Nick Fuentes Is the GOP's Latest Frankenstein Monster

The extremist podcaster’s rise and rise is a sign that racists and antisemites are tired of being the junior partners in the Republican coalition.

Jeet Heer

SNIP*
Shelley was only 18 when she started writing her tale of Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist who defies the laws of nature by stitching together dismembered parts of corpses to create new life. The work’s immortality lies in the perennial truth at its heart: The modern world has had many Victor Frankensteins who have unleashed monsters they could not control.

That brings me to the GOP in 2025. The party is grappling with its own Frankenstein monster, in the form of 27-year-old podcaster Nick Fuentes.

To say Fuentes is a bigot would be an understatement. He’s a Holocaust denier, a proud antisemite, and an avowed white nationalist. He is also someone with a massive following on the right. Indeed, in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Fuentes might well be the most popular influencer among young right-wing Americans. Fuentes’s fans, known as “Groypers,” are a loud presence in Republican circles, helping push groups such as Kirk’s Turning Points USA to become more overtly white nationalist.

The Carlson interview caused a firestorm on the right. While it was criticized by figures such as Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Ted Cruz, there was a much more equivocal response by Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, perhaps the preeminent GOP think tank and the progenitor of the Project 2025 agenda which has guided the Trump administration. As The New York Times notes, Roberts “defended Mr. Carlson in a video statement, saying that his critics were ‘sowing division’ and that he would ‘always be a close friend’ to the conservative think tank.” Roberts also attacked the “globalist class” and “venomous coalition” which he claimed were serving “someone else’s agenda.” In the context of the debate over Fuentes, these words are clearly laced with antisemitic innuendo. (Roberts later reassigned some Heritage staffers in the wake of a backlash to his comments.)

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/nick-fuentes-tucker-carlson-interview-analysis/#

Another day in Trumpville.