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 conspiracy theories with research and community resources. The Intelligence Project monitors and exposes white supremacy and its impact on communities.
Antigovernment movement activity
- is reporting that the satire site The Onion has made a deal to license the domain name of the antigovernment conspiracy site Infowars.com. The site was included in conspiracy propagandist Alex Jones’ overall bankruptcy proceedings, which were in cases brought by the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims who were harassed after Jones told his audience the shooting was a false flag event. Pending a judge’s approval, Global Tetrahedron, the company that owns The Onion, will pay $81,000 a month to lease the Infowars.com domain and all related intellectual property for six months, with the ability to renew for another six months.
- In early April, Pablo Rocco Forenza, a Colorado sovereign citizen who made his way to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, was by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and a U.S. Marshals task force. Forenza was wanted on charges of sexual exploitation of a child, sexual assault of a child and possession of sexually exploitative materials.
- Ozark Christian Initiative (OCI), a minutemen militia, announced the creation of two chapters, which “will allow OCI … to develop the men of this nation in further spans and more areas regionally.” Based in Missouri and Arkansas, the militia is expanding to three new states, including one chapter in Texas and another that covers Nebraska and Oklahoma — which reflects OCI’s ability to recruit outside its local area, likely through social media.[1]
- The Institute on the Constitution, founded by Michael Peroutka, who has ties both to neo-Confederate groups and the Constitution Party, is merging with Self-Evident Ministry. The Institute has had problems with leadership since Peroutka stepped down, and the need to reach a wider audience, including youth, is driving the merger. Both groups teach U.S. history through the lens of Christian supremacy.[2]
- The U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war against Iran is causing former Donald Trump supporters to openly repudiate his administration’s relationship with Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the , Candace Owens, who to Catholicism a few years ago, has accused Israel of killing Charlie Kirk, a clear antisemitic remark. Others have included Carrie Prejean Boller, a former member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission who that Trump’s government is “occupied by a foreign government named Israel.” This is notable, as there have been great efforts over the past several decades to unite the Christian right into a more generic, politically focused movement by downplaying the serious theological disagreements within it.
- In mid-April, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) took action to the seditious conspiracy convictions of key Oath Keepers and Proud Boys for their roles in organizing the Jan. 6 insurrection. While President Trump these sentences in January 2025, the convictions remained on the books and the legal cases continued moving through court. The DOJ has asked the court to drop the cases and vacate the convictions, including those of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and the Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio. Ed Martin, the current U.S. pardon attorney, celebrated the actions, that “J6rs and families” were telling him they “feel respected even loved” by the moves.
Anti-democracy activity
- California’s Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a gubernatorial candidate and of the Oath Keepers, is facing after seizing over 650,000 special election ballots in 2026.[3] The impetus for the seizure, according to began with lobbying of Bianco by a member of New California State, an antigovernment secessionist group. As a result, Bianco opened an investigation into the registrar of voters, which found no evidence of wrongdoing.[4] Yet Bianco carried on, assuring a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, another antigovernment group, that he had started a second investigation.[5] This eventually culminated in the ballot seizure, which Bianco based on allegations from yet another group, the Riverside Election Integrity Team, which a civic engagement expert has called the “equivalent of flat earthers.”[6]
- An appeals court that election denier Tina Peters, currently incarcerated in a Colorado prison for her part in a voting machine tampering plot, will be resentenced. The court cited its belief that the original sentence wrongly included Peters’ protected free speech. The decision , “[I]t is apparent that the court imposed the lengthy sentence it did because Peters continued to espouse the views that led her to commit these crimes.” Her resentencing will be in the same district court and by the same judge that originally sentenced her.[7]
Anti-student inclusion and education-focused activity
- Anti-student inclusion group Moms for Liberty is facing backlash after former local leaders about the shifting priorities of the group’s national leadership. Former chairs of several chapters that started in 2021, just after the organization’s founding, claim that leaders Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice have moved away from the group’s original intent. The leader of a chapter in Pennsylvania resigned after five years, telling a reporter: “I feel like we were used. … There’s a lot of money being raised, but for what I don’t know.” The former chapter leaders complained that the group has moved from local education issues to a focus on money, donors and getting Donald Trump elected president.
