Standing behind a podium on a rooftop bar in Detroit, Michigan, Nick Fuentes rushes to wrap up his speech before security shuts his party down. Fuentes, a Christian nationalist livestreamer best known for latching onto Kanye West’s pro-Hitler presidential campaign, looks out at the crowd. VIP guests of the neighboring Turning Point USA convention, officers of county GOPs, and members of Young Republican clubs pack the bar.
“Everybody’s making a hard turn for ‘Fuck off Jew.’ It’s a hard right turn,” Fuentes says, laughing. The line is a reference to “Heck Off, Commie,” a far-right YouTube show run by one of Fuentes’s competitors. The crowd eats it up, chanting back “Fuck off Jew, fuck off Jew.” Fuentes shakes his head, grinning. “No, but that’s only a joke!”
He then gets serious, turning to former President Donald Trump’s support of Israel. The issue has always been a point of contention for Fuentes and has only intensified since October 7. Trump used to be their voice, Fuentes says, but now he seems more concerned with Israel. “I don’t know about you guys, but when he goes up there and says, ‘We’re gonna throw out all the anti-Israel protesters,’ that’s not my voice,” Fuentes says, referring to Trump’s promise to deport any foreign students participating in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.
Photo: Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“You know that I am your voice,” Fuentes reassures them. “So in the spirit of me being your voice, I want you to raise your right hand, and repeat after me: ‘I solemnly swear that I will put America First and I will put Israel last every single time, because Christ is our king.’”
As he pauses for the audience response, people hold their right hands up as though they are taking a pledge. One man extends his arm into a Sieg Heil, giving Fuentes the Nazi-era salute as he repeats the words. Some people drop their hands early, perhaps noticing the salute, or maybe just tired of the position. But others slowly stretch their arms out too. By the end of the pledge, several people have made Sieg Heils.
“Because Christ is our king.”
Welcome to the fourth America First Political Action Conference.
Mainstreaming Extremism
Detroit is probably not the place you would expect to find a Republican convention, but that’s exactly where Turning Point USA chose to hold the People’s Convention in June. Founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, Turning Point USA is an ostensibly mainstream youth-oriented conservative organization that has shifted into solidly MAGA territory. While TPUSA started as a network of conservative clubs on college campuses, it now includes high school chapters, a faith group, and a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit. The latter entity, Turning Point Action, is the arm responsible for the annual conference — and it is also boosting Trump 2024’s campaign. TPA is planning to spend $108 million on get-out-the-vote efforts in Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Turning Point Action also has a sizable footprint at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week, taking over an entire restaurant within the secured perimeter for what it dubbed the Turning Point RNC Headquarters.
Fuentes has piggybacked off of the Republican conference circuit for years, holding his increasingly explicitly white nationalist America First Political Action Conference near the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, and Turning Point USA. He has been banned from events hosted by both organizations, and for good reason. Fuentes has openly praised Hitler, suggested he would like to marry a 16-year-old girl, and clearly stated that he does not want Jewish people in government. But having his own conference in such close proximity to mainstream events allows for a built-in audience — and the chance to recruit new, sympathetic followers.
For a time, association with Fuentes was enough to tank a career in politics. TPUSA used to make an effort to maintain a distance from him, even severing ties with an influencer after she appeared in a photo with Fuentes. On the first day of the TPUSA conference, Fuentes showed up knowing he would be kicked out. Wearing a red hoodie, sunglasses, and ill-fitting jeans, he led a small group of young men into the convention center. Once inside, attendees broke out in applause and chants of “groyper, groyper,” the name Fuentes fans have given themselves. Security quickly showed up and escorted Fuentes out.
The process is tradition at this point. The man who escorted Fuentes out had done so in the past at TPUSA events in other cities. Something different, though, was Fuentes’s posse’s lack of effort to conceal their identities or their status as TPUSA attendees. Some of the men who followed Fuentes into the convention were known figures. MMA fighter turned right-wing poster Jake Shields was in the mix, as were streamers from Fuentes’s livestreaming platform. But one lower-profile man hung close to Fuentes, only obscuring his face with sunglasses: Alec Beaton, the youth chair for the St. Clair County, Michigan, GOP. Like many of the men in the group, Beaton had a Turning Point badge around his neck. While TPUSA still does not directly associate with Fuentes, its conference attendees openly hanging out with him suggests that its hard line has changed.
