I Watched Groypers Descend on Detroit — Where They Were No Longer Pariahs Among Mainstream Republicans

4 months ago 61

Standing behind a podium on a rooftop bar in Detroit, Michigan, Nick Fuentes rushes to wrap up his speech before security shuts his party down. Fuentes, a Christian nationalist livestreamer best known for latching onto Kanye West’s pro-Hitler presidential campaign, looks out at the crowd. VIP guests of the neighboring Turning Point USA convention, officers of county GOPs, and members of Young Republican clubs pack the bar.

“Everybody’s making a hard turn for ‘Fuck off Jew.’ It’s a hard right turn,” Fuentes says, laughing. The line is a reference to “Heck Off, Commie,” a far-right YouTube show run by one of Fuentes’s competitors. The crowd eats it up, chanting back “Fuck off Jew, fuck off Jew.” Fuentes shakes his head, grinning. “No, but that’s only a joke!”

He then gets serious, turning to former President Donald Trump’s support of Israel. The issue has always been a point of contention for Fuentes and has only intensified since October 7. Trump used to be their voice, Fuentes says, but now he seems more concerned with Israel. “I don’t know about you guys, but when he goes up there and says, ‘We’re gonna throw out all the anti-Israel protesters,’ that’s not my voice,” Fuentes says, referring to Trump’s promise to deport any foreign students participating in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.

“You know that I am your voice,” Fuentes reassures them. “So in the spirit of me being your voice, I want you to raise your right hand, and repeat after me: ‘I solemnly swear that I will put America First and I will put Israel last every single time, because Christ is our king.’”

As he pauses for the audience response, people hold their right hands up as though they are taking a pledge. One man extends his arm into a Sieg Heil, giving Fuentes the Nazi-era salute as he repeats the words. Some people drop their hands early, perhaps noticing the salute, or maybe just tired of the position. But others slowly stretch their arms out too. By the end of the pledge, several people have made Sieg Heils.

“Because Christ is our king.”

Welcome to the fourth America First Political Action Conference.

Mainstreaming Extremism

Detroit is probably not the place you would expect to find a Republican convention, but that’s exactly where Turning Point USA chose to hold the People’s Convention in June. Founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, Turning Point USA is an ostensibly mainstream youth-oriented conservative organization that has shifted into solidly MAGA territory. While TPUSA started as a network of conservative clubs on college campuses, it now includes high school chapters, a faith group, and a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit. The latter entity, Turning Point Action, is the arm responsible for the annual conference — and it is also boosting Trump 2024’s campaign. TPA is planning to spend $108 million on get-out-the-vote efforts in Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Turning Point Action also has a sizable footprint at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week, taking over an entire restaurant within the secured perimeter for what it dubbed the Turning Point RNC Headquarters.

Fuentes has piggybacked off of the Republican conference circuit for years, holding his increasingly explicitly white nationalist America First Political Action Conference near the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, and Turning Point USA. He has been banned from events hosted by both organizations, and for good reason. Fuentes has openly praised Hitler, suggested he would like to marry a 16-year-old girl, and clearly stated that he does not want Jewish people in government. But having his own conference in such close proximity to mainstream events allows for a built-in audience — and the chance to recruit new, sympathetic followers.

For a time, association with Fuentes was enough to tank a career in politics. TPUSA used to make an effort to maintain a distance from him, even severing ties with an influencer after she appeared in a photo with Fuentes. On the first day of the TPUSA conference, Fuentes showed up knowing he would be kicked out. Wearing a red hoodie, sunglasses, and ill-fitting jeans, he led a small group of young men into the convention center. Once inside, attendees broke out in applause and chants of “groyper, groyper,” the name Fuentes fans have given themselves. Security quickly showed up and escorted Fuentes out.

The process is tradition at this point. The man who escorted Fuentes out had done so in the past at TPUSA events in other cities. Something different, though, was Fuentes’s posse’s lack of effort to conceal their identities or their status as TPUSA attendees. Some of the men who followed Fuentes into the convention were known figures. MMA fighter turned right-wing poster Jake Shields was in the mix, as were streamers from Fuentes’s livestreaming platform. But one lower-profile man hung close to Fuentes, only obscuring his face with sunglasses: Alec Beaton, the youth chair for the St. Clair County, Michigan, GOP. Like many of the men in the group, Beaton had a Turning Point badge around his neck. While TPUSA still does not directly associate with Fuentes, its conference attendees openly hanging out with him suggests that its hard line has changed. (Shields later told me that he had come out “because I had a pass for Nick,” and that he returned to the conference the next day. TPUSA did not respond to my request for comment, nor did Beaton.)

