From: Snapshot-Content-Location: https://archive.is/20260330235002/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/nick-fuentes-leftist-clips/686485/ Subject: =?utf-8?Q?Nick=20Fuentes=E2=80=99s=20Strategy=20is=20Working=20-=20The=20?= =?utf-8?Q?Atlantic?= Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2026 12:54:15 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; type="text/html"; boundary="----MultipartBoundary--WaGBC0XiMRTwP0GUASPrhE1idv5VZVKLtR93FfS1y0----" ------MultipartBoundary--WaGBC0XiMRTwP0GUASPrhE1idv5VZVKLtR93FfS1y0---- Content-Type: text/html Content-ID: Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: https://archive.is/20260330235002/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/nick-fuentes-leftist-clips/686485/ Nick Fuentes=E2=80=99s Strategy is Working = - The Atlantic

Nick Fuentes=E2=80=99s Strategy is Wor= king - The Atlantic

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Ni= ck Fuentes=E2=80=99s Strategy is Working

Viral clips of the far-right white supremacist are growing his audience.=
By <= a href=3D"https://archive.is/o/51bhK/https://www.theatlantic.com/author/amo= gh-dimri/" target=3D"_blank" style=3D"color:rgb(0, 0, 0);background-color:r= gba(0, 0, 0, 0);box-sizing:border-box;cursor:pointer;text-decoration-color:= rgb(0, 0, 0);text-decoration-line:none;text-decoration-style:solid;text-dec= oration-thickness:auto;">Amogh Dimri
3D"Nine
Illustration by T= he Atlantic. Source: Nicholas J. Fuentes / Rumble.
Listen
= 0:0014:59
Nick Fuentes, a 27-year-old white-supremacist influencer, is n= otorious for a political outlook that he summarizes succinctly: =E2=80=9CJe= ws are running society, women need to shut the fuck up, Blacks need to be i= mprisoned, for the most part.=E2=80=9D For Ericson Contreras, a left-leanin= g 23-year-old Afro Hispanic man from New York, Fuentes is not a natural ide= ological guru. So when Contreras was scrolling Instagram at 3 a.m. recently= , he was surprised to find himself served a clip of a Fuentes monologue. Mo= re surprising still, Contreras was nodding along.
=E2=80=9CTru= mp is better than the Democrats for Israel. For the oil and gas industry. For Silicon Valley. For Wall Street. Is he really better for us? I do= n=E2=80=99t think so,=E2=80=9D Fuentes declared while gazing at the camera = in one of these fan-uploaded clips. =E2=80=9CBiden made it so that medical debt doesn=E2= =80=99t go on your credit report=E2=80=94that was good for me. Biden tried to forgive the st= udent loans=E2=80=94t= hat was good for me.=E2=80=9D Retouched in a tasteful black and white, = the video featured an orchestral soundtrack that crescendoed as the fast-ta= lking, besuited polemicist delivered his final punch: =E2=80=9CThe free mar= ket says that Republicans have enough money to bomb Iran but not enough mon= ey to pay for my student loans. And I=E2=80=99m going to vote for that =E2= =80=99cause I=E2=80=99m an idiot.=E2=80=9D
Fuentes=E2=80=99s economic = populism resonated with Contreras. =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99m like, Y=E2=80=99know, he kinda has a poi= nt,=E2=80=9D = Contreras told me. He flicked through more Fuentes reels and was impressed = to find jabs at President Trump, Vice President Vance, and other leading co= nservatives, as well as a full-throated takedown of America=E2=80=99s attac= k on Iran, which has moved Fuentes to encourage voters to back Democrats in the midterms:= =E2=80=9CWe need, in 2026, for this administration to be shut. The fuck. D= own.=E2=80=9D Contreras admitted, however, that finding common ground with = a self-proclaimed racist can be disorienting: =E2=80=9CI get mad because I agree with him.= =E2=80=9D
There is = increasing concern on the left and in parts of the MAGA righ= t about the rise of Groypers, a term for the growing number of people, = most of them conservative young men, who follow Fuentes, a man who has deni= ed the Holocaust, defended Jim Crow, and argued that women should be denied= the vote and that many of them =E2=80=9Cwant to be raped.=E2=80=9D But Fue= ntes also appears to be gaining a following on the left. Thanks to an army of fans bent on broadening his au= dience, clips of Fuentes sounding well mannered and oddly agreeable now reg= ularly go viral on the very social-media platforms that have officially ban= ned him for his hate speech and anti-Semitism. The clip in which Fuentes pr= aises Joe Biden, for example, has more than 5 million views.
