Thomas Ryan Rousseau | |
|---|---|
 Rousseau's 2023 Mugshot from Coeur d'Alene | |
| Born | October 20, 1998 |
| Occupation(s) | Far-right activist and politician |
| Years active | 2017-present |
| Known for | Founder and leader of Patriot Front |
Thomas Ryan Rousseau is an American far-right activist known for founding and leading the alt-right and white supremacist group Patriot Front.
Rousseau is a native of Grapevine, Texas located between Dallas and Fort Worth, and attended Coppell High School. [1] [2] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rousseau was the editor of his high-school newspaper The Sidekick, where he wrote columns calling for banning transgender bathrooms and promoting guns on college campuses. [3] Rousseau was a Boy Scout. [4] He has also been on an FBI watchlist since he was in high school. [5] [6] In an interview with ProPublica, Rousseau's classmates said "He seemed Republican, but he didn’t seem crazy", and most people who knew Rousseau personally in Grapevine expressed surprise that he founded and leads a white-supremacist group. [7]
Rousseau founded Patriot Front in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. [2] Rousseau attended the rally as the leader of Vanguard America (VA)'s contingent, a group he joined as a teenager. [8] In the weeks before the rally, Rousseau took control of Vanguard America's website and Discord server [a] after feuding with the "Commander" of VA, Dillon Irizarry. [9] Following the bad press arising from the rally, Rousseau rebranded Vanguard America as Patriot Front, announcing in a Discord message "Vanguard America, as you know it, will now be the "Patriots Front", and that the focus and goals of the group would remain the same. [10] Despite participating in the rally, Rousseau has since denounced it as "bad activism" that damaged the far-right cause in the United States. [7] On August 14, 2017, the VA Twitter account announced that Rousseau was no longer affiliated with the group. [1] An aftereffect of Rousseau's feud with Irizarry is his refusal to use any formal title as the Patriot Front leader, rejecting the term "Commander" which had been used by VA. [7] Patriot Front's core was the "Southern Front", a regional section of the VA, and was intended from the start to be a more strategic, savvy, careful alternative, adopting American symbols such as Red white and blue, the bald eagle, and patriotic language. [7] Rousseau has gained notability for being the only major figure in Patriot Front to reveal his identity. [8]
In 2020, 3 members of Patriot Front, including Rousseau, were arrested for placing stickers near the county courthouse in Parker County, Texas. [11]
In 2021, Rousseau attended a conference with Jared Taylor of American Renaissance a white supremacist website and magazine. [12]
In 2021, Rousseau was the subject of a civil suit by the State of Virginia due to Patriot Front's defacing of a statue of African-American tennis player Arthur Ashe, which Rousseau never challenged resulting in a default judgement pending for vandalism, should he ever set foot in Virginia again. [13]
In 2023, Rousseau would be named in a lawsuit by African-American singer Charles M. Murrell III for "physical and emotional challenges" stemming from what he claimed as an assault carried out by Patriot Front members during their 2018 march through Boston. [2] Murrell would be represented by Human Rights First, the group that sued the organizers of Unite the Right for violence at their rally. [2]
In 2023, Rousseau and 30 other members of Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai County, Idaho for plotting a riot at a pride parade, however, the charges against Rousseau where dropped mostly due to the length of the case and the fact the prosecution lost evidence as the group's phones had been seized before there was a warrant out for their arrests. [14] [15] [16] [17] Another key reason Rousseau's case was dropped was because his lawyer was able to convince the judge the lead prosecutor was unprofessional, "self-congratulatory", and "braggadocious," while some judges [b] had ruled the police did not have probable cause for the arrest in the first place. [18] The prosecution handled the case so poorly that one of the judges went on record stating "I have never, in my 10 years, seen anything that even approaches this level of failure to properly disclose evidence" as the prosecution failed to properly document objections, and fed evidence in "drips and drabs." [18] After the case was dropped, Rousseau held a rally in New York City where he said "We’re going to keep doing demonstrations. We’re going to keep making ourselves known." [18]
In a 2024 vandalism case in North Dakota, Rousseau denied that Patriot Front was a far-right or white supremacist organization and claimed that "Patriot Front engages in activism through lawful political activism consistent with its First Amendment right." [19] North Dakota U.S. District Judge Peter Welte dismissed two parts of the lawsuit against Rousseau which was filed by 10 unnamed individuals for vandalizing an immigrant bus station's mural, rejecting parts of the suit including the plaintiffs’ rights to celebrate multiculturalism and diversity, as well Rousseau's alleged trespassing with intentions to destroy the mural, but kept The Ku Klux Klan Act violations and civil conspiracy allegations on the table. [19]
In February 2024, Rousseau was booked into the McLennan County Jail in Waco, Texas for a felony charge in Virginia where Rousseau was "burning an object to intimidate"—namely, for carrying a Tiki torch at the Unite the Right rally. [13] The state of Virginia is seeking his extradition as the felony carries the potential sentence of 5 years in prison, while Rousseau and Patriot Front have denounced the charges as fabricated. [13] His extradition would also allow the default judgment for his earlier vandalism case to go through. [13]
Rousseau supports the United States becoming a white Ethnostate. [3]
Rousseau claims that Donald Trump is a white supremacist in line with the values of Patriot Front, but that he only "indirectly supports" the alt-right. [4]
Rousseau stated that his group has found it easy to recruit on college campuses and that "Colleges are porous, easy to access, full of our target demographic." [4]
Rousseau claims that "[White people are] being relentlessly erased on all sides, by the Jew, by non-whites who hate us." [4]
Rousseau has frequently denounced calls to violence, even within his own organization, with one Patriot Front infiltrator saying that Rousseau's biggest fear is a member of the group committing an act of terrible violence as that would "end the group." [7] VA had become "radioactive" due to the Charlottesville car attack being perpetrated by one of its members. [1]
Rousseau is also a strong supporter of anonymity, despite his own openness about his identity, mandating all members of Patriot Front be anonymous, and refuse to indulge any details about the group or its inner workers and goals. [7]
The Order, also known as Silent Brotherhood, was a Neo-Nazi terrorist organization active in the United States between September 1983 and December 1984. The group raised funds via armed robbery. Ten members were tried and convicted for racketeering, and two for their role in the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg.
