Trump's freebie Qatar jet is the stuff of nightmares in spyworld
Aside from any legal and ethical qualms about Trump accepting the plane — an 89-seater with a sumptuous French-designed interior — there are technical and security concerns too. Experts say any such gift on a foreign government's behalf presents opportunities for surveilling, tracking or compromising communications of the president and anyone traveling with him.
"If we had built the plane, knowing it was going to a foreign government, we would probably have bugged it,' said Thad Troy, a former station chief with the Central Intelligence Agency. He recalled serving in Cold War-era Moscow when the American Embassy was being dismantled brick by brick to remove a tangle of surveillance devices embedded into the very concrete of the building.
Trump ordered up two new presidential planes from Boeing for $3.9 billion during his first term. Frustrated at delivery delays, he's been on the lookout for alternatives — and apparently had his eye on the Qatari plane even before it was offered to him as a gift this month.
Parisian finish
The jumbo in question, built in 2012, was previously on call for Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. The 66-year-old is one of the Qatari royal family's wealthiest figures, having served as prime minister and head of the sovereign wealth fund.
It has creamy white and tan furnishings, rugs and artwork by Cabinet Alberto Pinto, a Paris interior design firm. There are custom-made Tai Ping rugs, sycamore and wacapou wood fixtures, and artwork by Alexander Calder. The upper deck has a master bedroom and bath, guest bedroom and private lounge, and downstairs there are lounges, an office and crew areas.
U.S. Air Force One on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on April 11 |
Haiyun Jiang / The New York Times
The plane would need to be retrofitted to standards that Air Force One currently maintains, according to Troy. That would include a hardening of its surface to withstand explosions and attacks, and technical extras like air-to-air refueling capabilities and classified communications and weapons systems.
It would also take months if not years for defense department officials and intelligence officers to take the plane apart and thoroughly sweep it for any tracking devices or detect monitoring of systems that could, among other things, reveal the plane's location.
"This is why it takes so long to build Air Force One,' said Troy. "It has so many things attached to it to make the president safe.'
'Such a stain'
Trump, who's blamed Boeing for falling "way behind,' has defended the gift.
"Some people say, oh, you shouldn't accept gifts for the country,' the president told Fox News while en route to Saudi Arabia where he began a Middle East visit on Tuesday. "My attitude is, why wouldn't I accept a gift? We're giving to everybody else.' He also said that Gulf monarchies have bigger and newer planes than the American government, and "I believe that we should have the most impressive plane.'
But some of the fiercest criticism has come from devoted supporters, who've called it a bribe or a brazen push for influence by the Gulf state.
Commentator Ben Shapiro asked how Trump voters would react if a Democrat had done this. "I think if we switched the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we'd all be freaking out on the right,' Shapiro said Monday on his podcast. "President Trump promised to drain the swamp. This is not, in fact, draining the swamp.'
"This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true,' far-right activist Laura Loomer posted on X. "And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump.'
Qatar is a longstanding U.S. ally, and has been a key mediator along with Egypt in efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The country also hosts Hamas's political office. Relationships like that pose a risk "in terms of potential information falling into the hands of people who would use it for their own purposes,' according to James Der Derian, who heads the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia.
"To be sure, Qatar is not the Soviet Union, but it does have a pretty robust intelligence footprint,' he said. "It punches above its weight.'
Still, while there are dangers in accepting gifts from foreign governments, turning them down isn't risk-free either. Since gift-giving is significant in Arab culture, it could amount to a diplomatic blunder — especially when Qatar is playing such an important role in the search for an end to the Gaza war.
