White nationalist Nick Fuentes is aiming to influence Republican candidates and voters ahead of the midterm elections. The Free Press' Tanner Nau joins "The Takeout" to discuss.

Washington

Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist and online personality, is actively seeking to expand his influence within the Republican Party. He is revamping his America First Foundation, a 501(c)(4) organization, to raise funds and support candidates aligned with his extreme views ahead of the midterm elections. 

Fuentes' growing popularity among young, online followers known as Groypers has drawn attention and controversy, especially after a widely viewed interview with Tucker Carlson. The movement has caused divisions within the conservative and MAGA base, with some Republican officials expressing concern about the potential impact on party politics and upcoming elections.

White nationalist Nick Fuentes' plans for the Republican Party

Welcome back to The Ticket. We've moved over here to the conversation corner. 27-year-old Nick Fuentes is a MAGA adjacent podcaster with an audience in the millions. He's a white nationalist who traffics in anti-semitic tropes and is unremittingly hostile to gay rights and civil rights. As we have discussed here on this program, Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Fuentes without pressing him on his fringe views. That has divided and continues to divide the conservative MAGA movement. Now Fuentes wants to play a role in GOP mobilization leading up to the midterm elections. Tanner Na joins me now with fresh reporting on Fuentes' intentions. Tanner is with The Free Press, which you as probably know, owned by CBS's parent company, Paramount Skydance. Tanner, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining. Thanks for having me. So what are Nick's intentions and what are the implications of those intentions for the broader MAGA Republican Party and movement? Yes, so Nick's intentions in his own words is to infiltrate politics, to take over the Republican Party, and bring it in line with some of his more extreme views that are racist, anti-semitic, and opposed to people of color. It's something that he's been planning on doing, something that he talks about in his stream nightly, but this move to create a foundation is really the next step in that. And how would he make that real? How is he going to try to do this? Is he raising money? Is he going to do voter mobilization things? Is it beyond the podcast and streaming space? Yes, so my report at The Free Press outlines how he is revamping a America First Foundation, which is a 501C4 that allows him to raise money for major donors, create programming— Will not disclose them. Will not disclose them and be able to give those to candidates moving forward in the midterms. And explicitly, he wants to influence the midterms to be more in line with his agenda. And what does the Trump White House, if anything, think about this? You know, it's unsure. We talked to some White House officials. Some of them brushed it off. Some of them said it's fair and fortunate that Nick Fuentes has such a large following and that some of those voters might be vocal and might demand that some of these Republican candidates cater to their interests. It's unclear just because it's such an online phenomenon, but going forward, it's something that GOP operatives are definitely gonna be looking at. And the Tucker Carlson of it, how, based on your reporting, is that being evaluated and being debated within the conservative and MAGA movement? Absolutely. It is completely fracturing and stoking these these huge arguments. The Tucker Carlson interview with Nick Fuentes got millions of views, brought Nick really into the spotlight in a way he hadn't been before. And the terminology I've heard, glazing? Glazing, yes. Yes, Tucker Carlson, it was not a combative interview. It was quite friendly. It was much more friendly than it was with someone like Senator Ted Cruz that Tucker interviewed just a few months ago. And lots of people within the movement, MAGA and conservative, have spoken out about this. And it seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, Tanner, that it is in part a generational divide. Young men, for whatever set of reasons, maybe they don't know enough about history, maybe they need a little bit more history about the Holocaust, about World War II, about who Stalin was, who Hitler was, but for whatever set of reasons, they have, at least for the moment, gravitated in Nick's direction. That's given him a kind of accumulated online clout, has it not? Absolutely, absolutely. Nick Fuentes is wildly popular online. He does a nightly stream that goes for hours, but online on Instagram and X, these sound bites are 30 seconds to a minute long. And they, as has been said, are very, very racist, anti-semitic sometimes. And these sell. These sell online. And there's a large contingent of young people, particularly, they call themselves Groypers. Those are his fans that are really coming of age and entering, you know, staffs and politics and growing up and getting into the halls of power. So it's something to watch, and it's something that the Republican Party is going to have to contend with. And it is generational, in terms of older versus younger. And you use that term, Groyper. Is there a definition, a understood definition, of what a Groyper either thinks or believes? So a Groyper is a broad term that Nick Fuentes coined. He did. He did. Yes, so it is singular to him. This sort of parasocial relationship between him and his fans during the nightly streams. Groypers, you know, kind of are anti-semitic, racist. They have very, very fringe views on basically all social issues. And they're kind of anarchist, too. Yes, absolutely. They don't really believe in either a constitutional republic or the democracy we've come to understand and live with and enjoy for now going on 250 years. Absolutely. And there's a certain amount of nihilism to it. They're opposed to a lot of institutions, traditional conservative views on free markets. They're anti-free market. They're anti- civil rights. But there's a sort of coalescing around these fringe populist, you know, figures and camps from right to left. There are some progressives that have been more friendly to Nick Fuentes just on the basis that he's provocative and really takes it to the establishment. And I've seen the quote many times was to burn it all down. Absolutely, yeah. And what is that? Is that definitionally, can we figure out what that actually means? Or is that just a abstract concept that some of the movement fear could take on real-world consequences? I think it's something that's abstract. I think the abstract burning it all down really doesn't have a core mission. But in another way, the establishment of this 501c4 is kind of an indication that he doesn't want to burn it down. He wants to burn it down and build something up larger, more powerful, more in line with his his views. So while burning it down is certainly provocative and gets his base going, I think tactically he wants to build something in the ashes. Very quickly, Tanner, do you think at any point in the next year the Trump White House is going to have to take on Nick Fuentes? I believe so, especially with this coming-of-age of young voters, people that are working in Republican politics. It'll be prudent for the administration to take this on head-on and make a decision to whether they want to make peace or take them on. Tanner Nall, Free Press. Great reporting, great perspective. Thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

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