March show, he summarized his worldview as “Jews are running society. Women need to shut the f--- up. Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise.” In October, podcaster Tucker Carlson—an ally of Vice President JD Vance—hosted Fuentes for a sympathetic two-hour chat in which the self-declared fan of Hitler and Stalin blamed “organized Jewry” for undermining a unified America; nearly 7 million people watched the episode on YouTube and 18 million on X. The interview caused a schism on the Right and led conservative commentator Rod Dreher to warn that the GOP has a neo-Nazi problem: between 30% and 40% of Republican staffers in Washington under the age of 30, Dreher said, are “Groypers.”
What is a Groyper?
That’s the name used by Fuentes supporters, the “Groyper Army.” The origins of the moniker are unclear, but Fuentes fans have adopted a crudely drawn cartoon toad named Groyper—a variant on the far-right Pepe the Frog meme—as their logo. More a loosely knit network of internet trolls than an organized movement, they mock moderate Republicans and rail against pornography, the supposed feminization of America, and the passivity or “cucked” nature of mainstream Christianity. (Fuentes is a Catholic.) But the Groypers are so steeped in social media in-jokes and memes that it’s hard to know what they really believe. “Fuentes is among the best examples of ‘politics as fandom’ that exists,” said Katherine Dee, who writes bout internet culture. Beyond their fealty to Fuentes, she said, Groypers are “a fairly loose group without clear ideological borders.”
What does Fuentes actually believe?
Some conservative critics claim he is just a modern-day carnival barker, spouting hate to get clicks in an attention economy that rewards extremism. Fuentes says there’s some validity to that: His comment about women’s rights after President Trump’s 2024 election win—“Your body, my choice”—“was cheap rage bait.” But there’s no reason to think he isn’t sincere about his positions: support for an ethnic and religious hierarchy with white Christian men at the top; opposition to legal as well as illegal immigration; vehement antifeminism; and disdain for democracy. A former fan of Trump—and, in 2022, a Mar-a-Lago dinner guest—Fuentes now says that “Trump 2.0 has been a disappointment in literally every way” and that Trump is “incompetent, corrupt, and compromised.” He sees Vice President JD Vance as a corporate stooge and “a fat, gay race traitor”; Vance’s wife, Usha, is of Indian descent. Much of his anger toward the administration appears driven by its support of Israel.
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He opposes U.S. backing and funding for the country, claiming the alliance serves the interests of “Zionist Jews” rather than of the U.S. Fuentes endorses the antisemitic “great replacement theory,” arguing that “Jewish oligarchs” have enabled mass migration to the U.S. to destroy the country’s Christian heritage and the livelihoods of white men. He has also said “the Holocaust didn’t happen.” Although he later claimed that this was a mere provocation, Fuentes said in the Carlson interview the Holocaust is used to “browbeat” white Americans to keep them from being “too white and too proud and too Christian.”
How has the GOP reacted?
Mainstream Republicans such as Sens. Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz have denounced Fuentes, and Carlson for giving him a platform. Sen. Lindsey Graham made clear his position: “I’m in the ‘Hitler sucks’ wing of the Republican Party.” Not all are so opposed. After Carlson’s interview, Kevin Roberts, president of the influential conservative Heritage Foundation, put out a video describing Carlson’s critics as a “venomous coalition” of “the globalist class.” (“Globalist” is often used as code for “Jewish.”) This led to mass resignations at Heritage. But Trump has not condemned Fuentes, and Vance has only criticized him for attacking his wife, saying for that, Fuentes “can eat shit.” But Vance also appears keen to avoid alienating young Fuentes supporters, who could help him secure the GOP presidential nomination in 2028. He recently posted online that there’s a difference between antisemitism and “not liking Israel,” and has said the Right must avoid “self-defeating purity tests.” Vance, an ally told The Washington Post, “is walking a tightrope.”
What is Fuentes' goal?
Apart from attention and money—on his livestreams, Fuentes hawks merchandise and is paid by viewers to answer questions—he wants Groypers to infiltrate the U.S. establishment and GOP, and to displace traditional conservatism with far-right white nationalism. “Your job is to get into the Ivy League,” he told his followers. “Your job is to get into these offices and do what you need to do.” He advises them to hide their views: “Hold it close to the chest.” Groypers must play a long game, he said, noting that Pat Buchanan, whom many see as the intellectual godfather of Trumpism, first ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 1992. “He didn’t see his vision realized until 2016—24 years later,” Fuentes said. “Are you ready to go until 2040, until 2050?”
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