That's why "this plane has taken on so much symbolic value right now,' Der Derian said. Refuse the gift, and "there could be a lot of upset leaders — not just the U.S. but also Qatar and other Arab countries that think hospitality is a very important part of their culture.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
Nvidia, AMD to pay 15% of China chip sale revenue to US, official says
(Reuters) -- Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the U.S. government 15% of revenue from sales to China of advanced computer chips, a U.S. official said on Sunday, in an unusual move likely to faze American companies. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration halted sales of H20 chips to China in April, but Nvidia announced last month Washington had said it would allow the company to resume sales and it hoped to start deliveries soon. Another U.S. official said on Friday the Commerce Department had begun issuing licenses for the sale of H20 artificial intelligence chips to China. Both the U.S. officials declined to be named because details have not been made public. The new levy could also hurt margins for the two companies, analysts warned. Shares of Nvidia and AMD fell about 1% and nearly 2%, respectively, in premarket trade on Monday. The deal to pay the U.S. government from sales in China is unusual for a president and marks Trump's latest intervention in corporate decision-making. Trump harangues company executives to invest in America to shore up domestic jobs and manufacturing, and last week, he demanded new Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan immediately resign, calling him "highly conflicted" due to his ties to Chinese firms. The U.S. official said the Trump administration did not feel the sale of H20 and equivalent chips was compromising national security. "It's wild," said Geoff Gertz, a senior fellow at Center for New American Security, an independent think tank in Washington, D.C. "Either selling H20 chips to China is a national security risk, in which case we shouldn't be doing it to begin with, or it's not a national security risk, in which case, why are we putting this extra penalty on the sale?" When asked if Nvidia had agreed to pay 15% of revenues to the United States, an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement: "We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets." "While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide." Nvidia has warned that being unable to supply H20 chips to China could slice $8 billion off sales from its July quarter, while AMD had forecast a $1.5 billion hit to revenue this year owing to the curbs. AMD did not respond to a request for comment on the news that was first reported by the Financial Times earlier on Sunday. "The Chinese market is significant for both these companies so even if they have to give up a bit of the money, they would otherwise make it looks like a logical move on paper," AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said. "That said, it is unprecedented and there is always the risk the revenue take could be upped or that the Trump administration changes its mind and reimposes export controls." The U.S. Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China's Foreign Ministry, approached for comment on Monday, said the country had repeatedly expressed its position on the issue of U.S. chip exports. The ministry in the past has accused the U.S. of using technology and trade issues to "maliciously contain and suppress China." The Financial Times said the chipmakers agreed to the arrangement as a condition for obtaining the export licenses for their semiconductors, including AMD's MI308 chips. The report said the Trump administration had yet to determine how to use the money. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month the planned resumption of sales of the AI chips was part of U.S. negotiations with China to get rare earths and described the H20 as Nvidia's "fourth-best chip" in an interview with CNBC. Lutnick said it was in U.S. interests to have Chinese companies using American technology, even if the most advanced was prohibited from export, so they continued to use an American "tech stack." The U.S. official who spoke about the 15% levy said they did not know when the agreement would be implemented nor exactly how, but said the administration would be in compliance with the law. Alasdair Phillips-Robins, who served as an adviser at the Commerce Department during former President Joe Biden's administration, criticized the move. "If this reporting is accurate, it suggests the administration is trading away national security protections for revenue for the Treasury," Phillips-Robins said. Nvidia generated $17 billion in revenue from China in the fiscal year ending Jan. 26, representing 13% of total sales. AMD reported $6.2 billion in China revenue for 2024, accounting for 24% of total revenue. Giving away some revenue from these chips to the U.S. government would bring the gross margins for these processors down by 5 to 15 percentage points, resulting in an impact of "a point or so" to their overall gross margins, Bernstein analysts said in a note.
