NYT extremism and political violence correspondent Alan Feuer (“In Trump’s Second Term, Far-Right Agenda Enters the Mainstream“):
During President Trump’s first turn in the White House, right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys were on the streets, weekend after weekend, raising their voices — and oftentimes their fists — about issues such as immigration, the squelching of conservative speech and the removal of Confederate-era statues.
But in the first seven months of Mr. Trump’s second term, there has been a conspicuous absence of far-right demonstrations. And that, some leaders of the movement say, is because the president has effectively adopted their agenda.
“Things we were doing and talking about in 2017 that were taboo, they’re no longer taboo — they’re mainstream now,” said Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, who took part in many of those early far-right rallies. “Honestly, what do we have to complain about these days?”
Whether it is dismantling diversity programs, complaining about anti-white bias in museums or simply promoting an aura of authoritarian nationalism, Mr. Trump has embraced an array of far-right views and talking points in ways that have delighted many right-wing activists who have long supported those ideas.
His administration has also hired several people with a history of making racist or antisemitic remarks or who have looked favorably on the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Far-right figures have been particularly thrilled by Mr. Trump’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, praising not only the ubiquitous images of masked federal agents raiding farms and factories, but also the ideology that has fueled those moves: a belief that migration to the United States is all but synonymous with a military invasion.
[…]
During the Biden administration, far-right organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were severely hobbled, largely by the criminal prosecutions of dozens of their members who took part in the Capitol attack.
The Oath Keepers, a militia-style group of current and former military and law enforcement personnel, barely exists anymore. Its founder, Stewart Rhodes, no longer appears in public as often as he once did at far-right demonstrations or standoffs with the government.
[…]
[T]his time around, Mr. Trump and his administration seem less interested in distance or denial.
On his first day back in the White House, he issued a remarkably sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 rioters who took part in the Capitol attack, including those who assaulted the police and were convicted — like Mr. Tarrio — of sedition.
He also issued two executive orders: “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” and “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” Both drew on language and ideas about immigrants that echoed statements made by violent extremists who attacked Hispanics in El Paso, the Black community in Buffalo and Jews in Pittsburgh.
The next month, Mr. Trump issued an executive order halting foreign aid to South Africa and allowing members of the country’s white minority to settle in the United States through a refugee program.
In the order, he said that American officials should do everything possible to help “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.” The view effectively amounted to a government endorsement of long-held far-right theories about mistreatment of white South Africans in the post-apartheid era.
There’s more, including a lot of quotations from people who now hold important roles in the administration, but you get the point.
When President Trump pardoned or granted clemency to even the most violent of the January 6 criminals, it meant that political violence in support of his administration wouldn’t be punished. As chilling as that was, it also signaled that his opponents should fear getting in the way.
The mass mobilization of ICE agents and National Guard troops to round up immigrants is a huge win for the white nationalists. It is, alas, also in line with Trump’s repeated campaign promises.
Egg prices, meanwhile, are about what they were in November.
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Author: James Joyner
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