Copyright Slate
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Nick Fuentes, a 27-year-old white nationalist livestreamer, routinely uses his platform to deny the Holocaust, praise Adolf Hitler, denigrate women as “baby machines,” and make wildly racist statements. Fuentes’ abhorrent views have propelled him to far-right celebrity status, and he presides over a movement of “groypers”—young, highly online incels, neo-Nazis, and racist shitposters who follow him. Over the years, Fuentes has been crystal clear about his ultimate goal: dragging mainstream conservatism into the bowels of the far right, to a place where all Republicans feel that they can throw up a Hitler salute or drop the N-word without consequence. And this week, Fuentes edged ever closer to that goal. He did so thanks to Tucker Carlson, who had Fuentes as a guest on his show. The segment included Fuentes—without challenge from Carlson—opining on “the Jews,” who he called “unassimilable,” and rolling critiques of Israel into antisemitic conspiracies. The interview racked up nearly 5 million views on YouTube. It has also divided the right. Some conservative commentators criticized Carlson for hosting Fuentes, noting that he was a longtime adversary of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, the founder of conservative youth movement Turning Point USA who was assassinated in September. Commentator Dinesh D’Souza surfaced old texts in which the late Kirk described Fuentes as “vermin” and said debating him was a “massive mistake.” Other critics included far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is Jewish and who has feuded with both Carlson and Fuentes in recent months. Sen. Ted Cruz, without mentioning Carlson by name, said at an event that it was a “cowardly and complicit” decision to platform “someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool.” Others defended Carlson’s decision to platform Fuentes, mainly on free speech grounds. Overall, the divided response to the Fuentes interview somewhat mirrored the response from the right after Politico exposed the racism and antisemitism in young Republican leaders’ group chats. But the biggest green light Fuentes received following the Carlson interview came from the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank that was founded in 1973 and has been enormously influential over American conservatism and the Trump administration. Its positions are considered bellwethers for the broader conservative movement. In a video published online on Thursday, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts dispelled rumors that they were preparing to distance themselves from Carlson for hosting Fuentes. “The Heritage Foundation did not become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing that now,” said Roberts. “I disagree with or even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him isn’t the answer either.” Roberts said critics of Carlson were part of a “venomous coalition.” The right, including Roberts and the Heritage Foundation, might not love Fuentes and the groyper movement. But the events of this week suggest that Fuentes, once a pariah, is now being brought into the big tent of Republican politics. There are no limits on how far right you can go, so long as you’re willing to join the fight against the center and left. This is the culmination of a yearslong effort by Fuentes and the groypers to build power and influence in mainstream politics. Fuentes has proved enormously resilient over the years, building inroads into the GOP even as his rhetoric has grown more vile. He has grown his audience, despite deplatforming and demonetization. After he was exposed as a participant in the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Fuentes distanced himself from the swastika-waving contingent of the far right and pursued a new optics-friendly suit-and-tie aesthetic that he hoped would appeal more to disaffected young conservative men. Fuentes tried to pitch himself and his band of racist followers, who became known as groypers, as the authentic voice for young conservatives—and went to war against Kirk’s college organization Turning Point USA, who were, comparatively speaking, more politically moderate. Fuentes cast TPUSA as a RINO organization—Republican in Name Only—that was overly beholden to cancel culture, and urged his supporters to harass, dox, and troll Kirk and his members. These became known as the “groyper wars.” In 2020, Fuentes had rebranded as a devout Catholic and latched onto the “Stop the Steal” election conspiracy movement, which culminated with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. His involvement in that movement gave him access to many high-profile Trump loyalists, including Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who later spoke at conferences hosted by Fuentes. (Following a backlash, Greene and Gosar ultimately disavowed Fuentes). In 2022, Fuentes teamed up with Ye (formerly Kanye West), joining his presidential campaign, and was present for a string of disastrous media appearances in which the disgraced rapper stated bluntly, on several occasions, “I love Hitler.” Despite Ye having become a cultural pariah, he was invited to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022, and brought Fuentes along with him. Trump brushed off criticism after their cozy dinner was publicized, saying he didn’t really know who Fuentes was. The president was reportedly urged by advisers to outright condemn Fuentes, but demurred, as he didn’t want to rankle supporters, the Guardian reported. In recent months, Fuentes has been taking a victory lap. The Overton window—the range of rhetoric deemed acceptable in society—has successfully lurched to the right, he’s claimed. Weeks prior to Charlie Kirk’s murder, Fuentes claimed he had successfully infected Turning Point USA with his own ideology. “I took your baby, Turning Point USA, and I fucked it,” he said on a livestream. “And I’ve been fucking it. And that’s why it’s filled with groypers.” Fuentes also saw victory in some of the questions that Vice President J.D. Vance fielded at a TPUSA event this week, including questions like “Is Trump controlled by Israel?” and “Why did you marry a Hindu?” “The Groypers have taken over,” Fuentes wrote on X. “We run this.”
