On a livestream one night in early November, a man donated $10 to Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who would in a few short weeks
dine with Donald Trump.
This particular $10 donation entitled the donor, who identified himself as Alex Roncelli, to post a message in the
superchat so that his message would play during Fuentes’ show. “nick i wanted to say thanks… i ran for GOP chair and won. in the reddest of red counties in michigan i won. i promise progress. thanks for your inspiration, thanks for everything.”
Fuentes was utterly dumbfounded. “Dude!” Fuentes said after the message played. He looked up at the ceiling and paused. “I’m just not going to make a big deal of that.”
Why a local GOP official would publicly out himself as a follower of Fuentes was apparently beyond Fuentes’ grasp. Fuentes leads the America First youth movement, a
white nationalist, Christian nationalist movement of mostly young white men who refer to themselves as
“groypers.” Fuentes has promised to build an
army of groypers to infiltrate Capitol Hill and the Trump administration and
encouraged his followers to embed themselves within their local GOP infrastructure. Fuentes’ promotion of this strategy, like choosing a rhetorical theme from Trump’s campaign for his movement’s name, reflects his stated goal of infiltrating the broader conservative movement and dragging it further to the far right.