- The American Library Association released its annual , which documented 4,235 unique book titles challenged in 2025 — the second-most ever recorded. According to the report, 40% of the materials challenged were representations of Խ+ people and people of color. Pressure groups such as Moms for Liberty and government decision-makers 91.7% of challenges, while only 2.7% originated from parents.
- Anti-student inclusion group PragerU has launched its “PragerU Kids Book Fair” to counter Scholastic Book Fairs.[8] Jill Simonian, director of outreach for PragerU Kids, told the Family Research Council that the traditional Scholastic Book Fairs are “tilted so far woke, under a veil of inclusion and diversity and equity and all of these labels that we are all — most of us — are now wise to.”[9]
Anti-Muslim and Anti-Immigrant activity
- Americans Against Islamification, an Islamophobic shock protest group led by Jayden Scott, have organized a march in Hamtramck, Michigan, on May 10, according to a Facebook event page organized by the group. The anti-Muslim event is planned to be followed by a pig roast and the “LARGEST BOOK BURNING EVENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY” at a separate private location. Scott, a Michigan-based Christian nationalist, has organized multiple anti-Muslim events since October 2025, including a November event in Dearborn, Michigan, that was joined by Jake Lang, who at one point a Quran.[10]
- In April, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, was a guest on Restoring Order, a podcast hosted by white nationalist Patrick Casey, the former head of the now-disbanded hate group American Identity Movement (formerly Identity Evropa), a group modeled on Europe’s identitarian movement.[11] Casey invited Krikorian to talk about immigration policy. During the interview, Krikorian peddled CIS’s usual anti-immigrant rhetoric, including claims that immigration is supposedly outpacing assimilation. “We’ve outgrown the ability to successfully deal with mass immigration,” he said. Elsewhere in the interview, Krikorian brought up the Somali community in Minnesota. He claimed that if a low number of Somali families, like two, were allowed to immigrate to the state, that would be manageable for assimilation purposes. “But look, Somali immigration on a large scale is a problem,” he said. “I mean, they’re ill-suited to succeed and mesh with both a modern and culturally Christian society. There’s just no question about that.”
Anti-Խ+ movement activity
- On April 7, the anti-Խ+ hate group Center for Christian Virtue helped create a “Family Structure Index” with a sociology professor at the University of Virginia to measure behaviors that it claims are representative of “strength and stability of family life across all 50 states.”[12] According to the group, “Red states have improved on the Family Structure Index” by supposedly cutting taxes and creating “a more pro-family culture.”[13] The phrase “pro-family” as a political device in the 1980s and has become a euphemism for right-wing policies that undermine Խ+ rights and abortion access. Other hate groups, like the Family Foundation of Virginia, latched onto the report to claim that Խ+ rights, immigration and abortion are detrimental to families. According to an April 8 email from Family Foundation of Virginia, “[W]hat truly supports stronger families does not include unrestricted abortion, the promotion of hypersexualized public school curricula,” or “lax laws that allow dangerous illegal immigrants into our schools and communities.”[14]
White Nationalist and neo-Nazi activity
- several members of white nationalist, racist skinhead and neo-Nazi groups who participated in a combat sports training hosted by the Wolves of Vinland at that group’s Lynchburg, Virginia, headquarters in December 2025 and March 2026. Among the groups that appear to have been present at these events on the Wolves of Vinland land were members of Patriot Front, Active Clubs and the Hammerskins.
