Right-wing extremists take to social media to celebrate Trump’s ‘stand by’ comment

These and other laudatory images spread with particular speed on the conservative social media site Parler and also channels on the encrypted chat app Telegram, according to researchers. One prominent Proud Boys supporter on Parler said Trump appeared to give permission for attacks on protesters, adding that “this makes me so happy.”

On the fringe social media site 4chan, an anonymous supporter wrote, “STAND BACK AND STAND BY … SOMEONE HAS TO STOP THESE FAR LEFT RIOTERS,” according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks far-right groups.

It also found that Telegram channels devoted to neo-Nazis and white supremacists portrayed Trump’s comments as signals of support for them. The Proud Boys dispute characterizations of them as white supremacists, but their actions often are touted by white supremacists and others on far-right political fringes.

“He legitimized them in a way that nobody in the community expected. It’s unbelievable. The celebration is incredible,” said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE. “In my 20 years of tracking terrorism and extremism, I never thought I’d see anything like this from a U.S. president.”

Trump’s comments came in response to a question from the moderator, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, about whether he would be willing to publicly denounce white supremacists. The president suggested he would before adding, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The Trump campaign tweeted afterward: “President Trump has repeatedly condemned white supremacists. What a ridiculous question from Chris Wallace.”

Trump and his Cabinet have routinely sought in recent months to portray political violence as predominantly a problem of far-left groups, including the loosely organized antifa. But independent researchers on political extremism and terrorism have consistently concluded that white supremacists and the far-right generally have been consistently more dangerous in recent decades.

The prospect of Election Day violence has increasingly concerned those who monitor such groups. The Michigan chapter of the Proud Boys, one of those that made memes featuring Trump’s quote Tuesday night, had recently urged people on Telegram to become “poll challengers” on Election Day.

Trump sounded similar themes in the debate, urging his supporters to monitor polling places for supposed acts of fraud. Later, the Trump campaign ran advertising encouraging people to become poll workers.

“The Proud Boys were quick to react to the president’s remarks. They heard them as a call to action, and rapidly created ‘standing by’ memes designed to help mobilization in the group,” said Joseph Carter, program manager at Graphika, a network analysis firm.

The hashtag #whitesupremacy trended on Twitter on Tuesday night in the United States, among accounts on both the left and the right. That included the Trump campaign and right-wing influencers such as Candace Owens, as well as left-leaning actress Kerry Washington, tweeting in response to Trump’s comments, according to the research by disinformation researchers at the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public.

“Talking points about white supremacy developed among influencers on both sides of the Twitter spectrum,” said Kate Starbird, associate professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington.

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who has since distanced himself from the group. They say they are a “fraternal group spreading an ‘anti-political correctness’ and ‘anti-white guilt’ agenda,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center over the characterization.

“Acknowledgment from the top sets the pretense for increased white vigilantism,” said Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “This is a group that has organized street brawls using social media, has targeted people in their homes, and now believes their crusade against protesters is legitimate.”