Morning Briefing: Far Right Fails to Intimidate #TeslaTakedown Protesters
The majority of the #TeslaTakedown protests were reportedly peaceful, despite an attempt by 'small groups of neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, and Trump supporters to intimidate rally goers.'
Morning Briefing: Thousands of people took part in hundreds of #TeslaTakedown protests targeting Tesla dealerships in the United States, Canada, and Europe, in response to “Elon Musk’s efforts to slash federal government staffing and budgets.”
In response, far right activists organized counter-protests, and extremist and violent rhetoric was directed at anti-Tesla protesters in far right spaces online. However, the majority of the protests were reportedly peaceful, despite an attempt by “small groups of neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, and Trump supporters to intimidate rally goers.”
In Boise, Idaho, counter-protesters displayed right-wing themed flags, wore camouflage clothing, and openly carried military style assault rifles.
The Proud Boys, the far right violent extremists group, announced plans to targeted multiple #TeslaTakedown protests. In Columbus, Ohio, there were unconfirmed reports of members of the Proud Boys present at the counter-protest. In Salem, Oregon, various individuals wearing Proud Boys insignia were part of the counter-protest.
Jared Taylor, editor of the White Supremacist publication American Renaissance, spoke at an event sponsored by the Western Culture Club at the Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado. During the speech, there was reportedly “music being played outside by students and protesters” which “could be heard filtering through the windows, making for ever-present noise.”
In Washington City, Utah, residents reportedly found “banner linked to a white nationalist group displayed on an overpass,” and the banner included the message “Keep America American.” The banner is the latest example of an ongoing propaganda campaign by members of Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Nationalist group.
In Morgan Hill, California, swastika flag was reportedly “discovered hanging from a Highway 101 overpass,” and local law enforcement has “launched an investigation into the discovery as a possible hate crime.” The incident has not yet been connected to any specific far right extremists or White Supremacist group.
Must Reads
Jared Holt writes that the “Trump administration has mostly been silent about what plans, if any, it has to address domestic terrorism that don’t hinge on mass deportations of foreign nationals. With the exception of vandalism and attacks targeting Tesla, an electric vehicle manufacturer run by far-right billionaire and DOGE leader Elon Musk, the Trump administration has failed to even acknowledge the threat of domestic terrorism, even as it borrows its vernacular and legal mechanisms to scapegoat and pursue its political enemies. Top administration appointees and hires have further dissuaded any notion that the Trump administration’s national security concerns include domestic terrorism… Americans should be skeptical of the Trump administration’s reliance on national security arguments to assert and expand its power, especially as it dissolves programs and directives that contribute to public safety in ways that its other “national security” directives, like erasing women, people of color and LGBTQ+ communities from government websites, plainly do not. The Trump administration’s tough talk on terrorism is a Trojan horse for authoritarian power grabs and retaliatory misuses of power. If enough people take the bait, the administration will hide behind national security’s inherent political conveniences: secrecy, impunity and irreverence for civil liberties.” [MSNBC]
Dan Friedman and Amanda Moore write that Ed Martin “began working as US attorney on Inauguration Day, the day Trump granted clemency to 1,600 January 6 defendants. The president’s vaguely worded declaration largely left implementation to the DOJ. Martin took on that task with alacrity. When a judge barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, whose 18-year sentence Trump had commuted, from entering DC, Martin intervened, successfully arguing that the order was improper. Rhodes—who has since shown up on Capitol Hill—later told reporters that the judge ‘got slapped down by Ed Martin.’ As an interim US attorney, Martin can serve a maximum of 120 days, unless the Senate confirms him to fill the job permanently. He wasted no time in reshaping the office in his image, demoting key attorneys who’d worked on January 6 cases and initiating an internal investigation of prosecutors who charged defendants with violating a particularly harsh obstruction statute—18 USC 1512—that the Supreme Court later ruled did not apply to most of the rioters.” [Mother Jones]
Rogé Karma writes that “to the untrained eye, Donald Trump’s tariff policy over the past two months has looked like an incoherent, inconsistent, self-destructive mess. But have you considered the possibility that it is, in fact, the first step of a carefully orchestrated master plan to revive American manufacturing, reduce the national debt, reconfigure the international-alliance system, and deliver the greatest geopolitical deal of the century? That is the thrust of a new theory that has been gaining currency in Washington, on Wall Street, and in the financial press. The grand bargain that Trump is supposedly planning to strike has even been given a name: the Mar-a-Lago Accord. The outline of the theory was first articulated not in a MAGA subreddit, but in a November paper by Stephen Miran, an economist who now chairs Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers. Many of the theory’s basic tenets have also been endorsed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. In its telling, Trump’s flurry of new trade barriers isn’t intended to achieve a particular strategic concession or short-term economic benefit. The goal is instead to force other countries to the table for a grand bargain.” [The Atlantic]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
There may be a coherent strategy behind tRUmp's doomed tariffs, but bringing jobs back to the US and making the economy stronger isn't part of it. This is a strategy in the same way that mafia protection rackets are a strategy. tRUmp wants to bend other nations to his will. What is cited in this article is simply more disinformation like that spread recently by Navarro. Broad tariff's of the sort that tRUmp is imposing gangster style will only hurt the US and probably the global economy.