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Tischauser posits that Hate Club 1488’s deliberate decision to hold a rally in Columbus was a calculated move to stoke fear and associate themselves with the momentum of Trump’s victory, strategically exploiting the city’s liberal leaning in an otherwise conservative state.
“The timing and location of the march were carefully chosen to maximize impact,” Tischauser explains. “By holding the rally in an urban island of liberal stronghold within a predominantly conservative state, they aim to sow discord and tap into the sentiment of Trump’s supporters, even if implicitly.” Tischauser notes that the manner in which migrants were used as a talking point by Republican officials and candidates during the election effectively put Ohio on the map for extremist groups like Hate Club, which seek to capitalize on the current climate.
Other extremist groups, including the Proud Boys and Blood Tribe, have also established a presence in Ohio, engaging in a form of ideological one-upmanship as they vie for supporters and resources within a finite pool of potential recruits and donors. “These white power groups are competing to outdo each other, each attempting to prove themselves as the most authentic neo-Nazis,” Tischauser observes.
In response to the rising tide of extremism in the state, a coalition of activist groups in Ohio formed Ohioans Against Extremism in August, with Maria Bruno at the helm as executive director. While Bruno welcomes the national attention that the Columbus rally brought to the issue of rising extremism in Ohio, she expresses frustration that it has taken this long for the issue to gain traction. “On one hand, we’re grateful for the spotlight on this pressing concern, but on the other hand, it’s hard not to feel a sense of exasperation, wondering where this awareness has been for marginalized communities in Ohio who have been sounding the alarm on this for years,” Bruno remarks.
Blood Tribe established a foothold in Ohio in 2023, and since then, a trail of disturbing incidents has followed in their wake. Most notably, 20 members of the group crashed a Pride event and a Jewish center in Toledo, while 26 armed Blood Tribe members protested outside a drag story hour in Columbus, ominously chanting “There will be blood.” Additionally, a coalition of extremist groups including Blood Tribe, the Proud Boys, and White Lives Matter converged outside a drag queen story hour in Wadsworth, and a White Lives Matter member firebombed a progressive church in Chesterland that was planning to host a drag queen story hour.
Nashville, Tennessee, has also become a focal point for neo-Nazi activity in recent months. In February, approximately 36 members of Blood Tribe and the Vinland Rebels marched through historically Black neighborhoods in the city, chanting hateful slogans and performing Nazi solutes. Over several weeks in July, the antisemitic network Goyim Defense League staged a series of rallies across Nashville, including one where roughly 30 members, clad in “Whites Against Replacement” T-shirts, disrupted a Nashville-Davidson county metro council public meeting, unleashing Nazi salutes and hurling epithets at attendees.
According to local authorities, the Goyim Defense League had secured a temporary residence in Scottsville, Kentucky, about 65 miles outside Nashville, making it clear that they had set their sights on the city as a target due to its liberal leanings within a predominantly red state.
As Tischauser notes, these extremist groups are poised to escalate their demonstrations, endeavoring to sway both state and federal policies by hijacking the momentum of Trumpism. By appropriating the ideology, whether or not Trump supporters explicitly condone their actions, they seek to push the boundaries of their president’s extreme rhetoric and usher in a new era of intolerance.
