The New York Times reports:

During President Trump’s first turn in the White House, right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys were on the streets, weekend after weekend, raising their voices — and oftentimes their fists — about issues such as immigration, the squelching of conservative speech and the removal of Confederate-era statues.

But in the first seven months of Mr. Trump’s second term, there has been a conspicuous absence of far-right demonstrations. And that, some leaders of the movement say, is because the president has effectively adopted their agenda.

“Things we were doing and talking about in 2017 that were taboo, they’re no longer taboo — they’re mainstream now,” said Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, who took part in many of those early far-right rallies. “Honestly, what do we have to complain about these days?”

Whether it is dismantling diversity programs, complaining about anti-white bias in museums or simply promoting an aura of authoritarian nationalism, Mr. Trump has embraced an array of far-right views and talking points in ways that have delighted many right-wing activists who have long supported those ideas.

His administration has also hired several people with a history of making racist or antisemitic remarks or who have looked favorably on the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Far-right figures have been particularly thrilled by Mr. Trump’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, praising not only the ubiquitous images of masked federal agents raiding farms and factories, but also the ideology that has fueled those moves: a belief that migration to the United States is all but synonymous with a military invasion.

Last week, in fact, on the eighth anniversary of the violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., where neo-Nazis marched by torchlight chanting about immigrants and Jews, Augustus Sol Invictus, a Florida lawyer who helped organize the event, marveled at how thoroughly the Trump administration had adopted a position that had once been on the fringes of political discourse.

“Eight years ago you were an extremist if you protested being replaced by immigrants,” Mr. Invictus wrote on social media. “Your life was over if you talked about stopping or reversing it. Now it is official @WhiteHouse policy.”

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, offered a vocal defense of Mr. Trump. “President Trump is a voice for millions of forgotten men and women who support the widely popular policies he is enacting,” she said.

During the Biden administration, far-right organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were severely hobbled, largely by the criminal prosecutions of dozens of their members who took part in the Capitol attack.

The Oath Keepers, a militia-style group of current and former military and law enforcement personnel, barely exists anymore. Its founder, Stewart Rhodes, no longer appears in public as often as he once did at far-right demonstrations or standoffs with the government.

As for Mr. Tarrio, he and his compatriots have generally given up on the set-piece demonstrations that they took part in for years in cities like New York; Berkeley, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles; New Orleans; and Charlottesville. These days, he mostly hosts podcasts and promotes a blockchain-powered app called “ICERAID” that pays people in cryptocurrency for reporting undocumented immigrants. [Continue reading…]