A 'neo-Nazi' allegedly planned to kill Trump. Federal cuts could slow foiling similar plots.
The affidavit alleges 17-year-old Nikita Casap of Waukesha, Wisconsin, killed his parents in February to "obtain the financial means and autonomy necessary" to carry out his plan of killing the president. He hoped the assassination would cause the United States to collapse, an outcome he claimed was necessary to topple the 'Jewish occupied' government and save the white race, according to a document the FBI referred to as Casap's "manifesto."
The affidavit alleges Casap partially paid for 'a drone with a dropping mechanism' to inflict harm by dropping 'an explosive, Molotov cocktail, or very strong topical poison' on a target.
According to messages referenced in the affidavit, Casap has links to multiple white supremacist groups. In messages on TikTok and Telegram, he identified himself as a follower of the Order of Nine Angles, which the FBI describes as a neo-Nazi cult that 'advocates for the use of violence and terrorism to overthrow governments and destroy modern civilization," NBC News reported. In his so-called manifesto, he appeared to recommend readings from the Terrorgram Collective, a global white supremacist group known for carrying out acts of violent racism and anti-LGBTQ bigotry. (Casap's attorneys did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.)
Instances of white supremacists attempting to incite a race war have occurred with disturbing frequency. In 2023, Rachel Maddow spoke with extremism expert Kathleen Belew about why neo-Nazi groups believe they can trigger a race war by attacking U.S. infrastructure such as electricity substations. Last June, I wrote about the FBI foiling an Arizona man's alleged plot to spark a race war by shooting up a rap concert in Atlanta. It's not hard to see why federal law enforcement officers have, in recent years, warned that white supremacy domestic terrorism is one of the biggest threats to national security.
It's why many extremism experts have been taken aback by the Trump administration's moves to slash tens of millions of dollars for programs that track and combat domestic terrorism.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the nonprofit watchdog Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told The Guardian last month that such cuts could have disastrous impacts.
'Without this research, we won't know the extent of the problems we face when it comes to domestic terrorism, nor how to mitigate them,' Beirich said. 'And it will leave a huge hole in our knowledge base going forward — one that recent work and attention was trying to address. We will all suffer for the loss of this work.'
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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