Far-right influencers are standing by their man, Trump—but not his campaign.
The Washington Post on Sunday detailed how several far-right figures with large online followings—including white supremacist Nick Fuentes and activists Laura Loomer and Candace Owens—have been stirring discord by publicly criticizing the Trump campaign, arguing that he needs new leadership who will direct him to take harder-line stances on topics like race and immigration.
Fuentes dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and demonstrated how much influence he gained since his beginnings as a “fringe YouTube star,” as my former colleague Ali Breland reported. Just last week, Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) called Fuentes “a total loser.” But Fuentes posted on X earlier this month, “We support Trump, but his campaign has been hijacked by the same consultants, lobbyists, & donors that he defeated in 2016, and they’re blowing it. Without serious changes we are headed for a catastrophic loss.”
Fuentes, who has more than 390,000 followers on X, has made racist attacks against Vance’s Indian-American wife, Usha, and pilloried Vance for his past criticism of Trump. He has also slammed the Trump campaign for disavowing Project 2025—though probably to Fuentes’s delight, the links between the former president and Project 2025 are deep and likely durable. He called for the campaign to get rid of chief strategist Chris LaCivita and senior adviser Susie Wiles. Fuentes claimed “victory” this week after the Trump campaign hired 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
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Julianne McShane is Mother Jones’ news and engagement writer, focusing on daily news coverage and stories at the intersection of gender and inequity.