Shields later informed me that he had come out “because I had a pass for Nick,” and that he returned to the conference the next day. TPUSA did not respond to my request for comment, nor did Beaton.
It’s possible that the groypers’ confidence was boosted by the political connections Fuentes has established within the GOP. In November 2022, he accompanied hip-hop artist Kanye West to dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump. In October of last year, Fuentes met with former Texas state Rep. Jonathan Stickland for nearly seven hours. Stickland was the head of a well-connected consulting firm and a political action committee that received funding primarily from Tim Dunn, a major conservative donor in Texas. The Republican Party of Texas faced internal turmoil over whether to ban party-affiliated groups from associating with Fuentes, but the movement ultimately failed. A spinoff PAC, Texans United for a Conservative Majority, received $3.75 million from Dunn in a three-month period earlier this year. While Stickland is not affiliated with that PAC, he has launched a new firm with the help of a senior Texas GOP official.
“I don’t think Fuentes is as toxic as people believe,” said Shane Burley, co-author of the book “Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide To Fighting Antisemitism.” “The world of online influencers who make outrageous statements has become mainstream. You’re more likely to be around extreme voices without having to take responsibility for it.”
A Hostile Reception
Fuentes had planned to host his fourth AFPAC alongside the People’s Convention in Detroit at the Russell Industrial Center. However, the day before his conference, the venue informed Fuentes that it would not host the event. The Russell Industrial Center stated that it was deceived by AFPAC and would never have agreed to host the group, which had reserved the space through a third party. When Fuentes refused to leave, the staff called the police, who sided with the venue. Fuentes mentioned that he planned to sue.
Fuentes did not inform potential attendees that the venue was in jeopardy, leaving them in the dark. Later, he claimed on social media and during a livestream that he was working on finding a new location for the conference. Despite the confusion, groups of men wearing suits and blue America First hats roamed around downtown Detroit, searching for information on AFPAC.
After some investigation, I discovered where at least some AFPAC attendees would be gathering. An employee of Detroit’s Siren Hotel confirmed that the hotel’s Ash Bar restaurant would host AFPAC’s smaller VIP dinner. However, Fuentes eventually revealed that AFPAC IV was canceled. The Siren Hotel denied hosting the dinner and did not respond to inquiries about the event.
Detroit appeared particularly unwelcoming to Fuentes’s ideas compared to other cities that have hosted AFPAC. Attendees, who had expressed reluctance about coming to Detroit, found themselves without plans. They eventually gathered and marched around the city before holding an impromptu rally in front of a hotel near the convention center.
Despite Trump speaking at TPUSA and Fuentes being absent, a sizable crowd had gathered by the time I arrived. Some attendees recognized me from my previous undercover work in the far right or from my subsequent reporting. Others may have known me due to Fuentes mentioning me on his show.
I noticed Paul Ingrassia, an attorney affiliated with the New York Young Republican Club, near the makeshift stage at the hotel. Ingrassia works for the National Constitutional Law Union, a right-wing organization with ties to Trump. Chants of “We want Nick” erupted as Fuentes’s friends and streamers tried to drum up excitement for his arrival, although the wind made it difficult to hear. After waiting for Fuentes for 15 minutes, it was announced that he was on his way.
Photo: Amanda Moore
When I reached out to Ingrassia to ask about his decision to attend the rally, he accused me of stalking him, made a barely veiled threat to sue me, and declared, “As a matter of best practices, to the extent you publish anything using my name, you have a duty to reprint my statement in full.” (I don’t, and I won’t.) Ingrassia said “it looked like a prayer vigil or some type of protest” and claimed he “walked past there for maybe 5 minutes out of curiosity … there was a lot of confusion, it was impossible to avoid if you were heading on foot in that direction.”
When Fuentes showed up, he commandeered the rooftop of the hotel, with his posse guarding the steps up. The group was steadily growing as TPUSA attendees exited Trump’s speech.
“Henry Ford was a genius,” Fuentes shouted into his megaphone, before bemoaning Ford’s “cancellation” for his intense antisemitism. “But Henry Ford is a great patriot, and his activism in exposing the influence of the Zionist movement and the Jewish mafia in the United States was an act of patriotism that we are all grateful for.”