It’s possible the groypers’ confidence was brought on by the political connections Fuentes has managed to make within the GOP. In November 2022, he accompanied hip-hop artist Kanye West to dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump. In October of last year, Fuentes met with former Texas state Rep. Jonathan Stickland for nearly seven hours. Stickland was the head of both a well-connected consulting firm and a political action committee that distributed money largely from Tim Dunn, one of the biggest conservative donors in Texas. The Republican Party of Texas was briefly thrown into disarray; some wanted to outright ban party-affiliated groups from associating with Fuentes. The movement ultimately failed, and the PAC and consulting firm emerged from the kerfuffle largely free of any consequences. A new spinoff PAC, Texans United for a Conservative Majority, brought in $3.75 million from Dunn in a three-month period earlier this year. While Stickland is unaffiliated with that PAC, he has launched a new firm with help from a senior Texas GOP official.

“I don’t think Fuentes is the kiss of death that people think he is,” said Shane Burley, co-author of the book “Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide To Fighting Antisemitism.” “The world of these online influencers who say outlandish things has moved mainstream. You’re more likely to be around extreme voices and not have to take responsibility for it.”

A Hostile Reception

Fuentes planned to hold his fourth rendition of AFPAC alongside the People’s Convention in Detroit at the Russell Industrial Center. The day before his conference, the Russell Industrial Center told Fuentes it would not host the event. The venue told the Detroit Free Press that it was tricked by AFPAC, stating it would never have agreed to host the group, which had reserved the space through a third party. When Fuentes didn’t leave, the staff called the police, who sided with the venue. Fuentes said he planned to sue.

Fuentes did not tell would-be attendees that the venue was in jeopardy, leaving them in the dark. He would later claim, in tweets and during a livestream, that he was busy looking for a new place to hold the conference. Regardless of the reason, his silence meant that on the day of AFPAC, groups of men wearing suits and blue America First hats were stuck wandering around downtown Detroit, asking one another if they had any idea where or when AFPAC would be.

After some friends and I called around to different venues, I eventually figured out where at least some AFPAC attendees would be going. An employee of Detroit’s Siren Hotel confirmed on the phone that the hotel’s Ash Bar restaurant was hosting AFPAC’s smaller VIP dinner. Fuentes, meanwhile, was preparing to come clean to his supporters: AFPAC IV was canceled. Shortly after, Ash Bar canceled the VIP dinner too. The Siren Hotel later denied that the dinner was planned for its venue and did not respond to my follow-up questions about the event.

Compared to the other cities that have held AFPAC, it seemed Detroit was particularly hostile to Fuentes’s ideas. The groups of would-be attendees, some of whom had made clear on social media they weren’t thrilled about coming to Detroit to begin with, were now without any plans at all. They managed to all find each other and march around the city a bit, before reconvening for an impromptu rally in front of a hotel across from the convention center.

Even though Trump was still inside TPUSA giving his speech and Fuentes himself was nowhere to be found, a sizable crowd had gathered by the time I showed up. I was a little worried that I would face a hostile reception. Some of the men who were taking charge of the rally knew me from my year undercover in the far right, or from my reporting that followed. Others might have known me because Fuentes has ranted about me on his show in the past.

Right away, I spotted Paul Ingrassia, an attorney who sits on the board for the New York Young Republican Club. Ingrassia works for the National Constitutional Law Union, an organization that aims to be a right-wing version of the ACLU. Both groups have ties to Trump, who recorded a video testimonial for the NCLU’s fundraiser a few months ago and was the keynote speaker at NYYRC’s annual gala in 2023, where he thanked Ingrassia for his support. Ingrassia refers to himself as Trump’s favorite Substacker, spends time in Mar-a-Lago, and pals around with Roger Stone. This week, he was in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.

Ingrassia and I both stood near the raised platform in the concrete courtyard of the hotel that was being used as a makeshift stage. A few of Fuentes’s friends and streamers were speaking, presumably hoping to ramp up enough energy to draw Fuentes in. Unfortunately for them, the wind was working against them, making it difficult to hear. After 15 minutes of straining to hear, someone announced that Fuentes was on the way. Chants of “We want Nick” and “groyper, groyper” broke out.

When I reached out to Ingrassia to ask about his decision to attend the rally, he accused me of stalking him, made a barely veiled threat to sue me, and declared, “As a matter of best practices, to the extent you publish anything using my name, you have a duty to reprint my statement in full.” (I don’t, and I won’t.) Ingrassia said “it looked like a prayer vigil or some type of protest” and claimed he “walked past there for maybe 5 minutes out of curiosity … there was a lot of confusion, it was impossible to avoid if you were heading on foot in that direction.”

I replied with photos and video showing that not only had he stood directly in front of me for nearly 20 minutes listening to inflammatory speeches about making America a Christian nation; how unfair it was that Turning Point had banned Fuentes; and that “the Jews” controlled what Charlie Kirk does; but also that he had moved through the crowd and to the very front when Fuentes arrived. I pointed out that Fuentes and Ingrassia follow each other on X, so he must have known who Fuentes was. Instead of responding to this factual record of the rally, Ingrassia blocked me on X, ending our conversation.

