Far-right chatrooms are abuzz as extremists plan to use the next four years as ‘breathing room’ and look to expand. One week into Donald Trump’s second administration and the verdict among far-right activists and neo-Nazis is that the next four years will be a time to relax, organize and take advantage of the popular awakening of American fascism. “Be ready to cash out the next four years,” wrote one delighted neo-Nazi account on Telegram, in a post viewed more than 1,000 times. “Get the bag, infiltrate existing institutions with power, build new institutions while we have breathing room, and tear down anything leftist.” (…) But now, things are different. Elon Musk’s salute has been described in the media as merely an ill-timed gesture and Trump pardoned 1,500 people involved in the January 6 attack on day one of his presidency. “The left is exhausted, extremely unpopular, and has been divested from by their tech bro backers,” the same post continued. “Now is the time to openly advocate for ourselves. Now is the time to go from defense and survival towards organizing and swift action.” Among the accelerationist neo-Nazis, an extremist sect calling for acts of terrorism to bring down society, the feeling seems just as nonchalant. (…) Posting on several social media apps, including the Kremlin-controlled VKontakte, the proscribed neo-Nazi terrorist group the Base took the day of Trump’s inauguration to subtly flex, releasing a photo of four stateside members somewhere in Appalachia – the largest number of American members in one photo in over a year. Not long ago, the Base seemed dead. It was the subject of a major nationwide FBI crackdown, seeing more than a dozen of its members arrested for a laundry list of terrorist activities across the US and Europe. But in 2025, their numbers aren’t shrinking. Another prominent neo-Nazi and New England-based former member of the Base told his followers on Telegram to “see the opportunity” in the next four years. “South Americans are crying at the border as the CPB1 app is shut down, refugee flights are already being cancelled, Border Patrol is lined up at points of entry,” he posted. “These are products of organized political will on the system.” He continued: “Of course we can do better, and that’s exactly what I’m advocating for.” Other groups went further, pushing their own xenophobic and anti-immigration dreams and seizing on activist tactics to do it. The Aryan Freedom Network, a neo-Nazi political organization with chapters all over the country, urged members to “find companies that are hiring or harboring illegal aliens and reporting them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE. “In order for us all to stop the Great Replacement and to save the white working class jobs, every white nationalist must do their part to save white America!” it said, before posting contacts to Ice tip lines.
via guardian: Energized neo-Nazis feel their moment has come as Trump changes everything