M= any left-wing social-media users are as mistrustful of mainstream-media out= lets as Fuentes=E2=80=99s usual fans, which may prime them to reconsider a = figure the usual gatekeepers have dismissed. People on the outer edges of t= he political spectrum also tend to share anti-elitist, anti-establishment v= iews, which can shade into the hatreds that Fuentes is so skilled at tappin= g.
=
Yet if some of Fuentes=E2=80=99s leftist converts are the by-produc= t of horseshoe politics, others seem a product of the peculiar new mechanic= s of social media. His show, America First With Nicholas J. Fuentes, streams for hours every= weeknight on Rumble, but few of the converts I spoke with had ever watched= it. They had, instead, encountered Fuentes through brief, selectively edit= ed videos that cropped up in their feeds. Social-media =E2=80=9Cclippers=E2= =80=9D rely on algorithms to circulate the cherry-picked content they post,= which is how these videos are reaching people who, like Contreras, are bew= ildered to find themselves agreeing with a man who once said, =E2=80=9CMy p= roblem with Trump isn=E2=80=99t that he=E2=80=99s Hitler. My problem with T= rump is that he is not Hitler.=E2=80=9D (Fuentes did not respond to multipl= e requests for comment.)
Cut from his show, these snippets handily capture= Fuentes=E2=80=99s appeal to his followers=E2=80=94his charisma, humor, and= willingness to throw punches=E2=80=94while leaving out most of the racism = and misogyny that might trigger censors or alienate viewers. In many clips,= Fuentes channels his anti-Semitism into criticisms of Israel that may reso= nate with young progressives. The Fuentes in these videos, which have been = appearing in my feeds, too, is an ideological chameleon. In one, he decries =E2=80=9Cthe MAGA movement as the biggest scam in America= n history=E2=80=9D; in another, he derides neo-Nazis for lionizing =E2=80=9Ca racial supr= emacist,=E2=80=9D adding: =E2=80=9CIf Hitler had it his way, they would=E2= =80=99ve killed and enslaved millions of people. Like, what the fuck are yo= u talking about?=E2=80=9D
Other progressives have expressed si= milar surprise in finding themselves charmed by this deceptively scrubbed-u= p Fuentes during their late-night scrolls. As a 23-year-old Jewish anti-Zio= nist leftist from New York told me, =E2=80=9CHe could be your homie.=E2=80= =9D (A number of sources declined to be identified to avoid professional bl= owback or harassment for praising Fuentes.)
=E2=80=9CFinally g= etting it Nick,=E2=80=9D former Representative Jamaal Bowman commented on the viral clip o= f Fuentes praising Biden. A New York Democrat who ran on taxing the rich an= d defunding the police, Bowman added, =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s us, against the= oligarchy. Now no more racist bullshit from you.=E2=80=9D
TikTok, YouTube, and Meta all mai= ntain bans on official accounts belonging to Fuentes. These companies told = me that they prohibit hate speech and remove it when they can. Yet most soc= ial-media platforms have loosened moderation standards since Trump=E2=80=99= s reelection in 2024, and they are clearly unable to keep up with all of th= e fan-uploaded clips. In response to questions about the videos I was seein= g in my feeds, Meta asked for the relevant links on Instagram, which Meta o= wns, and promptly erased them for violating their guidelines. Within minute= s, I found identical clips on Instagram.
Because Fuentes=E2=80= =99s monologues tend to rattle on for hours without focus or consistency, c= lippers have little trouble finding messages that appeal to different users= . =E2=80=9CYou can show 90 seconds to one person, and 90 seconds to someone= else, and 90 seconds to a third person. Each of those people will say, Yeah, I agree with that<= /i>,=E2=80=9D Laura Edelson, a Northeastern University professor who studie= s online extremism, told me. She added that social-media algorithms amplify= these clips by using speech-to-text transcriptions to group similar conten= t together. So leftists who =E2=80=9Clike=E2=80=9D videos that praise stude= nt-loan forgiveness and criticize MAGA may find themselves served with a sn= ippet of Fuentes making similar points.
