The Nick Fuentes Spiral
In a recent text exchange, white-nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes, known for his provocative and often incendiary remarks, discussed his controversial position within American conservatism. Fuentes, who gained notoriety for his appearances on platforms like *The Tucker Carlson Show*, has sparked intense debate among conservative figures about the boundaries of acceptable discourse within the party. His past comments—ranging from praising Hitler to making derogatory remarks about various groups—have led many prominent Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, to publicly denounce his views. Yet, despite this backlash, Fuentes maintains a significant following among young conservatives, who identify themselves as “Groypers,” suggesting a troubling normalization of extremist ideologies within the broader conservative movement.
The fallout from Carlson’s interview with Fuentes has ignited a fierce internal battle among Republicans, with some, like Steve Bannon, supporting Carlson’s decision to platform Fuentes, while others vehemently oppose it. This schism has been likened to a civil war within the party, as factions grapple with the implications of embracing or rejecting figures like Fuentes. Critics argue that while Fuentes represents a small but growing contingent of anti-Semitic and racist views, his influence is increasingly evident in the rhetoric of younger conservatives. Notably, influencers such as Bronze Age Pervert and Charlie Kirk have been noted for their drift towards more extreme ideologies, further complicating the party’s efforts to distance itself from the Groypers. Even as leading conservatives attempt to condemn Fuentes, they often inadvertently echo his sentiments, revealing the deep-seated prejudices that have begun to permeate the right.
As the conversation around Fuentes continues to evolve, it highlights a critical juncture for the Republican Party. With the rise of extreme ideologies among young conservatives, the challenge lies not only in addressing the presence of figures like Fuentes but also in confronting the broader cultural shifts that have allowed such views to gain traction. The implications of this ideological battle extend beyond party lines, raising questions about the future of conservatism in America and the potential electoral consequences of embracing or rejecting bigotry. As Fuentes’s influence grows, Republicans must navigate this precarious landscape, balancing the desire for a unified front with the necessity of confronting the darker elements that threaten to undermine the party’s core values.
On Wednesday, I texted Nick Fuentes about being the center of an existential crisis in American conservatism. Fuentes, a white-nationalist influencer, appeared on
The Tucker Carlson Show
in October, which has enraged a number of prominent figures on the right and set off a spiraling conversation about where to draw the line on whom the party welcomes into its mainstream. “I don’t consider myself to be hateful or prejudiced,” he told me. “Just provocative and maybe tribalistic.”
Fuentes has repeatedly praised Hitler, likened “organized Jewry” to a “transnational gang,” said that women should be “subordinate” to their husband, and called Chicago “nigger hell.” In our text exchange, I reminded him of a
clip
from 2019 in which he said Jim Crow “was better for them; it’s better for us.” “What that 10 seconds clip from 7 years ago that is clearly a joke?” he responded. “You think thats a fair characterization of my body of work?”
I told him that he was free to disavow his comments right then. He responded with only a “HAHA” iMessage tapback.
This is characteristically Fuentes. His winking, joking-until-he-isn’t approach has helped him amass a loyal following—his fans call themselves “
Groypers
.” Carlson explained in his interview that he wanted to speak with the influencer because “I don’t think Fuentes is going away,” and that despite attempts to unseat him, “he’s bigger than ever.” Following the backlash, Carlson doubled down, telling Megyn Kelly last week that Fuentes is “the single most influential commentator among young men.”
The interview has become the defining subject of discourse on the right over the past month. A few prominent MAGA Republican voices, including Steve Bannon, have
signaled
support for Carlson. Many others, meanwhile, have been dealing with the fallout. Politicians including Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham have spoken out against Fuentes’s anti-Semitic views. Representative Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, told me that Fuentes is a “complete and total lunatic” and that everything he says is “completely wrong.” (Fine also isn’t fond of Carlson: “I’ve concluded that he’s an anti-Semite.” Carlson did not respond to a request for comment.)
“No to the Groypers,” the political commentator Ben Shapiro said on his podcast at the beginning of this month. “No to their publicists, like Tucker Carlson. No to those who champion them. No to demoralization. No to bigotry and antimeritocratic horseshit.” After Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, initially supported Carlson, he faced a staff revolt that has thrown the preeminent think tank into chaos. Roberts later backpedaled and called Fuentes an “
evil person
.”
Republicans are so at odds about how to handle Fuentes’s encroachment into their ranks that many commentators have likened their infighting to a
civil war
and posed it as a battle for the soul of the conservative movement. The critics of the Groypers themselves tend to downplay the scale of the conflict. They have suggested that the deeply bigoted factions of the right are a vocal but tiny minority that can be excised. In my conversation with Fine, he described right-wing anti-Semites to me as a “small but growing” contingent that the right can still “nip in the bud.” The right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza
posted on X
that the rise of extreme racism on the right could be electorally ruinous “if this continues.”
This
will
continue. Fuentes is not the origin of prejudices metastasizing on the right, nor is he the end point. Today, many popular figures among young conservatives espouse some level of ethno-nationalist ideology. Consider the influencer
Bronze Age Pervert
, who has
written
that Black Africans are “so divergent from the rest of humanity,” they could be a separate subspecies. Charlie Kirk, who was heralded as a moderate against Fuentes, had drifted further rightward in the years leading up to his assassination. For instance, Kirk
called
Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and once said that “we made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
“The Groyper thing is real,” Rod Dreher, a prominent right-wing writer who now lives in Hungary,
wrote on Substack this week
, after speaking with young conservatives during a trip to Washington. Even young Christians are “neck-deep in anti-Semitism,” he added. Recently
leaked chats
from Young Republican leaders suggest the same. In
internal Heritage Foundation emails discussing the Fuentes controversy
, published by the
New York Post
, one staffer for the think tank reportedly wrote: “Talking with some of the interns I think that there are a growing number of them who actually agree” with Fuentes.
In the rush to distance themselves from Fuentes, MAGA conservatives can easily downplay the extent to which Fuentes’s racist, trollish ideology has already embedded itself in the movement. It’s most apparent in younger groups, yet Groyper-speak also commonly seeps beyond those circles. Even Fuentes’s loudest critics on the right sometimes say things that sound as though they were ripped out of one of Fuentes’s notorious livestreams. Last summer, Senator Ted Cruz was among the many conservatives
who amplified the claim
that Haitian immigrants were eating cats—an unfounded notion that appears to have originated on a far-right social-media platform. At the Republican Jewish Coalition conference earlier this month, Fine called for New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani to be deported—“the only thing I want to see him running for is his gate at JFK on the deportation flight to Uganda,” he said—and claimed that Mamdani is leading a “modern-day Hitler Youth.” In July, Fine
implied
that Representative Ilhan Omar was a “Muslim terrorist.”
When I suggested to Fine that these comments sound
Fuentes-esque
, he rejected the comparison. Mamdani and Omar should be denaturalized, he said, because they engaged in immigration fraud to become citizens. (There is no evidence for this.)
Carlson offered Fuentes his largest audience yet, but the door has been cracking open for Fuentes for years. Now MAGA Republicans, along with everyone else, have to contend with him.
