(New York) After the arrest of Tyler Robinson, the alleged killer of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, a rumor quickly began to circulate on social media that he was a “Groyper”.
A what? Derived from a far-right meme, the term Groyper applies to any follower of Nick Fuentes.
Nick who? Before his death, Charlie Kirk had no greater enemy than the Boston University dropout and online late-night talk show host.
(27-year-old Nick Fuentes famously called Charlie Kirk a “Jewish stooge” and a “fake Christian” because of his pro-Israel positions.)
The rumor was false. Tyler Robinson was not a Groyper.
As for Nick Fuentes, he quickly disavowed violence.
But Nick Fuentes now has no rival for the attention of young American conservatives. Last week, an editorialist from New York Times even crowned him “successor” to Charlie Kirk. Conservatives immediately criticized him for wanting to tarnish the right by conferring this title on Nick Fuentes.
One thing is certain: this same right does not agree on how to treat this influencer who summed up his thoughts thus during a program last April: “Jews run society, women must shut up, blacks must be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise. It’s that simple. »
PHOTO ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host and popular podcaster
On October 27, the right’s confusion over Nick Fuentes reached its peak when Tucker Carlson, one of the most popular podcasters in the United States, invited this negationist and admirer of Adolf Hitler, who has more than 1 million subscribers on X, to his show.
Two weeks later, the interview has been viewed more than 5.8 million times on YouTube.
A complacent interview
This wasn’t the first time Nick Fuentes found himself in the big leagues. In November 2022, he was hosted with rapper Kanye West, another Holocaust denier, at Mar-a-Lago, where he shared a meal with Donald Trump. The latter later declared that he had no idea who Nick Fuentes was.
But Tucker Carlson knew him very well. And he was not only criticized for inviting him on his show, but also for the complacent tone of his interview. He didn’t flinch when Fuentes denounced “organized Jewry,” the “Jewish neoconservatives behind the war in Iraq” and “Zionist Jews” who “control the media.” Nor did he protest when Fuentes proposed creating an exclusive “pro-white” Christian movement.
At most he warned his guest that he was harming his cause by accusing “the Jews” of all the wrongs.
Among the reactions sparked by this interview, that of Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative research group Heritage Foundation, attracted particular attention. Roberts defended Carlson, saying in a video that the latter “will always be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”
This research group, it should be remembered, is at the origin of Project 2025, the Trump administration’s roadmap.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz sounded a different story during a speech in Las Vegas: “If you’re sitting next to someone who says that Adolf Hitler was really cool and his mission is to fight and defeat world Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in this evil.” »
Vance downplays
This controversy perhaps reveals what awaits the MAGA movement after the eclipse of Donald Trump. And it is not certain that Ted Cruz embodies the future.
In mid-October, the news site Politico published inflammatory messages exchanged by leaders of the Young Republicans organization in four US states. Some of them called black people “monkeys” or used the N-word to refer to them. Others considered putting their political opponents in gas chambers. Yet another admitted: “I like Hitler. »
The Groypers do not express themselves otherwise.
A few days later, Paul Ingrassia, a former far-right podcaster, withdrew his candidacy for a position to head a federal agency after the publication of a Politico report attributing racist messages to him in a private texting group. In one of the messages, the young man admitted to having a “Nazi side”.
Remarkable fact: JD Vance chose to minimize both the comments made by the leaders of the Young Republicans and the controversy raised by the interview of Tucker Carlson, one of his allies, with Nick Fuentes.
Is he afraid of Fuentes, who has previously criticized his interracial and interfaith marriage? One thing is certain, the leader of the Groypers has threatened to attack the vice-president if the latter condemns his army.
PHOTO ROD LAMKEY, REUTERS
United States Vice President JD Vance at a press conference Saturday in Washington
“He’s in a bind because the Groypers are saying to him on one side, ‘Listen, Fathead, we want America first. You want to run for president? We want to hear you say America comes first.’ And on the other side, there are his donors, who are telling him, ‘They are horrible anti-Semites. You have to disavow them. You have to strongly condemn them. Condemn Tucker. Condemn the Groypers,'” Fuentes said on a recent show.
The influencer seemed sure that JD Vance wouldn’t dare condemn him.