Clippers can further g= ame social-media algorithms by adding left-wing hashtags, such as #liberal = and #lgbtq, to their captions. Instagram served me one video of Fuentes exp= ressing admiration for Stalin over a caption that read: = =E2=80=9C=F0=9F=98=AD his silliness knows no bounds (hashtags bc i want lef= t wing ppl to react to this so im seeing if i can bait them into watching t= his clips)=E2=80=9D and included #marxism, #leftist, and #anticapitalist. U= nlike TikTok and Instagram, YouTube lets users manipulate algorithms with b= ack-end tags, too, which viewers don=E2=80=99t see.
One 21-year-old Ch= ristian nationalist who runs the @womenforfuentes fan page on Instagram tol= d me that she spends hours each week carving out clips of his softer, funni= er side to better spread his message. Fuentes is =E2=80=9Cright about every= thing,=E2=80=9D she insisted, citing his takes on immigration, Israel, =E2= =80=9Cneocon foreign politics,=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Cthe catastrophic harms= of modernity and feminism.=E2=80=9D She said that she clips for fun and to= make new friends online, but noted with pride that =E2=80=9CNick loves his= clippers.=E2=80=9D He reposts =E2=80=9Chis favorite edits,=E2=80=9D and on= ce =E2=80=9Cliked=E2=80=9D one of her posts on Telegram.
Joan = Donovan, a professor at Boston University who studies algorithmic radicaliz= ation, told me that Fuentes deliberately makes it easy for clippers to spin= his message differently for different demographics. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s = part of his communication strategy to get algorithms to pick up this conten= t and serve it to wider audiences,=E2=80=9D she explained. =E2=80=9CFuentes= definitely knows that when he=E2=80=99s playing into the left or praising = Biden.=E2=80=9D
A 24-year-old medical researcher with isolatio= nist views told me that he agreed with a video he saw in January in which Fuentes critici= zed America=E2=80=99s intervention in Venezuela, likening it to the war in = Iraq=E2=80=94and =E2=80=9Clook at how that turned out,=E2=80=9D Fuentes sai= d in the clip. The researcher was shocked when I told him that Fuentes ener= getically backed the Venezuela attack in another episode, saying: =E2=80=9CWe w= ill kill all of you. Our military will come in and wipe out your regime, an= d we=E2=80=99ll take your oil.=E2=80=9D
Fuentes claimed in a December 2025 = episode that recent moves to embrace more freedom of expression by social-m= edia platforms and a proliferation of fan-uploaded clips may be =E2=80=9Cth= e biggest=E2=80=9D reason why his show blew up last year. Since his return = to X in May 2024, Fuentes=E2=80=99s following on the site has grown from le= ss than 300,000 to 1.3 million. =E2=80=9CIt used to be the case that if you= posted any clip from my show, your whole channel will get deleted,=E2=80= =9D he said. =E2=80=9CAll of a sudden, starting this year, you=E2=80=99re a= ble to post the clip without it getting taken down.=E2=80=9D
S= ome of Fuentes=E2=80=99s fan accounts include a kind of call to action in t= heir Instagram bios: =E2=80=9C1,000 clippers > 10 news outlets,=E2=80=9D= meaning they believe that their aggregate work in disseminating his messag= e reaches more viewers than anything that might run in a prime-time broadca= st.
Snippets that= intentionally soften or distort Fuentes=E2=80=99s views to appeal t= o more users worry researchers who study radicalization online. =E2=80=9CPa= rtial, agreeable exposure lowers friction,=E2=80=9D Don Shin, a professor a= t Texas Tech University, told me. =E2=80=9CThat makes people more likely to= watch another clip, click through to a full stream, or simply stop activel= y avoiding the creator=E2=80=94which is often the first step toward deeper = algorithmic exposure.=E2=80=9D
Shin led a 2024 study that foun= d that TikTok=E2=80=99s algorithm gradually radicalized users by nudging th= em toward incrementally more extreme content. Small actions such as rewatch= ing a clip or scrolling the comments led to more dramatic recommendations t= o maintain attention, a phenomenon called the =E2=80=9Cloop effect.=E2=80= =9D Within a matter of months, participants who experienced constant exposu= re to certain views began to adopt them.
