Whether Donald Trump wins or loses the presidential election, white nationalists are riding high.

They have made gains mainstreaming their movement, they say, and establishing a beachhead from which to advance their agenda.

“Trump has shown that our message is healthy, normal and organic — and millions of Americans agree with us,” Matthew M. Heimbach, a leader of the white nationalist Traditionalist Youth Network, told the Alaska Dispatch News.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Hours before the first results began to trickle in, ‘alt-righters’ pointed to exit polls and early ballots as cause for hope. Breitbart News trumpeted findings from Politico that more than a third of voters said they wanted a strong leader, a quality the Republican nominee has attempted to cultivate. It also highlighted outcomes in a number of small New Hampshire towns where voting begins at midnight — Trump narrowly carried that group of three hamlets.

The National Policy Institute’s Robert Spencer echoed those remarks, telling the Daily Beast he thought the ‘alt-right’ — a movement of neo-white supremacists — would seize control of conservatism in the United States.

“This past year and a half has been a tremendous opportunity for us, and we’ve come a long way,” he bragged to the publication. “Before Trump, one of the Alt-Right’s major obstacles was ignorance of our ideas. That has changed. Now we need to work to develop a more professional movement, which will displace the tired, useless, failed, and dumb ‘conservatives’ who currently staff the American Right.”

Meanwhile, on the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, Andrew Anglin cited late national polls from Investors’ Business Daily and the Los Angeles Times — both outliers among survey outfits — that showed Trump with a narrow lead.

Anglin has in the past spoke in harsher terms than his fellow travelers, predicting a “race war” if Trump loses and warning about “white genocide.” But on Tuesday, he struck a tone that was almost as sunny as theirs.

“What we have built over the past year and a half is not ever going away. History has already been changed,” he wrote. “The White Man is back. And nothing in this universe can stop us now.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount