Nazi imagery and symbolism are increasingly moving from the darkest corners of American society to its political mainstream, raising concerns about antisemitism and white supremacist ideology. Although Nazi sympathizers and neo-Nazi have existed on the fringes of U.S. society for decades, their messages have been amplified recently by members of both major political parties.
“A lot of extremist symbology and rhetoric once relegated to the dark corners of the internet or fringe groups are now becoming mainstream in general,” Christine Reyna, a psychology professor at DePaul University, told Straight Arrow News.
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In recent weeks, a leaked group chat showed that members of the Young Republicans organization joked about Nazi concentration camps, with one declaring, “I love Hitler.”
A conservative news outlet at Harvard University, called The Harvard Salient, was suspended for using phrases that echoed a speech by Adolf Hitler. That outlet had been gone for a decade but was recently revived four years ago.
And in Maine, a Democratic Senate candidate came under fire after a photo revealed that he had a tattoo of an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol. When he had the tattoo covered, Graham Platner said he hadn’t known it was a Nazi symbol and had gotten the tattoo with his friends in the military.
“If you go back 10 years ago, you’d have to go into spaces like 4chan or to Telegram and different forums, where you would have the sort of things that are now being joked about in public,” Alex Hinton, distinguished professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, told SAN.
But it’s more than online joking.
A Neo-Nazi group is now continuing to build and recruit in the U.S. A couple of dozen neo-Nazis rallied in Maine, a neo-Nazi group known as “The Blood Tribe” rallied in Wisconsin and neo-Nazis flying flags with swastikas rallied in Ohio in the last few years.
“We see a lot more presence of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups on the streets, in protests, counter-protests,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate, told SAN.
And just a few days ago, a man wearing a Nazi uniform assaulted a student at the University of Georgia.
“There’s no reason,” Whitney Jordan Adams, assistant professor of English rhetoric and writing at Berry College in Georgia, said to SAN. “Why would someone do that, right — dress in a Nazi uniform and go to downtown Athens, Georgia?”
Adams blamed a lack of education on history.
“For example, young men or college students that aren’t really using critical thinking skills, where they might see that particular discourse being posted somewhere, and then they kind of would dress like Hitler, or would dress in a Nazi uniform, and unfortunately not recognize the full implication of that,” Adams said.
Why the move to the mainstream?
Antisemitic sentiments swelled early during President Donald Trump’s first administration, when marchers at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted, “Jews will not replace us” while protesting the removal of a Confederate monument. One woman died when a man who attended the rally drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
Although Trump denounced the violence, he drew strong condemnation for saying the episode included an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.”
It was one of several instances in which Trump seemed to embrace far-right extremists or, at the least, failed to condemn them. He has dined with Holocaust denier and Hitler supporter Nick Fuentes, and earlier this month, Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, withdrew after it was revealed he had made inflammatory comments, including that he had a “Nazi streak.”
“Generally, the Republican Party has stopped policing its own,” Beirich, of the Global Project Against Hate, said. “It used to be the case that if you disclosed that somebody was an antisemite or a racist or whatever the case might be, that the Republican Party would toss them out.”
“At this point, the Trump administration doesn’t care if it’s got extremists in the ranks,” Beirich added.
Members of the Trump administration downplayed the Young Republicans group chat that contained antisemitic remarks. Vice President JD Vance said it was an example of kids telling a “stupid joke” — even though some members of the group chat were almost 40 years old.
“There’s been this movement to shift the boundaries of accessible discourse over time,” Rutgers’ Hinton said. “And it’s been successful because it’s an intentional strategy.”
“You say whatever you want,” Hinton said, “and then if anyone calls you on you say, ‘Hey, I was just joking. You’re being hypersensitive.’ ‘You’re not edgy like I am.’”
Antisemitism and Trump’s response
Trump has repeatedly denied antisemitic leanings, and he has said a crackdown on elite universities was based on their failure to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in 2024.
Days before last year’s presidential election, he told a crowd in Atlanta: “I’m not a Nazi. I’m the opposite of a Nazi.”
However, a former White House chief of staff said Trump once said that Hitler “did some good things” and that he wanted generals like the Nazis.
He also has drawn public support from some white supremacist leaders who have adopted Nazi ideology.
“[Trump] awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years,” Henry Stout, leader of the Aryan Freedom Network, said to Reuters. “He’s the best thing that’s happened to us.”
However, Trump diverges from white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers on matters involving Israel. Trump has been extremely supportive of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There are some factions of the far-right that don’t like Trump because he supports Netanyahu, he supports Israel, and they’re against that,” Beirich said. “In fact, there’s quite a bit of infighting on that front about Trump’s relationship with Israel.”
You may remember during last year’s presidential campaign, Trump repeated the false claims of Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
That claim was initially spread by The Blood Tribe, who were even named in a lawsuit by Springfield city officials.
“They believe Hitler is a literal God,” Beirich said. “Their iconography is straight-up Nazi stuff. Swastikas, blood drops, SS symbols.”
What comes next?
Most Americans are not extremists on either side, and experts say they hope it stays that way.
“You look at what happened in Germany, and it should be a goal that that does not happen again,” Adams, the Berry College professor, said. “And so, it’s important that students are aware of the purpose of things and the power of language.”
Adams added that seeing any Nazi symbolism should make Americans uncomfortable.
“I think it really should be a concern of everyone that values democracy, or that values what it means to be an American,” Adams added.
However, recent data found 30% of Americans either consider themselves Christian nationalists or sympathize with those who are.
“The extremes have the loudest voices and get the most attention,” Reyna said. “That’s not what America is right now. America is mostly people in the middle who don’t agree with these things and to find like-minded people who can support you and give you hope.”
“There’s all this common ground,” Hinton said. “And so in this world of social media algorithms, demagogues, populism, influencers, what’s shared is erased from view — but that exists, and that’s also cause for hope.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that a rumor claiming that Springfield Haitian migrants were eating pets referenced Springfield, Illinois. The correct location is Springfield, Ohio. Straight Arrow News regrets the error, and the story has been updated to reflect the correction.