Milton Alexander Linder is an American white supremacist. He is the founder and editor of the Vanguard News Network (VNN), an antisemitic and white supremacist website and forum described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "one of the most active white supremacist sites on the Internet."
Louis Ray Beam, Jr. is an American white supremacist, conspiracy theorist and neo-fascist.
The National Socialist Movement is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United States. Once considered to be the largest and most prominent Neo-Nazi organization in the United States, since the late 2010s its membership and prominence have plummeted. It was a part of the Nationalist Front and it is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Proud Boys is a North American far-right, neo-fascist militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence. The group's leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the federal government of the United States, including its constitutionally prescribed transfer of presidential power. It has been called a street gang and was designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand. The Proud Boys are opposed to left-wing and progressive groups and support Donald Trump, the former president of the United States and current President-elect of the United States. While Proud Boys leadership has denied being a white supremacist organization, the group and some of its members have been connected to white supremacist events, ideologies, and other white-power groups throughout its existence.
The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) was a neo-Nazi political party active in the United States between 2013 and 2018, affiliated with the broader "alt-right" movement that became active within the U.S. during the 2010s. It was considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center's list.
Identity Evropa was an American far-right, neo-Nazi, neo-Fascist, and white supremacist organization established in March 2016. It was rebranded as the American Identity Movement in March 2019. In November 2020, the group disbanded. Leaders and members of Identity Evropa, such as former leader Elliot Kline, praised Nazi Germany and pushed for what they described as the "Nazification of America".
The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and far-right militias. Some groups chanted racist and antisemitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and present antisemitic and anti-Islamic groups. The organizers' stated goals included the unification of the American white nationalist movement and opposing the proposed removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park. The rally sparked a national debate over Confederate iconography, racial violence, and white supremacy. The event had hundreds of participants.
Jason Eric Kessler is an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Kessler organized the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11–12, 2017, and the Unite the Right 2 rally held on August 12, 2018.
Christopher Charles Cantwell, also known as the Crying Nazi, is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist.
Patriot Prayer is an American far-right group founded by Joey Gibson in 2016 and based in Vancouver, Washington, a suburban city in the Portland metropolitan area. Since 2016, the group has organized several dozen pro-gun, pro-Trump rallies held in cities in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Often met with large numbers of counter-protesters, attendees have repeatedly clashed with left-wing groups in the Portland area. Far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys, have attended the rallies organized by Patriot Prayer, as well as white nationalists, sparking controversy and violence.
Joseph Owan Gibson is an American right-wing activist and the founder of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, which is active in Portland, Oregon and other cities within the Pacific Northwest.
On August 12, 2017, DeAndre Harris, a Black man, was assaulted by six White men in an attack in a parking garage next to the police headquarters during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Images and video of the assault captured by photojournalist Zach Roberts went viral and became a symbol of the enmity underlying the protest.
The Nationalist Front was a loose coalition of radical right and white supremacist organizations. The coalition was formed in 2016 by leaders of the neo-Nazi groups National Socialist Movement (NSM) and Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP). Its aim was to unite white supremacist and white nationalist groups under a common umbrella. Originally the group was named the Aryan Nationalist Alliance and was composed of neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan and White power skinhead organizations.
Vanguard America is an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi, neo-fascist organization. The organization is also a member of the Nationalist Front. The group gained significant attention after it was revealed that James Alex Fields had marched with them at the Unite the Right rally before being arrested on murder charges. The group has its roots in the alt-right movement.
Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state.
The Rise Above Movement (RAM) is a militant alt-right Southern California-based street fighting group which has variously been described as "a loose collective of violent neo-Nazis and fascists", white nationalists, white supremacists, and far-right persons. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), it "is inspired by identitarian movements in Europe and it is trying to bring their philosophies and violent tactics to the United States." Its members are primarily located in the areas of Orange County and San Diego, and as of 2018, have been variously numbered at 20 to 50.
Kyle Chapman, also known by the nickname Based Stickman, is an American white nationalist and alt-right activist. He earned his nickname and prominence in the alt-right movement after he was recorded beating an anti-fascist counter-protester with a stick at the March 2017 March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley, California. Shortly after, he founded the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK), a paramilitary group that is considered a partner or subgroup of the far-right, neo-fascist Proud Boys organization. He led the FOAK until later that year, when he faded from his leadership position following an assault conviction related to the March 4 Trump rally. In November 2020, Chapman announced an attempted takeover of the Proud Boys organization, as well as a plan to reform the group as an explicitly white supremacist organization. The attempted coup was not successful.
Sines v. Kessler was a civil lawsuit against various organizers, promoters, and participants in the Unite the Right rally, a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. The trial began in October 2021, and on November 23, the jury reached a mixed verdict in which they found various defendants liable on claims of civil conspiracy and race-based harassment or violence. They also found James A. Fields Jr., the perpetrator of the car attack against counterprotesters at the rally, liable for assault and battery and intentional infliction of harm. Altogether, the jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $25 million in punitive and compensatory damages, though this was later reduced by the judge to $2.35 million.