Pro-Trump violence didn't materialize. So what are extremist groups targeting now?
It's the Week in Extremism, from USA TODAY.
Will CarlessFormer president Donald Trump's appearance in Miami courtroom this week didn't spark the sort of violence and chaos from extremist supporters that had been feared. Instead, the far-right remains fixated on anti-LGBTQ hate, as evidenced by a rash of hate crimes against pride flags across the country. An Army private pleads guilty to terrorist charges for attempting to assist ISIS in attacking US troops.
But first: In a development in a case that has been a touchstone for extremist issues, the suspect in the deadly Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub attack speaks.
It's the week in extremism.
Shooting suspect speaks in Colorado Springs nightclub attack
New this week: Anderson Aldrich, accused of killing five people and injuring 17 in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub last year, is expected to accept a plea deal that would guarantee a life sentence.
- Prosecutors have argued Aldrich targeted the club and shared social media posts associated with Aldrich that suggest a hateful background.
- Aldrich told the Associated Press it was "totally off base" to suggest hate motivated the killings.
The Club Q shooting, which targeted a known club for the gay community during a drag show, appeared to many extremism researchers to be the fulfillment of an age-old pattern: Rhetoric marginalizes a community until someone gets attacked.
More:Survivors of Colorado Springs mass shooting at Club Q say suspect likely to take plea deal
Despite fears, extremists don't disrupt Trump arraignment
More:Will Trump draw violent protesters to Miami? Experts monitor chance ahead of arraignment
The news this week was dominated by the unprecedented federal criminal indictment of Trump. Amid much speculation about whether extremists would show up in numbers at his court hearing in Miami on Tuesday, in the end the day was fairly quiet, with perhaps a couple hundred protesters who were largely outnumbered my the media present.
Experts had previously told USA TODAY they didn't expect much in the way of protests and violence, for a number of factors laid out in this story. The primary threat from extremists remains an attack by a lone actor or small cell angry at the prosecution of the former President — a risk that is likely to remain as Trump's legal woes escalate.
- The days preceding Trump's Miami court appearance saw several articles pinpointing anonymous online threats on pro-Trump message boards warning of coming violence, protests and even civil war. These turned out to be hyperbole.
- While it's too soon to say Trump has lost the support of the extremist far-right, the apparent apathy from his most ardent supporters at both his recent indictments suggests the former President doesn't have the sway he once did with extremist groups across the country.
- But as we outline in this story, those groups are also still reeling from more that 1,000 prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The far-right remains obsessed with LGBTQ issues
More:Gay Pride flag attacks mount amid online challenges by extremist groups
While it was largely ignoring Trump's legal woes and calls for protests, the extremist far-right continued its campaign against the LGBTQ community. As USA TODAY reported late last week, a rash of attacks against pride flags has been reported across the country.
- In just one week in early June, Pride flags were stolen, slashed or burned in at least five states, including California, Utah, Arizona, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. That’s on top of similar incidents in California and New York in May, including a man that defecated on a pride flag in Manhattan.
- “We do know that this is a trend and we know a lot of this stuff is being driven by different campaigns online … in both extremists forums like Telegram and also on mainstream social media forums like Twitter,” Sarah Moore, an anti-LGBTQ+ extremism analyst for the Anti-Defamation League and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation told USA TODAY.
- An analysis this week by VICE news reporter Tess Owen summed up the current ethos of one extremist group, the Proud Boys: "Ever since the latest batch of criminal charges against the former president dropped, this time under the Espionage Act in a federal court in Florida, the public response from the Proud Boys has so far been a resounding 'meh.'" Instead, the extremist gang has remained obsessed with LGBTQ issues, as evidenced by public postings from Proud Boys chapters, Owen reports.
Army private pleads guilty to terrorism charges
In the latest in a rash of extremism-related prosecutions of members of the military, Cole Bridges, a 22-year-old U.S. Army private pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military service members.
- Bridges joined the army in 2019 and began researching and consuming pro-jihadist propaganda online the same year, according to prosecutors. He began communicating with an undercover FBI agent.
- Bridges "provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in New York City," according to federal prosecutors. He also provided the undercover agent with "portions of a U.S. Army training manual and guidance about military combat tactics, for use by ISIS."
- Extremist groups of all stripes have long targeted current and former members of the U.S. armed forces. As USA TODAY reported in 2021, many investigations into extremist activity among the troops lead to quiet dismissal from the military rather than criminal prosecution.
- In a similar case, in 2022 Army Private Ethan Melzer pleaded guilty to sending sensitive information, including the location of his battalion in Turkey, to the Order of Nine Angles, a white supremacist Satanist organization. Melzer was sentenced to 45 years in prison in March.
Statistic of the week: 300-plus
That's how many different hate symbols are included in a first-of-its-kind online database of global hate symbols launched this week by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
The directory includes symbols representing far-right and bigoted ideologies, including but not limited to neo-Nazi, white nationalist, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant, male supremacist, anti-Muslim, antisemitic, and others. Symbols are tagged by all ideologies that apply.
“This tool will help to identify where far-right actors are active, the narratives they are pushing, and will help show — from chatrooms to violent extremism — how hate and extremist groups and individuals inspire and connect each other across borders,” said Global Project Against Hate and Extremism co-founder Wendy Via.