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Espionage and tariffs can't tarnish TSMC's crown
An attempt to steal trade secrets from the world's largest chipmaker and renewed tariff threats on semiconductors is bending Taiwan's "silicon shield.' But it's not breaking just yet. Still, heavy is the head of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., whose technology everybody wants a piece of. Less than a day after news broke that TSMC fired several employees for a suspected attempt to obtain critical information on its cutting-edge manufacturing, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new chip tariffs "of approximately 100%.' On Thursday, Taiwan confirmed that TSMC is exempt from the latest levies due to its investments in the U.S. But the president still sowed a lot of confusion after stating in a recent interview that Taiwan was "coming over and spending $300 billion in Arizona, building the biggest plant in the world.' TSMC had previously only committed $165 billion, suggesting negotiations might not be over. Trump likely realized that new, sky-high tariffs on TSMC would be a blow to U.S. tech ambitions. Domestic titans at the heart of maintaining America's lead over China, such as Nvidia and Apple, are TSMC's biggest customers. And fresh levies would be an own-goal for the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure plans Trump announced earlier this year, which rely on hundreds of thousands of advanced chips. The news of a tariff reprieve helped drive TSMC's shares to a record on Thursday. TSMC's multibillion-dollar expansion efforts in the U.S. haven't always gone over well at home. Some patriotic Taiwanese want the chipmaker to keep core technologies within the self-ruled island as a safeguard from potential Beijing aggression. But expanding manufacturing to the U.S. will only strengthen Taiwan's alliance with Washington and give its footprint room to grow. It's also worth recognizing that TSMC and Silicon valley are on the same side when it comes to countering China. Still, tariffs may not be the company's biggest headache. The potential corporate espionage is far more than a run-of-the-mill commercial intellectual property theft. It's being investigated under Taiwan's national security law and has the potential to spiral into a broader geopolitical spat. At this stage, here are more questions than answers. The scope of the leak, the perpetrator and the motive haven't been disclosed. Still, TSMC has said it was able to identify the issue "early.' On Thursday, Tokyo Electron confirmed that a former employee was involved in the case, though said an internal probe hadn't found evidence of the confidential information being shared with a third party. Local prosecutors have made half a dozen arrests and the people involved were reportedly targeting information on the company's 2-nanometer production — the most advanced chip manufacturing technology in the world. Besides TSMC, there are only three other companies that are actively trying to mass produce the cutting-edge chips: Samsung Electronics, Intel and Japan's long-shot startup Rapidus. Many of them rely on the same suppliers, such as Tokyo Electron. Acquiring the critical know-how for smaller chip node production can cost tens of billions of dollars in research and development. There are other reasons so few firms are capable of attempting this. Even with the R&D knowledge, it still requires massive investments in fabrication plants and tooling equipment, as well as access to a very limited supply of trained engineers to compete at scale. Taiwan and TSMC have spent decades building this foundation and there aren't clear shortcuts to leapfrog the company's dominance — even unethical ones. Countries and companies have poured billions trying to eclipse TSMC's virtual monopoly on advanced chipmaking, but these hard-won gains can't be spread (or stolen) overnight. The firm is also no stranger to talent poaching and other attempts at IP theft; it's a systemic issue in an industry where the strategic importance is so high. The most recent case is spurring international "whodunnit" intrigue, but more importantly it shows that the company has beefed up internal security protocols to rapidly respond. It can't be overstated how important it is for TSMC to maintain its technology edge. Some 24% of the most-recent quarterly revenue came from its 3-nanometer tech. Demand is already high for the company's next-generation nodes, set to go into mass production later this year. TSMC's dominance gives it the power to set prices at a time when the foreign exchange rate is unfavorable and trade uncertainty looms. This tech advantage has not just proven crucial for TSMC's business. It is giving Taiwan's government leverage via so-called semiconductor diplomacy. The potential leak gives new fuel to critics of President Lai Ching-te, who has had a rough few weeks. As the first chips-related case involving the National Security Act, it's imperative that authorities investigate and respond to the fullest extent of the law. Taipei must set a precedent with this case to deter any future attempts. As my colleague Howard Chua-Eoan has written, history shows us that technological secrets and monopolies have a hard time staying that way in the long run. For now, TSMC is selling the shovels during a global AI gold rush. Even tariff threats and espionage attempts can't tarnish it's crown just yet. Catherine Thorbecke is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia tech.
