
U.S. President Donald Trump’s comment about the self-described “Western chauvinist” Proud Boys during Tuesday night’s raucous presidential debate was a significant profile boost to the organization, experts on extremist groups say.
“This is the best thing that could have happened to Proud Boys and the white supremacist movement in probably half a century,”
Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said of Trump’s comments.
The group has made headlines recently with its clashes with radical left-wing demonstrators, including from the antifa movement, at protests against police violence and racism in Portland.
The group’s tenets, according to its website, include “closed borders,” “venerating the housewife,” “minimal government,” “pro free speech,” and “anti-racism.”
“What they’re really out there for is to go bash heads,” Neiwert said. “They come pretty heavily armed. They come armoured, and they all come eager to fight.
David Neiwert, author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump

The Proud Boys have been booted off some social media websites, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And just this week, U.K.-based apparel maker Fred Perry said it was pulling from the U.S. and Canadian markets the Black/Yellow/Yellow twin-tipped shirt that the group has adopted. The shirt won’t return, Fred Perry said, “until we’re satisfied that its association with the Proud Boys has ended.”

Meanwhile, McInnes has denied the group has affiliations with far-right extremist groups that overtly espouse racist and anti-Semitic views. McInnes sued the Southern Poverty Law Center last year, claiming it defamed him when it designated the Proud Boys as a “hate group.”
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