In the two years since members of the Proud Boys participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, members of the extremist, anti-government group have switched their focus a bit away from Donald Trump and toward making a fuss at the local level.
While some chapters still prop Trump up as the figure who will go to bat for them if reelected, others think the former president showed weakness in eventually letting President Biden move into the White House. Outside of criminal trials for those charged with seditious conspiracy, members of the Proud Boys have, in recent months, mostly been spotted yelling at school board meetings and protesting against drag shows and other LGBTQ events, including when a handful of Proud Boys were spotted getting into a bloody clash with counter-protesters outside a drag show hosted by New York Attorney General Letitia James in Manhattan this spring.
It appears that in the wake of this latest Trump indictment, the anti-government militia group’s members aren’t necessarily rushing to defend Trump or protest the indictment. As Vice News noted in this new report, they’re currently pretty busy embodying the far-right’s latest hateful fixation: going after any and every entity that recognizes that LGBTQ people exist.
Per Vice’s report:
Public-facing Telegram channels belonging to various Proud Boy chaptersbarely engaged with—or ignored—Friday’s news of the 37-count federal indictment accusing Trump of hoarding classified documents containing nuclear secrets in his Mar-a-Lago bathroom (among other locations).
Over the weekend, the “Vice City” Proud Boy chapter in Miami reposted a flier advertising a protest outside the courthouse Tuesday. But by Monday they were back to targeting Pride Month.
Cape Fear Proud Boys, in North Carolina, which has been one of the country’s most active chapters in recent years, were too busy posting updates about their protest outside a drag show in Winston-Salem over the weekend to even acknowledge the latest indictment against Trump.
While we will keep an eye on how things transpire when Trump shows up to the federal courthouse in Miami tomorrow, it’s all a far-cry from what we witnessed in the “stand back and stand by” era that defined the Trump presidency.
The Best Of TPM Today
Here’s what you should read this evening:
Catch up on our live coverage here: MAGA Threats Mass Around Mar-a-Lago Miami Hearing
NC GOP Censures Thom Tillis For Backing LGBTQ+ Rights, Gun And Immigration Reform
In case you missed it: Now We Know: Trump Went On A Big Rant The Day After Receiving His Target Letter
MAGA Republicans Sound Alarm On AI Campaign Ads Only After DeSantis Posted Fake Trump Pics
As Bad as It Gets: Trump Led Comically Corrupt Attempt To Keep And Hide Classified Info
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Learning to Say F- It to the Trump FlimFlam — Josh Marshall
What We Are Reading
Why Do Republicans Have a Selective Ability to Understand the Law? — Bulwark
Aileen Cannon’s Previous Rulings About Trump Demand Her Recusal — Slate