- American white nationalists Jared Taylor and Greg Johnson joined European ultra-nationalist speakers at the Fifth Awakening Conference in Finland on April 19.[15] The annual event was organized by Tuukka Kuru, who leads the Sinimusta Liike (Blue-and-Black Movement).[16] A from the Helsinki Times describes Kuru’s party as “an umbrella organization for far-right movements in Finland” and says its membership has included former affiliates of the , a pan-Nordic neo-Nazi group that is banned in Finland, as well as listed as a terrorist group in the United States. In a post on X, Taylor called Kuru “a great Finnish and European patriot.”[17]
- When King Charles III visited the White House in late April, President Trump gave a speech praising the king and tracing the United States’ “culture” to England, claiming, “Long before Americans had a nation or Constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed.”[18] The speech earned praise from white nationalists, who interpreted the president’s words as commentary on the country’s racial origins. “This is a nice hint at BIOLOGICAL heritage,” white nationalist Jared Taylor posted to X. “America is the racial child of Europe,” he argued.[19]
Prevention
- In a recent United Nations survey, 27% of female journalists, human rights activists, writers and other public communicators reported having been targeted by unwanted/unsolicited sexual advances online.[20] According to the survey, 12% had “experienced the non-consensual sharing of personal images.” Such threats and targeted harassment make the internet an increasingly harmful place for women and girls and severely curtail their ability to engage freely and safely in online spaces. The same U.N. report found that 41% of respondents “self-censor on social media” and nearly a quarter have been diagnosed with anxiety and/or depression. Ensuring equal and safe access to the internet is incumbent upon everyone. Education about digital and media literacy and building resilience against manipulation and extremist disinformation can begin from a young age. PERIL Research’s curriculum and resources can help begin these conversations for K-5 students.[21] The Խ and PERIL’s Not Just a Joke: Understanding & Preventing Gender- & Sexuality-Based Bigotry helps continue these conversations beyond early years to strengthen young people’s resistance to manipulation.[22]
Image at top: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes (left) and Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys speak during a No Kings Protest in downtown Dallas, Texas, on March 28, 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal appeals court to drop the cases and vacate the convictions of both men for their roles in organizing the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Credit: Jaime Carrero/ZUMA Press Wire)
Citations
[1] Ozark Christian Initiative, Instagram post, March 2026; Ozark Christian Initiative, Instagram post, April 2026.
[2] Institute on the Constitution, Facebook reel, March 20, 2026.
[3] Ryan Sabalow, Cayla Mihalovich and Wendy Fry, “We Went to Court To Unseal the Warrants Behind Sheriff Chad Bianco’s Ballot Seizures. What They Reveal,” Cal Matters, April 16, 2026.
[4] Anat Rubin, “Internal Emails Show How Fringe Groups Fueled Sheriff Chad Bianco’s Ballot Seizure,” Cal Matters, April 22, 2026.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ryan Sabalow, Cayla Mihalovich and Wendy Fry, “We Went to Court To Unseal the Warrants Behind Sheriff Chad Bianco’s Ballot Seizures. What They Reveal,” Cal Matters, April 16, 2026.
[7] Kyle Clark, X post, April 2, 2026.
[8] PragerU, “PragerU Kids Book Fair,” April 29, 2026.
[9] S.A. McCarthy, “Woke Scholastic Book Fairs Face New Conservative Competitor,” The Washington Stand, April 20, 2026.
[10] Niraj Warikoo, “Protesters Scuffle in Dearborn Over Faith as Quran-Burning Attempt Is Thwarted,” Detroit Free Press, November 19, 2025; Americans Against Islamification, Facebook post, May 2026.
[11] Patrick Casey, Restoring Order podcast, April 26, 2026.
[12] Center for Christian Virtue, “New Family Structure Index Reveals Wide Gaps in Family Stability Across the US,” news release, April 7, 2026.
[13] Center for Christian Virtue, “Family Structure Index,” 2026.
[14] Family Foundation of Virginia, “Virginia Drops One Spot to 18th,” email message, April 8, 2026.
[15] Kuro, Tuukka, x post, February 23, 2026.
[16] Kuro, Tuukka, x post, February 23, 2026.
[17] Jared Taylor, X post, April 22, 2026.
[18] White House, “President Trump and the First Lady Welcome King Charles III and Queen Camilla for State Visit Honoring 250 Years of Shared Heritage,” news release, April 29, 2026.
[19] Jared Taylor, X post, April 29, 2026.
[20] Julie Posetti, Kaylee Williams, Lea Hellmueller, Pauline Renaud, Nabeelah Shabbir and Nermine Aboulez, “Tipping Point: Online Violence Impacts, Manifestations and Redress in the AI Age,” report, UN Women, 2026.
[21] “DUCC,” PERIL Research, May 30, 2025.
[22] “Not Just a Joke: Understanding & Preventing Gender- & Sexuality-Based Bigotry,” Southern Poverty Law Center, April 9, 2024.