When Fuentes showed up, he commandeered the rooftop of the hotel, with his posse guarding the steps up. The group was steadily growing as TPUSA attendees exited Trump’s speech.

“Henry Ford was a genius,” Fuentes shouted into his megaphone, before bemoaning Ford’s “cancellation” for his intense antisemitism. “But Henry Ford is a great patriot, and his activism in exposing the influence of the Zionist movement and the Jewish mafia in the United States was an act of patriotism that we are all grateful for.”

“I freaking love Hitler!” one of Fuentes’s friends on the rooftop shouted.

A sea of maskless groypers stood staring up at Fuentes. Some of the men near me had Turning Point USA badges around their necks. Not long ago, it would have been unthinkable for credentialed TPUSA attendees to be in the middle of this crowd. Now, it hardly seemed to matter.

“Astonishingly Self-Assured”

The crowd thinned out shortly after Fuentes’s speech. After facing two cancellations, it seemed like the night was over for the groypers. It didn’t take long for them to start posting that the left could not keep them down, though. They had found another venue: Exodos Rooftop.

Fortunately for me, the bar next to Exodos Rooftop had couches out front, giving a direct view at anyone who entered or exited the club. I bought a drink and had a seat, waiting to see who would try to walk by. I figured I would be sitting there a while before they left, but within minutes groypers started to file out.

Inside the venue, there had been several increasingly bigoted speeches, according to videos that were posted online and my interview with a reporter who was in attendance. Jared Taylor, who organizes the white nationalist American Renaissance conference, talked about making America a white country. (He did not respond to my email about the event.) By the time Fuentes spoke, the antisemitic chants were too much. The staff, unaware who they had given the space to, turned the music up over their voices, drowning out the speeches. (The club did not respond to requests for comment.)

The crowd grew angry, and a groyper threw a drink at security. Conservative social media influencer Joey Mannarino got in the face of a bouncer and screamed “Fuck you!”, video from that night shows. (Mannarino later told me that he “arrived late” and “didn’t really get to see any of the speeches.” Mannarino, who is mutuals with Fuentes on X, also said, “I don’t know much about his ‘reputation’ because he’s so hard to watch due to social media banning him I haven’t ever had the chance to really see much of what he has to say.”)

The crowd joined in, chanting “Fuck you!” Finally, Sneako, a misogynist, pro-Hitler streamer and ally of white nationalism, reached up and knocked the bouncer’s hat off, another video shows. (Sneako, who is Black, did not respond to my request for comment.) In an instant, the bouncer raised his fist and dove through the air, punching Sneako in the face and breaking one of his teeth in half. The party was finally over.

As they trickled out, I saw Mark Ivanyo, the executive director of Republicans for National Renewal. RNR is a populist organization that often tables at TPUSA and CPAC (in both the U.S. and Hungary). It is known for its parties that show off how well connected its members are. Ivanyo spoke at CPAC Hungary earlier this year and recently was elected to be an at-large delegate for Texas at the Republican National Convention. Ivanyo had been slated to be a featured VIP guest at AFPAC. The conference’s social media team had tweeted a flier advertising his appearance, before quickly taking it down.

“Mark! Mark Ivanyo!” I yelled out, trying to get his attention, but to no avail. Ivanyo seemed to be ignoring me. When I later contacted him to ask about his attendance at the rooftop gathering, and his briefly advertised appearance as a VIP guest, he told me he was no longer an RNC delegate due to a “scheduling conflict,” offering no corroboration for this claim. He asked for evidence of my allegations, though he did not reply after I sent him photos, videos, and a screenshot of the tweet promoting his appearance.

A few days later, I ran into Ivanyo in Milwaukee at the RNC, where he refused to look at me or acknowledge my questions in person. While the Republican Party of Texas did not respond to my email asking if Ivanyo had been replaced as a delegate, he has been in photos posted to social media showing him with the Texas delegation on the convention floor.

Back in Detroit, Lauren Witzke, the Delaware GOP’s 2020 candidate for Senate, also appeared in videos from the event. She has boosted the baseless QAnon conspiracy and believes that Jewish people should not be in positions of power in our government. There was also Juliana Lombard, a VIP guest of the People’s Convention, and NYYRC’s former socials chair. In video of Fuentes’s speech, Lombard can be seen watching the show from a balcony, while the crowd below her chants “Fuck off Jew.” Lombard is currently running for a municipal office as a Republican in Hudson County, New Jersey. (She didn’t respond to my messages asking about her attendance.)

At previous AFPACs, attendees have adhered to strict rules about taking photos or video, but this year, footage from even the “private” event was readily shared all over social media. “They seem astonishingly self-assured about making their connections explicit,” said David Neiwert, a researcher, author, and journalist who has tracked the far right for years. “They deeply believe Trump will win and they will be in charge, so it makes sense to them to just make it a known reality.”

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