White House refuses to walk back Trump’s comment for Proud Boys to ‘stand by’ as far-Right group embraces remark

The Proud Boys have had several clashes with anti-facist and other left-wing protesters in Washington, Oregon and New York in recent years

Credit: Noah Berger /AP

Members of the Proud Boys group appeared to be celebrating online in the aftermath of the president’s comments, with the group’s account on the messaging app Telegram reportedly declaring: "Standing down and standing by sir".

Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University who tracks Proud Boys members online, said the group had become "very energised" after Mr Trump’s comments.

"They’ve now been blessed by the President on the world stage and the data shows they are extremely excited by this,” she told Time magazine.

The Proud Boys, which describes itself as "proud Western chauvinists" and advocates for political violence, has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremism in the US.

Donald Trump won't condemn white supremacists because he is one.

— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) September 30, 2020

Republicans remained largely silent on the president’s remarks on Wednesday.

However, Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the US Senate, told reporters: "I think he [Trump] misspoke. I think he should correct it. If he doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak."

The Proud Boys was founded by Gavin McInnes, a British Canadian from Hertfordshire, who is now based in the US.

Mr McInnes said he was "disassociating" himself from the group in 2018, after the FBI reportedly categorised the group as “an extremist group with ties to white nationalism”.

Mr McInnes, a co-founder of Vice Media, has insisted the group was not white nationalist or alt-right.