“I freaking love Hitler!” one of Fuentes’s friends on the rooftop shouted.
A sea of maskless groypers stood staring up at Fuentes. Some of the men near me had Turning Point USA badges around their necks. Not long ago, it would have been unthinkable for credentialed TPUSA attendees to be in the middle of this crowd. Now, it hardly seemed to matter.
“Astonishingly Self-Assured”
The crowd thinned out shortly after Fuentes’s speech. After facing two cancellations, it seemed like the night was over for the groypers. It didn’t take long for them to start posting that the left could not keep them down, though. They had found another venue: Exodos Rooftop.
Inside the venue, there had been several increasingly bigoted speeches, according to videos that were posted online and my interview with a reporter who was in attendance. Jared Taylor, who organizes the white nationalist American Renaissance conference, talked about making America a white country. (He did not respond to my email about the event.) By the time Fuentes spoke, the antisemitic chants were too much. The staff, unaware who they had given the space to, turned the music up over their voices, drowning out the speeches. (The club did not respond to requests for comment.)
The crowd grew angry, and a groyper threw a drink at security. Conservative social media influencer Joey Mannarino got in the face of a bouncer and screamed “Fuck you!”, video from that night shows. (Mannarino later told me that he “arrived late” and “didn’t really get to see any of the speeches.” Mannarino, who is mutuals with Fuentes on X, also said, “I don’t know much about his ‘reputation’ because he’s so hard to watch due to social media banning him I haven’t ever had the chance to really see much of what he has to say.”)
The crowd joined in, chanting “Fuck you!” Finally, Sneako, a misogynist, pro-Hitler streamer and ally of white nationalism, reached up and knocked the bouncer’s hat off, another video shows. (Sneako, who is Black, did not respond to my request for comment.) In an instant, the bouncer raised his fist and dove through the air, punching Sneako in the face and breaking one of his teeth in half. The party was finally over.
As they trickled out, I saw Mark Ivanyo, the executive director of Republicans for National Renewal. RNR is a populist organization that often tables at TPUSA and CPAC (in both the U.S. and Hungary). It is known for its parties that show off how well connected its members are. Ivanyo spoke at CPAC Hungary earlier this year and recently was elected to be an at-large delegate for Texas at the Republican National Convention. Ivanyo had been slated to be a featured VIP guest at AFPAC. The conference’s social media team had tweeted a flier advertising his appearance, before quickly taking it down.
“Mark! Mark Ivanyo!” I yelled out, trying to get his attention, but to no avail. Ivanyo seemed to be ignoring me.
When I followed up with him to inquire about his presence at the rooftop gathering and his advertised appearance as a VIP guest, he informed me that he was no longer an RNC delegate due to a “scheduling conflict,” without providing any evidence to support his claim. He requested proof of my allegations, but did not respond after I sent him photographs, videos, and a screenshot of the tweet promoting his appearance.
A few days later, I encountered Ivanyo in Milwaukee at the RNC, where he ignored me and refused to acknowledge my inquiries in person. Although the Republican Party of Texas did not reply to my email regarding whether Ivanyo had been replaced as a delegate, he was seen in photos on social media with the Texas delegation on the convention floor.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, Lauren Witzke, the Delaware GOP’s 2020 Senate candidate, made appearances in videos from the event. She has promoted the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory and holds the belief that Jewish individuals should not hold positions of power in our government. Juliana Lombard, a VIP guest at the People’s Convention and former socials chair of NYYRC, was also present. In footage of Fuentes’s speech, Lombard can be observed watching from a balcony as the crowd below chants derogatory remarks. Lombard is currently running for a Republican municipal office in Hudson County, New Jersey. She did not respond to my inquiries about her attendance.
Traditionally, attendees at AFPAC events have followed strict guidelines regarding photography and videography. However, this year, even footage from the “private” event was widely shared on social media platforms. According to David Neiwert, a researcher, author, and journalist who has extensively studied the far right, these individuals exhibit a high level of confidence in openly showcasing their connections. They firmly believe in Trump’s victory and their subsequent rise to power, hence the open display of their affiliations.
Source link
