President Trump has largely shrugged off concerns about white nationalism in the United States — telling reporters on March 15 after a white nationalist murdered 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, that “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.”
During a House Appropriations Committee hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, Wray said the danger of white nationalist and white nationalist extremists in America is “significant,” adding that, like other extremist groups, they are a “persistent, pervasive threat.”
That answer, in response to a question from Rep. Jose Serrano, matches the assessment of experts both within the Department of Justice and elsewhere. So does Director Wray’s argument that domestic terrorism is largely “less structured, less organized,” with “more uncoordinated, one-off individuals as opposed to some structured hierarchy,” which Wray said “presents its own share of challenges.”
His FBI director takes the threat much more seriously.During a House Appropriations Committee hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, Wray said the danger of white nationalist and white nationalist extremists in America is “significant,” adding that, like other extremist groups, they are a “persistent, pervasive threat.”
That answer, in response to a question from Rep. Jose Serrano, matches the assessment of experts both within the Department of Justice and elsewhere. So does Director Wray’s argument that domestic terrorism is largely “less structured, less organized,” with “more uncoordinated, one-off individuals as opposed to some structured hierarchy,” which Wray said “presents its own share of challenges.”
Today, some in the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and state and local law enforcement agencies have expressed alarm at far-right extremism. The Trump Administration’s counterterrorism strategy, released in October 2018, warned that the United States faces a threat from individuals motivated by types of violent extremism other than radical Islam, “such as racially motivated extremism, animal rights extremism, environmental extremism, sovereign citizen extremism, and militia extremism.” In April 2018, federal authorities charged 57 members of white supremacist organizations with drug trafficking and kidnapping. As U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions remarked following the arrest, “Not only do white supremacist gangs subscribe to a repugnant, hateful ideology, they also engage in significant, organized and violent criminal activity.” He continued that “the Department of Justice has targeted every violent criminal gang member in the United States. The quantities of drugs, guns, and money seized in this case are staggering.”
