Trump defense pick says he was pulled from inauguration duty for 'extremist' tattoo
Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of defense says he was removed from his National Guard post at President Joseph Biden’s 2021 inauguration because superiors deemed his tattoos to be connected to extremism.
Meanwhile, Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory media company, Infowars, has been purchased at auction by the satirical news site The Onion, which plans to make the site a parody of its former self. Hate and extremism also spiked online in the wake of the presidential election. And how Trump pardons of Jan. 6 insurrectionists would be a shot in the arm for America’s far-right extremist movement.
It’s the week in extremism, from USA TODAY.
Incoming defense secretary was removed from deployment for ‘extremist’ tattoos
Peter Hegseth, who was named this week as incoming President Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of defense, said in an interview that he was removed from a National Guard deployment to Biden’s inauguration because superiors deemed his tattoos were “extremist.”
The revelation comes as the US military has been on a four-year mission to stamp out extremism in the ranks, an effort that USA TODAY has covered extensively.
Hegseth told podcaster and former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan, “I was deemed an ‘extremist’ because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington, D.C. … my orders were revoked to guard the Biden inauguration.”
The tattoo, which Hegseth called a Jerusalem cross, “is just a Christian symbol,” he told Ryan.
Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and the National Guard in New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia between May 2001 and March 2021, according to a spokesperson for the National Guard. He held the rank of major when he was discharged. He was also a host on Fox News.
A few days before Biden’s inauguration, the Associated Press reported that 12 members of the National Guard were removed because of concerns of ties to extremist groups.
USA TODAY conducted an in-depth investigation of the U.S. military’s attempts to stamp out extremism in the ranks following the Jan. 6 insurrection. This summer, the Army tightened its rules on extremist activity by troops.
USA TODAY has sought more information about Hegseth’s claims from the Army National Guard and the U.S. Secret Service.
The Onion buys Infowars
Alex Jones’ former media company, Infowars, has been responsible for spreading some of the most damaging and dangerous conspiracy theories across the country in recent years. The site spread lies about everything from the COVID pandemic to the 2020 election, and was a big driver of participants in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
On Thursday the satirical news site The Onion announced it had purchased Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, saying in a press release it would be ending the site’s “relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good.”
The Onion acquired Infowars with the support of families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, who sued Jones for defamation after he claimed on his show that the attack, in which 28 people died, had been faked. The families were awarded $1.5 billion in damages in 2022 and this summer a judge ruled that Infowars must be sold at auction.
“From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business. Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Chris Mattei, attorney for the Connecticut plaintiffs and partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder.
A press release from the organization Everytown for Gun Safety announced the acquisition Thursday morning, including the news that Everytown will become the site’s primary sponsor.
“We’re planning on making this a very funny, very stupid website” Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, wrote on Bluesky.
Trump pardons of insurrectionists would boost the far-right
A USA TODAY story this week looks at the potential impact of Trump’s promised pardons of Jan. 6 insurrectionists. While the president has been vague about who he plans to pardon, experts worry that granting clemency to even a few leaders of the insurrection will send a strong signal to domestic far-right extremists.
The prosecution of Jan. 6 insurrectionists severely impacted the far-right extremist movement in America, driving organizations underground and stripping organizations like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers of their respective leaders.
Those leaders, now sitting in prison serving long sentences, have expressed hope that Trump plans to pardon them. Doing so would send a strong signal to domestic extremist groups of all stripes, Joan Donovan, founder of the nonprofit group The Critical Internet Studies Institute, told USA TODAY: “That signals something very dangerous, not just for America, but also for what could eventually turn into a civil war,” she said.
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign told USA TODAY in an email the incoming president will grant pardons on a “case by case basis” and did not answer further questions.
Trump’s pardon power is essentially absolute for federal crimes, said Jeffrey Crouch, a law professor at American University and an expert on the pardon process. “Clemency is a constitutional power, and the president can use it whenever he would like and however much he would like,” he said.
Extremists celebrate Trump victory, spread hate online
Extremists across the country celebrated Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s election with calls for violence, misogyny and hate, according to an analysis by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
Social media accounts connected to the extremist street gang the Proud Boys posted numerous examples of hateful and violent rhetoric GPAHE reported. In one post, a Telegram channel connected to a Proud Boys chapter posted a photograph of a smiling vice president-elect JD Vance with the caption “We are going to kill you.”
White supremacist groups celebrated Trump’s win across social media, GPAHE found. One neo-Nazi boasted that “[Trump’s] campaign has adopted numerous talking points from” his group. “So there are plenty of opportunities to continue pushing our rhetoric through him and normalizing our ideas.”
And Trump’s election was celebrated by other misogynist and hateful groups: “Online influencers like neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes celebrated Trump’s election as a ‘TOTAL GROYPER VICTORY,’ and targeted women’s reproductive rights by saying, ‘your body, my choice. Forever.’” the report states.
Statistic of the week: Millions
That’s how many examples of antisemitic hate the Anti-Defamation League found on the popular online gaming platform Steam in a new analysis published this week.
According to the study, the ADL’s Center on Extremism also identified 1.5 million unique users and over 73,000 groups who used at least one piece of potentially extremist or hateful content. The dataset includes more than 458 million profiles, 152 million profile and group avatar images and 610 million comments on user profiles and groups.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Pete Hegseth says he was removed from Biden inauguration duty