What The Hell America!

The Southern Poverty Law Center works to dismantle white supremacy in public forums and online, exposes hate and anti-democracy extremism and counters disinformation and conspiracies with research and community resources. The Intelligence Project monitors and exposes white supremacy and its impact on communities.

Male supremacy & Anti-abortion Extremism  

• Since President Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists in January, members of the anti-abortion movement have been organizing their next wave of activism. Beginning March 12, the hate group Operation Save America held a three-day gathering in Greenville, South Carolina. State Rep. Rob Harris, who has introduced multiple “abolitionist” abortion bills that would treat abortion as murder, spoke at the event. 
• Members of abortion abolitionist hate groups End Abortion Now, Operation Save America and Foundation to Abolish Abortion rallied at the Georgia Capitol on March 26 to show their support for HB 441. If passed, this bill would allow the state to charge those who get abortions with murder, ban IVF treatment, and subject women in Georgia to unequal treatment under the law. The hearing concluded without a vote. 
• Abolitionists Rising held its annual conference in Washington, D.C., from March 20 to 22. The event drew several hundred supporters who protested outside of the White House, Capitol building, and Supreme Court. This event was dedicated to calls for federal abortion abolitionist legislation and marked a significant shift for the organization, which was previously focused on state and local legislative efforts. 

• David Skrbina was identified and exposed as the Pro-Nazi, antisemitic author Thomas Dalton. Writing as Dalton, Skrbina has authored several Holocaust denial and revisionism books over the last decade and is a principal contact and author for the antisemitic hate group and book publisher Clemens and Blair. 
• In March, a federal court in California found Robert Boman, a member of the now-defunct white nationalist group Rise Above Movement, guilty on charges stemming from his involvement in attacks on left-wing protesters. The incidents took place at a series of rallies in 2017. Boman, who was found to have conspired to violate and to have violated the anti-riot act, will be sentenced in August. 
• Jared Taylor, the head of the white nationalist organization American Renaissance, spoke at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado, on March 27. According to reporting from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Jason Lee Van Dyke, a former Proud Boys leader and a Texas-based attorney for multiple hate groups, donated $1,000 to help fund the event. 

• Michael Flynn raised the specter that President Donald Trump may need to enact martial law again claiming that before Trump’s first four years, the country was facing “a home grown coup with Marxist characteristics. A takeover of our way of life.” Flynn has advocated for martial law, and Trump has now appointed him to West Point’s board of visitors. 
• On April 7, Roger Stone, who helped coordinate rallies denying the results of the 2020 presidential election, went on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show and alleged that the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, won by Susan Crawford, was stolen. “It’s a matter of simple math. The numbers just don’t add up,” Stone said. Elon Musk went on to elevate Stone’s theory on X, retweeting “hmm” to an Alex Jones post referencing it. No proof has come out to back up Stone’s theory. 
• Mike Lindell, a major player in the cottage industry that promoted conspiracy theories regarding supposed voter fraud following the 2020 election, has announced he’s planning to run for governor of Minnesota in 2026. As the local press has pointed out, Lindell will have to reestablish residency in the state, as he’s been living in Texas. 
• On April 2, findings published in Nature provided new insight for modeling the impact of the spread of misinformation on social media by individuals who had been exposed to this information. The findings were based on research that examined the spread of misinformation across social media and the COVID-19 vaccination rates. The modeling approach allows researchers to “simulate various scenarios to understand how epidemic spreading can be affected by misinformation spreading through one particular social media platform,” allowing for a deeper understanding of the potential harms and real-world consequences of misinformation.  

Attacks on public education 

• The Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) Board of Trustees voted to defund the Fairhope Public Library following complaints about books in the teen section. Moms for Liberty, along with Clean Up Alabama, has been active in filing complaints and running petitions against the library. Clean Up Alabama praised the decision of the board, which also included the immediate firing of the APLS director, saying, “We look forward to the leadership of Interim Director Kelyn Ralya and the continued commitment to safeguarding Alabama’s children from harmful materials.”
• In late February, the U.S. Department of Education launched an “End DEI” portal, encouraging people to submit reports of race- and sex-based discrimination in publicly funded K-12 schools. Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, offered her support: “For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their kids practical skills like reading, writing, and math, instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education and divisive ideologies. … Parents, now is the time that you share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools.” 
• On March 20, President Trump issued an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.” Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice was present for the signing of the executive order and posted on social media about what an honor it was to witness the curtailing of “bureaucratic overreach and restore parental authority in education.” Quinnipiac University previously released survey results showing 60% of voters opposed Trump’s plan to eliminate the Department of Education. This included 98% of Democrats, 64% of independents and 67% of Republicans. 