Videos of the white nationali= st that lean into mistrust of the mainstream media have inspired some viewe= rs to make excuses for Fuentes=E2=80=99s more outlandish statements and vie= ws. =E2=80=9CHe just seems like a normal, funny dude who you would want to = have as a friend,=E2=80=9D the 23-year-old New Yorker, who voted for Kamala= Harris and Zohran Mamdani, told me. This young man said he was entertained= by Fuentes=E2=80=99s controversial appearance on the show Piers Morgan Uncensored in Decemb= er=E2=80=94particularly when Fuentes responded to a question about his raci= st commentary by c= iting his friendship with Kanye =E2=80=9CYe=E2=80=9D West, whom Fuentes= insisted was untroubled by his use of the N-word. (Ye and Fuentes dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022.)
=E2=80=9CNick kind= of dominated,=E2=80=9D the young New Yorker said. =E2=80=9CPiers Morgan ex= pected to have a debate or be like: Ha! See, I proved it. You=E2=80=99re racist.=E2=80=9D But, he added, =E2= =80=9CNick was five steps ahead.=E2=80=9D As for clips in which Fuentes use= d racist slurs and tropes, this young man insisted that they were all a pro= vocative performance, not a sincere expression of beliefs. =E2=80=9CA lot o= f the time, he=E2=80=99ll backtrack,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CAll streame= rs do that. They=E2=80=99ll clip-farm=E2=80=9D=E2=80=94say something outlan= dish in the hopes of going viral=E2=80=94=E2=80=9Cand then they=E2=80=99ll = clarify after.=E2=80=9D
A =E2=80=9Cpretty left-wing=E2=80=9D 17-year-o= ld was similarly inclined to apologize for Fuentes. He told me that the Fue= ntes in his social-media feed wasn=E2=80=99t the =E2=80=9Cbad guy=E2=80=9D = the mainstream media had made him out to be. This teenager said he often fo= und himself agreeing with Fuentes, particularly when the pundit bashed Trum= p, criticized the political power of wealthy Americans, and lamented the st= arvation of children in Gaza=E2=80=94all clips the teen shared with friends= . As for Fuentes=E2=80=99s description of Hitler as =E2=80=9Creally fucking= cool=E2=80=9D and his claim that =E2=80=9Cmass migration= =E2=80=9D to the United States is creating a =E2=80=9Cwhite genocide,=E2= =80=9D those were clearly jokes, the teen insisted. =E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99= s some stuff he says that, it=E2=80=99s just like, there=E2=80=99s no way a= ny human believes it. Those I try to just dismiss,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80= =9CHe=E2=80=99s just engagement baiting. He=E2=80=99s trying to get viewers= ; he=E2=80=99s trying to make money.=E2=80=9D
Kurt Gray, a psy= chology professor at Ohio State University, told me that Fuentes=E2=80=99s = appeal to the left might, in part, reflect the theory of =E2=80=9Coptimum d= istinctiveness,=E2=80=9D or the inclination of people to differentiate them= selves from their group. In this case, lefties watching Fuentes may think: = =E2=80=9CYeah, I=E2= =80=99m left-wing, but I=E2=80=99m a free thinker. I listen to Nick Fuentes= ,=E2=80=9D Gray said. =E2=80=9CEveryone wants to think of themselves as Neo=E2=80=9D=E2= =80=94the hero of the Matrix films. =E2=80=9CEveryone else is a sheeple.=E2=80=9D Gray added= that controversy can encourage people to work harder to justify their view= s, so that someone begins to think, =E2=80=9CI must really believe Nick Fuentes because now my s= ister=E2=80=99s calling me an idiot for believing him.=E2=80=9D
In= stead of dismissing Fuentes=E2=80=99s odious views, some of his more recent= and ideologically diverse followers contort themselves to justify them. Su= re, Fuentes has said, =E2=80=9CWe need white men running everything,=E2=80=9D but= he was just being ironic, right? When he claimed recently that the =E2=80=9CNo. 1 polit= ical enemy in America is women,=E2=80=9D obviously that was for the clicks.=
This is what makes Fuentes so successful=E2=80=94and, to anti= -radicalization researchers, so insidious. He=E2=80=99s relying on the shie= ld of irony and the spear of clipping to win the battle to widen his audien= ce. And it=E2=80=99s working.

About the Author

Amogh Dimri is an assistant = editor at The Atlant= ic.
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