White supremacist Nick Fuentes, a young podcaster of just 26 years old, Holocaust denier, and self-confessed admirer of Hitler, has become the new face of the American far right. Following the murder of activist Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, Fuentes has filled the void within the radical conservative movement, promoting an even more aggressive and racist agenda.
Since his appearance at the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Fuentes has built a media empire that blends religious rhetoric, white nationalism, and conspiracy theories. His online community, the so-called “Groypers,” follows him with almost cult-like devotion on platforms like Rumble and Telegram, where he has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.
Today, having become a figure capable of influencing even the Republican Party, Fuentes embodies a dangerous mutation of Trumpism: an unfiltered, younger, and more violent version. He challenges Donald Trump for not “moving far enough to the right” while simultaneously sowing divisions within traditional conservatism, where some see him as the natural heir to Charlie Kirk and others as a direct threat to the stability of the MAGA movement.
The New York Times columnist points out that since Kirk’s murder, podcaster Nick Fuentes “has risen higher than ever, revealing a right-wing radicalization mechanism that seems unstoppable.” Indeed, a Wired investigation revealed how his followers on X increased by nearly 175,000 since Kirk’s death, and on Rumble, an alternative streaming platform, his follower count has grown by more than 100,000.
Fuentes gained notoriety in 2017 when he dropped out of Boston University after reporting “threats” related to his attendance at the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which aimed to oppose the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue from Emancipation Park.
The truth is that the demonstration brought together neo-Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and alt-right agitators, who gathered in an unprecedented display of unity. Among them marched Fuentes, who from that moment on became a pro-Trump video producer with a YouTube show called “America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes.”
Following these events, Fuentes found a niche within the alt-right movement and has since become a well-known white supremacist commentator. The Anti-Defamation League notes that in a May 2023 Telegram post, Fuentes stated: “When I started my career in 2017, I was considered a toxic figure on the American right because of my white identity, racial realist, ‘Jewish conscience,’ anti-Zionist, authoritarian, and traditional Catholic views.”