Hard-right engagement with law enforcement 

• Richard Mack, chairman of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, has been promoting the idea that sheriffs should take an active role in deportations. “I’ve already been in touch with [White House border czar] Tom Homan, and he agrees we’ve got to have the sheriffs,” Mack said during an appearance on a podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Scott McKay (aka Patriot Streetfighter). Mack says sheriffs should offer Homan whatever he needs, including use of their jails or detention centers and build fences and tents around them. 
• Mark Dannels, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, and chairman of Arizona POST, was confirmed to speak at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona, in early April, along with White House border czar Tom Homan. The convention claimed to give participants “an opportunity for unparalleled networking with those who share responsibility for securing borders around the world.” Dannels has spoken at a Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association conference and supported the idea that the federal government can’t tell a sheriff what they can and can’t do — an idea at the heart of the constitutional sheriffs movement. Dannels, along with constitutional sheriff Mark Lamb and two other Arizona sheriffs, previously met with Homan in December 2024. 

• Veterans on Patrol (VOP) attempted to take part in multiple Tesla Takedown protests in Oklahoma City the week of March 24, with the plan to co-opt protesters to the VOP mission against the federal government’s supposed use of chemtrails and weather weapons. On Telegram, VOP posted a plan to redirect “action against Elon and EVs towards a more reasonable target,” referring to VOP’s efforts against the government’s alleged use of airborne chemtrails. 
• Jan. 6 insurrectionist Richard Barnett, who gained notoriety for the image of him sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, was featured in a video meant to support Koreans who were arrested while protesting the January 2025 impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. Recorded at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the 52-second video, which included Korean subtitles, featured Barnett’s stated message to South Koreans: “Have faith, never give up and fight for what you believe in.” 
• In late March, the Montana House voted down a proposed constitutional amendment seeking to create citizen grand juries. Tactical civics operatives in Montana supported House Bill 460 during its committee hearing. The bill died by a 40-60 vote on the House floor. Citizen grand juries can create a mechanism for hard-right extremists to harass and intimidate their perceived enemies by allowing a small number of people outside the legal system to call a jury and seek prosecution based on what they claim to be crimes. These citizen grand juries build on the legacies of such groups as the Posse Comitatus and Montana Freemen.   
• Lance Wallnau, a leading Christian supremacist figure, says that attacks on Donald Trump and the French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen are the result of “spiritual warfare”— that is, attacks from the demonic.   

• Alliance Defending Freedom announced a program to weaponize FOIA requests as part of a project to investigate how the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Biden administration countered “disinformation.” The project appears to operate on the premise that countering disinformation is part of a conspiracy to silence political conservatives.  
• An anti-LGBTQ+ conference scheduled for May 12-17 in Nairobi, Kenya, has added Austin Ruse of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) to its speakers list, and Family Watch International has been officially added to the list of sponsors for the second annual Pan-African Conference on Family Values.  
• Jeremy Boreing, self-described “God-King,” stepped down from his role as CEO at The Daily Wire in March. Layoffs have followed in the wake of Boreing’s resignation. 

• The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) announced Art Del Cueto, a veteran of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and spokesperson for the National Border Patrol Council, is joining the anti-immigrant hate group as “Border Security Advisor” to expand FAIR’s reach and relationships with border patrol agents. This appears to be part of FAIR’s outreach with law enforcement at the local and federal level to help carry out its anti-immigrant agenda.  
• Some figures within the hard right are splitting with Trump over concerns around tactics and implementation of his administration’s draconian immigration policies.  
• Geoffrey Martin, who resides in British Columbia, was identified as the administrator of the bigoted X account known as “Captive Dreamer.” Using this account, which features cult leader David Koresh as its profile picture, Martin promoted racist lies about migrants and downplayed the Holocaust. Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and U.S. Attorney Ed Martin have all engaged with the Captive Dreamer account on X. 

Finance and technology issues 

• The Base, a U.S. neo-Nazi extremist group with a global footprint, is calling for targeted assassinations and attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure to destabilize the country during ceasefire negotiations with Russia, according to a report from The Guardian. The Base is recruiting operatives to attack various targets in Ukraine, including power stations, military personnel, and government buildings. It offers financial rewards for successful actions. The group uses cryptocurrency and leader Rinaldo Nazzaro’s funds to finance its actions. It solicits donations via Monero, a cryptocurrency known for its focus on privacy and anonymity, making it difficult to track Monero transactions.   

Confederate monuments and history 

• The Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of North Carolina residents countering efforts by the Town of Edenton Council and the Chowan County Commission to relocate a Confederate monument to the grounds of the courthouse.