© 2026 Western New York Public Broadcasting Association

140 Lower Terrace St.
Buffalo, NY 14202

Toronto Address:
130 Queens Quay E.
Suite 903
Toronto, ON M5A 0P6


Mailing Address:
Horizons Plaza P.O. Box 1263
Buffalo, NY 14240-1263

Buffalo Toronto Public Media | Phone 716-845-7000
BTPM NPR Newsroom | Phone: 716-845-7040
Differing shades of blue wavering throughout the image
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

What is Patriot Front, and what do members want?

The members of Patriot Front may be more sharply dressed than their neo-Nazi predecessors, but the 400 or so masked men who marched through Capitol Hill on July 4 share the same ideology.

Founded after the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Va., Patriot Front’s founder, Thomas Rousseau, wants to see the United States become a white ethno-state.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef, who says Patriot Front’s deliberate appeal to public sympathy belies their antisemitism and anti-Black, racist ideology. Yousef also reported on the rise of right-wing extremism on the “Motive” podcast from WBEZ.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

Here & Now Newsroom