Japan Times
6 hours ago
- Japan Times
American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era
Wearing cargo shorts, flip-flops and a baseball cap shading his eyes from the sun, Dalton Henry Stout blends in easily in rural America. Except for the insignia on his hat. It bears the skull and crossbones of the infamous "Death's Head' SS units that oversaw Nazi Germany's concentration camps — and the initials "AFN,' short for Aryan Freedom Network, the neo-Nazi group Stout leads with his partner. From a modest ranch house in Texas, the couple oversee a network they say has been turbocharged by President Donald Trump's return to the White House. They point to Trump's rhetoric — his attacks on diversity initiatives, his hard-line stance on immigration and his invocation of "Western values' — as driving a surge in interest and recruitment. Trump "awakened a lot of people to the issues we've been raising for years,' Stout said. "He's the best thing that's happened to us.' While the Aryan Freedom Network and other neo-Nazi groups remain on the outermost edges of American politics, broadly regarded as toxic by conservatives and mainstream America, they are increasingly at the center of far-right public demonstrations and acts of violence, according to interviews with a dozen members of extremist groups, nine experts on political extremism and a review of data on far-right violence. Several trends have converged since Trump's re-election. Trump's rhetoric has galvanized a new wave of far-right activists, fueling growth in white supremacist ranks. Trump's pardons of January 6 rioters and a shift in federal law enforcement's focus toward immigration have also led many on the far right to believe that federal investigations into white nationalists are no longer a priority. And the boundaries of the far right itself are shifting. Ideas once confined to fringe groups like the Proud Boys — who helped lead the January 6 siege — are now more visible in Republican politics, from election denialism to rhetoric portraying immigrants as "invaders.' Trump's public support and pardons for far-right figures helped normalize those views, the researchers said. As the Make America Great Again movement has come to define the party's identity, the line separating the far right from mainstream conservatism has grown increasingly difficult to draw, they added. What was once extreme now blends more easily into the broader far-right, not because those extreme groups have changed, but because the terrain around them has, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and extremism. "A Proud Boy doesn't even seem that scary anymore because of the normalization process,' she said. That shift has coincided with a surge in white nationalist activity. White extremists are committing a growing proportion of U.S. political violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, a nonprofit research outfit that tracks global conflicts. In 2020, such groups were linked to 13% of all U.S. extremist-related demonstrations and acts of political violence, or 57 of the events ACLED tracked. By 2024, they accounted for nearly 80%, or 154 events. Trump has denied that he supports white extremism, and the White House rejects the notion that his rhetoric promotes racism. "President Trump is a president for all Americans and hate has no place in our country,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in response to questions for this story. "President Trump is focused on uniting our country, improving our economy, securing our borders, and establishing peace across the globe.' Fields also pointed to a significant rise in support for Trump among Black voters. In last year's election, his share of the Black vote nearly doubled from 2020 to about 15%. Trump has batted away accusations of racism. At a campaign rally last year, he declared, "I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite of a Nazi.' A few months earlier, he told an interviewer that he can't be racist because he has "so many Black friends." Even as he has made inroads with non-white voters, Trump has consistently drawn support from white nationalist and extremist groups while using racially divisive rhetoric. He promoted the false claim that Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, was not born in the U.S. In his 2024 campaign, he suggested immigrants commit violent crimes because "it's in their genes,' a remark condemned by many as racist. Stout said his group opposes violence. Yet the Aryan Freedom Network openly advocates preparing for a "Racial Holy War.' It promotes white superiority ideology, seeks to unify elements of the broader white nationalist movement and actively recruits former members of other extremist groups. Stout wears a shirt denoting the white nationalists' book The Turner Diaries on May 5. | REUTERS The Trump administration has scaled back efforts to counter domestic extremism, redirecting resources toward immigration enforcement and citing the southern border as the top security threat. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reduced staffing in its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section. The Department of Homeland Security has cut personnel in its violence prevention office. Some specialists in domestic terrorism say these moves could embolden extremists by weakening U.S. capacity to detect and disrupt threats. The DHS and FBI have defended the cuts, saying they remain committed to fighting domestic terrorism. The FBI said in a statement it allocates resources based on threat analysis and "the investigative needs of the Bureau,' and that it remains committed to investigating domestic terrorism. 