One week into Donald Trump’s second administration and the verdict among far-right activists and neo-Nazis is that the next four years will be a time to relax, organize and take advantage of the popular awakening of American fascism.
“Be ready to cash out the next four years,” wrote one delighted neo-Nazi account on Telegram, in a post viewed more than 1,000 times. “Get the bag, infiltrate existing institutions with power, build new institutions while we have breathing room, and tear down anything leftist.”
During the Biden administration, which presided over an FBI that aggressively dismantled rightwing extremist groups of every ilk, along with the gargantuan January 6 investigations netting thousands of suspects, anxiety on the far right ran high.
Even in chatrooms online, major tech companies booted and reported them to authorities, while mainstream culture vilified their racist antics.
But now, things are different. Elon Musk’s salute has been described in the media as merely an ill-timed gesture and Trump pardoned 1,500 people involved in the January 6 attack on day one of his presidency.
“The left is exhausted, extremely unpopular, and has been divested from by their tech bro backers,” the same post continued. “Now is the time to openly advocate for ourselves. Now is the time to go from defense and survival towards organizing and swift action.”
Among the accelerationist neo-Nazis, an extremist sect calling for acts of terrorism to bring down society, the feeling seems just as nonchalant. Their consensus is that while it’s not the moment to entirely come out of the shadows, it is a time to celebrate the end of a Democratic-controlled US government.
Posting on several social media apps, including the Kremlin-controlled VKontakte, the proscribed neo-Nazi terrorist group the Base took the day of Trump’s inauguration to subtly flex, releasing a photo of four stateside members somewhere in Appalachia – the largest number of American members in one photo in over a year.