Maga’s next civil war is brewing

Maga’s next civil war is brewing

Benedict Smith

Sun, December 21, 2025 at 11:22 PM UTC

7 min read

The only person who can stop Nick Fuentes and exorcise his influence from the Republican party, some suggest, is JD Vance

From their origins in the seedy underbelly of the internet, the white supremacist, anti-Semitic group known as the Groypers has emerged as a disturbing political force.

Republican figures are wary, if not outright scared, of drawing the ire of an army of online trolls who have time to spare and take joy in savaging reputations.Fact can be hard to separate from fiction when it comes to the group’s influence.

Nick Fuentes, seen at a rally in Lansing, Michigan — Nick Fuentes, said to be a Hitler-praising firebrand, claims his group has sympathisers ‘all over government’ - Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News via AP

But some estimate up to four in 10 young Republicans are Groypers, while Nick Fuentes, its leader, claims his group has sympathisers “all over government”.

Much of the organisation’s ascendancy can be put down to Fuentes himself, a firebrand media personality who has praised Adolf Hitler, claims he wants a 16-year-old wife, and generally delights in saying the unsayable.

Being banned from almost every mainstream platform seems only to have helped his rise, just as being part-Mexican hasn’t stopped him from pushing white supremacist views.

JD Vance speaks during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025 on Sunday — JD Vance is the only person who can stop Nick Fuentes and exorcise his influence from the Republican Party, some suggest - Jon Cherry/AP

JD Vance, the vice-president, may be the only who can rid Fuentes’ influence from the Republican Party, it is suggested.

Usha, his Indian-American wife, has often been the subject of racist trolling by Fuentes.

Groyperism took root some time in the 2010s in the marshy recesses of the internet, and draws its name from Groyper, a racist version of a frog meme featuring a character called “Pepe”.

It was in 2019, at the tail end of Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, that the group started to filter into the political mainstream as it waged the so-called “Groyper Wars”.

Members would pack events run by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA groups, aggressively questioning figures they viewed as tracking too close to the political mainstream. Donald Trump Jr was heckled off the stage at an event promoting his new book.

Brian Levin, an extremism expert at the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, noted Fuentes’ talent at tapping into the discontent felt by many young men.

“It just feels right for those males who feel they’ve been stepped on for too long,” he said, although he condemned the podcaster as a “bigoted carnival barker” and “racist Wizard of Oz”.

Michelle Malkin is said to shown public support for Nick Fuentes - NurPhoto via Getty

Many others would help build the Groypers into the force they later became, like Patrick Casey, the former leader of the white nationalist American Identity Movement (AIM), who connected Fuentes to the wider white nationalist movement, and Michelle Malkin, the Right-wing commentator who promoted him as a leader of the “America First” movement.

Some, like Mr Casey, who accused Fuentes of fostering a “cult-like atmosphere”, eventually split from the group and denounced the Groyper leader in the process.

But it is still his show: quite literally. “America First with Nicholas J Fuentes” gets hundreds of thousands of views per episode on Rumble, almost the only platform which will still host him, branding itself “immune to cancel culture”.

‘Soft launch’

Not that he has anywhere really left to go. Fuentes has been banned from YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch and Spotify, along with payment services including PayPal, Venmo, Patreon and Stripe.

So it was notable, last month, when the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson chose to interview him on his podcast.

Many called it a “soft launch”: one of the biggest names in Maga conservatism sitting down for a convivial chat with someone whom much of the Right has kept at arm’s length

Just over a week later, Fuentes popped up again on Piers Morgan Uncensored. The interview, in which Morgan mocked the 27-year-old self-proclaimed virgin, was less friendly, but it was another sign of Groyperism creeping into the fringes of the mainstream.

Mr Trump defended Carlson’s decision to host the racist podcaster. “If he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out,” the US president said.

“Thank you, Mr President!” Fuentes responded on X, one of the rare platforms he can still use thanks to the intervention of its owner, Elon Musk.

‘Potent political force’

The Groyper leader is beyond the pale for most of America, but there are some figures within the Republican Party who will stomach him. They are perhaps fearful of his influence – or genuine sympathisers.

“Fuentes and his movement of like-minded young people are a potent political force, not because the views are popular in wider society but because they’ve been able to garner sympathy and exert pressure on power players in the Republican Party,” said Jared Holt, an expert in Groyperism.

“I am sceptical that his fanbase is actually growing at this moment, but he is successfully earning the attention of decision makers in Washington, who appear fearful of attracting the anger of his fans.”

Rod Dreher, the conservative writer and a friend of Mr Vance, suggests up to 40 per cent of Republican staffers under the age of 30 are Groypers, citing multiple accounts of DC insiders.

Senator Ted Cruz is concerned with his own party for tolerating a Hitler fan - Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty

Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, has sounded frustrated with his own party, warning those who say nothing to “someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool” are “complicit in that evil”.

“Nick Fuentes’ hateful rhetoric is dangerous and has no place in our public discourse,” Roz Rothstein, chief executive of the pro-Israel group StandWithUs, told The Telegraph.

“His shameful comments must be unequivocally rejected by all people of good faith, particularly those within his own party, because silence in the face of extremism only empowers it.”

And many fear senior figures in the party, wary of the Groypers’ bare-knuckle approach, will stand back and stand by as its influence among younger Republicans increasingly takes hold.

Conservative writer Rod Dreher reckons only JD Vance can keep the Groypers from taking over the Right - Geoff Pugh

Mr Dreher believes the vice-president, as the Republicans’ heir apparent, “is the only figure in this country who can keep the racist, Nazi-positive Groyper movement from taking over the Right”.

Mr Vance needs to condemn them without “dismissing the legitimacy of the despair that drives young men into their ranks”, he argued.

Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist, agrees with that tactic and suggests the move could only help Mr Vance’s presidential ambitions.

“It would be nothing but beneficial for JD Vance,” he said.

Groypers aren’t “50 losers in their basements”, but they’re also not an organised political force in early nominating states like Iowa or New Hampshire, he said.

“I recognise the disagreements the party is having… but I don’t think Nick is a part of that national conversation,” Mr Bartlett added.

‘Total loser’

He compared Fuentes to Milo Yiannopoulos, the Right-wing provocateur, whose popularity among Republicans quickly fizzled out.

Others put David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard, in that conversation too.

Mr Vance has little love for Fuentes, who repeatedly mocks the vice-president’s weight and hurls racist attacks at his wife.

But although he last year called the 27-year-old a “total loser” who has “no place in the Maga movement”, he has also suggested the best response is to ignore the Groypers.

One Republican strategist, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals by the group, said the same.

“Nick Fuentes wants JD Vance to attack him,” he said. “You’re just going to feed into his business plan, which is creating chaos.”

Mr Vance also keeps a watchful eye on the youth vote and in October defended a leaked Young Republicans Telegram chat, in which users praised Hitler, cracked jokes about gas chambers and called black people monkeys.

“Kids do stupid things,” he said of the group. Some of them were in their 30s and held posts in local, state and federal government. The offending members of the group chat have since left the Young Republicans movement.

It may not be a fight Mr Vance is looking for as he navigates a perilous course towards the Republican presidential nomination and tries to hold together Mr Trump’s Maga base.

But Fuentes’ apparent dislike for the vice-president and relish for scorched earth tactics means it’s a fight he’s likely to get anyway.

For some, it won’t come a moment too soon.

Groyperism “is a threat, but it is a manageable one at this point”, Mr Dreher said. “It won’t be forever.”

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