'Racist royalty' In his first interview with any news organization, Stout met journalists in April at a restaurant in Hochatown, Oklahoma, a quiet town known for its hiking and fishing about an hour's drive north of their Texas home. He was joined by his partner, who goes by the name Daisy Barr. Stout says AFN is focused on staying within the law. "We got to watch our Ps and Qs,' he said. Then his tone turned apocalyptic: "And when the day comes, that will be the day — that's when violence will solve everything.' While he offered no timeline, researchers who study domestic extremism say the comment reflects a strategy among some far-right groups: operate within the law while openly predicting a moment of upheaval. The Aryan Freedom Network first drew national attention in 2021 after organizing a "White Unity' conference in Longview, Texas. By the following year, it was distributing flyers in cities across the country. One in Texas featured racist caricatures of Black Americans — one swinging from a street lamp amid rubble and an overturned car — alongside the caption: "At the current rate of decline what will America's major cities look like in ten years?' AFN also began staging protests, often targeting drag events and LGBTQ+ gatherings. Stout says the demonstrations were designed to attract recruits. Its conferences and annual "Aryan Fests' have become networking hubs for the far right, drawing attendees from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist organizations, according to two individuals affiliated with those movements. Reuters was unable to independently verify the claim. The pseudoscientific notion of a superior white Aryan race — essentially Germanic — was a core tenet of Hitler's Nazi regime. AFN gatherings brim with Nazi memes: Swastikas are ritually set ablaze and chants of "white power' echo through the woods. AFN's website pays specific tribute to violent white supremacist groups of the past, including The Order, whose members killed a Jewish radio host in 1984. Two key members responsible for the killing were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and are now deceased. Stout's beliefs are rooted in the Christian Identity movement, which claims that white Europeans, not Jews, are the true Israelites of biblical scripture and therefore God's chosen people. Stout and Barr also claim that Black Americans, under Jewish influence, are leading a Communist revolution — an ideology that fuses racial supremacy with far-right conspiracy theories. Stout, 34, and Barr, 48, were born into self-avowed white supremacist families with deep ties to the Ku Klux Klan, infamous for its white robes, burning crosses and long history of racist violence, including decades of lynchings and terrorist campaigns against Black Americans. As a child, Stout said he attended Klan ceremonies and white nationalist youth camps. He recalls reading translations of SS training manuals from Nazi-era Germany. And while other girls were playing video games, Barr said she was wrapping torches in burlap strips, for secret KKK cross-burning ceremonies. Though they now identify as American Nazis, their ideology is anchored in the KKK and other white extremist groups. Their families are well known to historians of the movement. Stout's father, George Stout, was a "grand dragon' in the White Knights of Texas, a KKK offshoot. He declined to comment for this story. Barr's late father was a KKK "grand wizard' from Indiana who was sentenced to seven years in prison for holding two journalists at gunpoint. AFN requires members to use aliases; she chose "Daisy Barr' after the name of a female Klan leader of the 1920s who sold Klan robes and died in a car crash. One person familiar with the couple described their 2020 marriage as a union of "racist royalty.' They filed for divorce two years later, but Stout said the split was in name only — a legal move to shield their assets in case they faced civil rights lawsuits like those that once bankrupted the Klan and Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group held liable in a 1999 civil suit for inciting violence. Stout and Barr declined to share membership numbers but said AFN now has nearly twice as many chapters as the 23 it claimed in early 2023. Trump "awakened a lot of people to the issues we've been raising for years,' Stout said. "He's the best thing that's happened to us.' | REUTERS The Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, a private research group that monitors extremist movements, estimates AFN's members have grown to between 1,000 and 1,500. "We collect and record every event of theirs,' said TRAC researcher Muskan Sangwan. Some of the earliest chapters, including those in Texas, likely began with around 100 members each, Sangwan said, suggesting the group may have had roughly 200 members in its initial stages. Chris Magyarics, a senior researcher at the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization that monitors antisemitic harassment, said he was skeptical AFN was so big but said he had no independent data on its size. "The previous largest neo-Nazi group only had a couple of hundred,' he said, referring to the National Socialist Movement, which has been in steady decline. Despite the uncertainty over its numbers, AFN is on the radar screens of independent researchers. Jon