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On Tuesday, we published a long look at the Proud Boys, which included details on encrypted apps where one of their most extremist leaders is suggesting some of his compatriots have joined President Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. This is one of the first indications that people on the militant far-right fringe have responded to the Trump Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation recruitment drive, which has included nods to white supremacist memes and other racially charged themes.
One instance of this occurred this week when blatantly anti-Semitic X accounts began sharing a promotional Facebook video from the U.S. Border Patrol that was soundtracked with a controversial 1996 song from Michael Jackson that included the slur “kike.” As news of the video — and its embrace by extremists — made the rounds on Wednesday, Border Patrol took the clip offline.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided a statement to TPM on Friday arguing the situation was a non-issue.
“We deleted the post and will update with different music. End of story,” McLaughlin said.
But there clearly is a story here. And it’s about more than the Proud Boys and DHS’ online content. On Tuesday, there was another situation that exposed how Nazi themes and ideas are increasingly at home in more mainstream Republican circles. Politico published a story based on a trove of leaked Telegram chats from a nationwide network of leaders of the Young Republicans groups. The conversations included jokes about gas chambers, racist comments about Black people and one particularly blunt message: “I love Hitler.”
That bombshell wasn’t even the only story related to the GOP and Nazism that came out this week. On Wednesday, an X user shared images from a Zoom call with a staffer in the office of Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) that showed an American flag emblazoned with a swastika hanging behind him. Taylor and other GOP members later claimed the situation was part of a “ruse” where a group posed as conservatives and handed out altered “optical illusion” flags to multiple Republican offices.
Even if this one situation really was some kind of complex prank, there are issues with GOP Hill staffers who have been involved with neo-Nazism. Overall, between DHS apparently attracting the Proud Boys, anti-Semites enjoying slurs in Border Patrol videos, and Young Republicans making Hitler jokes, it is increasingly clear that a more open embrace of extremism is a real feature of the GOP in the Trump era.
In the past, reporters and others used to have a saying when people with extremist sympathies would accidentally expose them. It was called “saying the quiet part out loud.” Now, with the Proud Boys increasingly emboldened and government agencies sharing memes that seemed ripped out of 4chan, there isn’t really a quiet part any more. It’s all very loud and clear: White nationalist extremism is at the core of the Republican Party and the current administration.
One person who seems to agree with that is the online streamer and unashamed admirer of Hitler, Nick Fuentes. On Tuesday, Fuentes claimed on his show that his followers, who are known as groypers, are “all over the government.”
“There’s groypers in government,” Fuentes said. “There’s groypers in every department, every agency, OK?”
— Hunter Walker
Here’s what else TPM has on tap:
- A bipartisan group of senators are pushing a vote that would block the government from conducting ground strikes on Venezuela.
- The former Democratic governor of Maine who is challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the midterms made the disappointing-for-progressives announcement on Thursday that she supports keeping the filibuster in place if she is elected.
- Some Democrats are pushing for a guarantee that laid-off federal workers will be rehired if Democrats help Republicans reopen the government.
- House Democratic leadership is looking for more ways to offset the impacts of President Trump’s power grab, as he successfully forces Republican state legislatures across the nation to engage in mid-cycle gerrymandering so that the GOP can keep the House in 2026.
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3 Sens Force War Powers Vote on Venezuela
A bipartisan group of senators are pushing a vote that would block the government from conducting ground strikes on Venezuela.
This week saw more escalation in the U.S.’s military buildup near Venezuela. President Trump said that he had authorized the CIA to conduct operations in the country. The Air Force flew B-52s off the coast while special forces reportedly hovered nearby in helicopters. The administration blew up another boat, this time with two survivors who are reportedly being held by the military.
Now, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are introducing a War Powers Resolution that would block an attack on ground sites in Venezuela. A broader resolution that would have blocked more actions failed after the GOP withheld support earlier this month. It’s not clear where this will go, but it’s a testament to the urgency of the situation.
— Josh Kovensky
Mills Fails the Most Important Litmus Test
Janet Mills, former Maine governor and Democratic leadership’s preferred candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), would support keeping the filibuster if elected, per the Bangor Daily News.
No one (sane) would question the Democratic candidate for this seat leaning right on some issues; there’s a reason a Republican has enjoyed such staying power in a state that routinely votes for Democratic presidential candidates by large margins. But supporting the filibuster is simply not the same thing as being more supportive of gun rights or border protection than the typical Democrat.
If Democrats ever win a trifecta again, they’ll have to pass significant, by today’s standards, radical reform to ensure that no one else can rise in Trump’s image and so weaponize the federal government. That would include neutering the Supreme Court, making Washington D.C. a state, devising a new way to protect civil servants from at-will firing. It’ll be the kind of reforms that make the right-wing and mainstream media howl about extremist overreach, the kind that today’s brand of mainstream Democrat absolutely couldn’t stomach. Abolishing the filibuster is the least of these, and a candidate who can’t even commit to getting rid of a fairly new, made-up obstacle to majority rule that overwhelmingly benefits Republicans is unfit for the job ahead.
— Kate Riga
Some Dems Want Guarantee That Fed Workers Will Be Rehired If They Help End Shutdown
We’re three weeks into the government shutdown — 18 days to be exact — with no signs of change on the horizon. Democrats have not backed away from their health care demands, including their ask to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. And Republicans continue to say they will not negotiate.
But amid the White House and the Office of Management and Budget’s attempt to do mass layoffs of federal workers, a new Democrat ask may be on the horizon: a commitment that employees subjected to reductions in force, aka RIFs, will be rehired before Democrats agree to give Republicans the votes they need.
“It’d be pretty unconscionable to open it up and still have to put up with those thousands and thousands of firings,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) said, per Politico.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) also said cancellation of the RIFs “certainly should be on the table.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has, of course, denounced the RIFs but hasn’t said if he thinks backtracking the layoffs should be a part of a deal to reopen the government.
Hoyer added that he thinks they will also be reversed by the courts.
A federal judge on Wednesday did issue a temporary restraining order, blocking the Trump administration from laying off almost 4,000 federal workers during the government shutdown, though that is not a guarantee of a victory for the unions who are suing the government over the RIFs. Meanwhile OMB Director Russ Vought continues to insist the initial RIFs were just “a snapshot” of what is to come.
— Emine Yücel
Dems Look to Maryland and Illinois to Offset GOP Redistricting Campaign
As Republicans cave to President Trump’s pressure campaign to engage in mid-decade redistricting efforts, Democrats are looking towards Maryland and Illinois to draw new district maps to offset the Trump power grab, according to reporting from NBC and Politico.
The Trump administration is openly pushing GOP-held legislatures to redraw congressional maps to help Republicans keep the U.S. House in the midterms. Democrat counter-efforts are underway in California, where voters are being asked to weigh in on a ballot measure to temporarily approve new House districts that would favor their party, and they are under discussion in other blue states, too.
Earlier this week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, per NBC, met with Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, as well as members of the Illinois congressional delegation, about possible redistricting plans in the state.
Jeffries has also reportedly been in contact with Illinois Democrats to discuss redistricting efforts. Although no revised maps have been shown during these conversations some potential revised boundaries were, according to Politico.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker previously acknowledged in an interview with NPR that redistricting is something he would consider.
“None of us want to do it. None of us want to go through a redistricting process. But if we’re forced to, it’s something we’ll consider doing,” he said.
— Khaya Himmelman
