From The New Republic
Extremist groups are some of the biggest winners of the second Trump administration.
The first year of Donald Trump’s second term in office was marked by the rapid implementation of his far-right program. From ICE to DOGE, from anti-DEI to anti-antifa, and from bombing boats to $400 million bribes, Trump’s regime has turned out even more extreme than feared after he was elected to a second term in November 2024. His words and actions as president have been covered extensively over the past year, as have those of a number of internal advisers and outside confidants, like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. However, the grassroots far right, and its influence over the administration, has received far less attention.
One of Trump’s first acts of his second term was to pardon the hundreds of people who were arrested, and in many cases convicted, for their role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Once pardoned, many of these individuals wasted no time in calling for retribution against the FBI and prosecutors and trying to sue the government. Several have been subsequently arrested for crimes including kidnapping and child molestation.
But the most important event for the far right in 2025 was the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Head of the right-wing Turning Point USA, or TPUSA, a political action group focused on young people, Kirk was an anti-trans and racist propagandist known for debating liberals on college campuses. After his death, he was made into a Christian martyr and Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Many people who made critical comments about him were fired or suspended, the most prominent of whom was late-night host Jimmy Kimmel—although public outcry forced his return.
Spencer Sunshine is a longtime researcher of the far right and the author of ‘Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege’.
More content from this blog
- Hong Kong in Protest, Redux. Interview with Ching Kwan Lee and Jeffrey Wasserstrom – 25 November 2025
- The Trans Movement of Buenos Aires takes on Milei, by Jon Weman – 26 February 2025
- Trump: First Lessons and First Battles, by Arguments Pour la Lutte Sociale – 6 November 2024
- Myanmar and the Perils of Prediction, by Andrew Selth – 5 September 2025
- Open Letter to the International Anti‑War Conference in London, by Snizhana Oleksun – 20 June 2026