Lewis, a research fellow specializing in domestic extremism at George Washington University's Program on Extremism, said the group has been "really popular' among far-right "accelerationists,' a term used by white supremacists who advocate violence to hasten a race war. Stout said his group has benefited from the decline of the Proud Boys following the Capitol attack. Once prominent for street clashes during the Trump administration, the Proud Boys have faced legal setbacks and public scrutiny since many of its members were convicted — and later pardoned by Trump — for their roles in the January 6 Capitol riots. The group describes its ideology as "Western chauvinism.' Critics say the group uses the term "Western' rather than "white' to veil its racism, a charge the Proud Boys' defenders deny. Stout described groups like the Proud Boys as "civic nationalists' — movements that draw in followers with patriotic rhetoric, then serve as stepping stones toward more overtly racist organizations like AFN or the Klan. "A lot of newbies, new people to the movement, join that type of movement before they join us,' Stout said. Weapons and race war Although Stout said the Aryan Freedom Network rejects violence, firearms and tactical training remain central to its identity and feature prominently in its gatherings and recruitment efforts, according to a review of federal court records. One former member, Andrew Munsinger, built and traded semi-automatic AR-15 rifles and other weapons, using a machine shop to fabricate untraceable parts, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court. He boasted to other AFN members of stockpiling ammunition and constructing explosive devices, and claimed to have pointed a shotgun at a sleeping prosecutor, the affidavit said. Munsinger, who went by the alias "Thor,' was arrested last year in Minneapolis on federal charges of illegally possessing firearms. As a convicted felon, he was barred under federal law from owning weapons. He attended at least five AFN events in one year, the FBI said. Agents described him as an adherent of accelerationism, which seeks to provoke a race war through violence. AFN is "an umbrella organization for other white-supremacist organizations,' the affidavit said. Documents relating to Munsinger's case, including testimony from an FBI informant who infiltrated the group, offer a glimpse inside its operations: firearms training across several states, encrypted communications focused on weapons, a recruitment event at a lakeside bar in Ohio, and new members building timber swastikas in a ritualistic initiation. Stout said he disavowed Munsinger, who was convicted by a federal jury in April of illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, as well as trafficking marijuana. He is awaiting sentencing. Munsinger and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. Stout said his network has links to the Klan, which has splintered and shrunk dramatically since its peak a century ago. In May, a modern-day Klan ceremony was held in a clearing deep within the woods on private land in northeastern Kentucky. William Bader, leader of the Trinity Knights, a small Klan faction, donned a purple silk robe and conical hood as he presided over the swearing in of about half a dozen heavily tattooed new members. In an interview, Bader said Trump has energized the white nationalist movement. "White people,' he said, "are finally seeing something going their way for once.' Bader said he had previously attended an AFN event without elaborating. Steve Bowers, another Klan official at the ceremony, which didn't involve AFN, said he isn't a fan of Trump because of his administration's close ties with Israel. But he said many white nationalists are fully behind the president. "People think he's going to save the white race in America,' said Bowers, dressed in a white KKK robe and hood, decorated with two blood crosses on the chest. The Klan once claimed as many as 6 million members in the 1920s. It had dwindled to an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 members across 72 chapters by 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that tracks extremist groups. More recent figures are unavailable, a research analyst at the center said. AFN has adopted certain tactics and rituals of the Klan, including widespread distribution of racist flyers. AFN's flyers have appeared in multiple cities and towns, from Florida to Washington state, according to police reports. Stout and Barr said they view them as a recruitment tool. Police in West Bend, Wisconsin, said hundreds of flyers targeting immigrants were distributed in May. One flyer found in the Wisconsin village of Mukwonago read, "Tired of being discriminated against because you're white? Join.' Stout said members are instructed to distribute flyers at night — what he calls "night rides,' echoing the Klan's term for its historic terrorism campaigns against Black people. In another echo of the Klan, its signature cross burnings, swastikas are set alight at AFN gatherings. In an AFN video posted online, Stout stands on the bed of a pickup truck, masked and flanked by armed guards, arm raised in a Nazi salute. "White power!' he shouts in a hoarse Texas drawl, wearing a chest rig for rifle magazines. His audience returns the Nazi salute. "White Power!' they call out. At the restaurant in Oklahoma, asked why he believes his group is gaining momentum, Stout offered a simple explanation. "Our side won the election,' he said.
