Trump freed Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders. What's next here? | The Excerpt
On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN National Correspondent Will Carless discusses what's next for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers after pardons this week. Los Angeles County's Hughes wildfire forces evacuations. Paste BN Senior Reporter Jessica Guynn takes a closer look at President Donald Trump's executive order on DEI. A quarter million LGBTQ+ youth and family members have moved to other states because of anti-LGBTQ politics or laws, a new report says.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, January 23rd, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, what's next for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers after Trump parted? Plus we have the latest on new fire concerns in California and how Trump is going after DEI in corporate America.
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The leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were both freed from long sentences by President Donald Trump. For more on who they are and what's next for their groups going forward, I got up with Paste BN national correspondent Will Carless. Will, hello sir.
Will Carless:
Thanks for having me on.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on this, Will. So let's just start by talking about Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys. Would you give us a refresher on this organization? I know you and I have discussed them a lot here on the show, but who are they and how did Tarrio rise to prominence in this group?
Will Carless:
The Proud Boys were founded in 2016. They were originally founded as what they call a Western chauvinist men's drinking club. That was the whole idea, was it was supposed to be a place where guys could get together and drink and corrals and say things that were controversial and all the rest of it.
And it's really kind of morphed into more of a political organization where these guys will increasingly protest at things like LGBTQ events, at places like family drag shows, and things like that. And they sort see themselves, I guess, as the street fighters of the far right political movement in this country.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. So let's shift to Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers. Well, I know you've done a lot of reporting here. Who are they and what was their role on January 6th and also during that previous Trump era?
Will Carless:
The Oath Keepers were founded by a guy called Stewart Rhodes, who's a graduate of Yale Law School. In his own words, he wanted to make them the organization for the right in America. He wanted to make them an advocacy organization, a pro-gun organization, and particularly a pro-Constitution organization.
The Oath Keepers is essentially founded on conspiracy theories and conspiracy theories from the government wants to take away your guns to, "The government wants to sort of watch everybody and control everybody's speech, and you need to have an organization in place to kind of protect you from the government." That's always been Stewart Rhodes's vision for the Oath Keepers.
And so this became an organization that reached out to current and former law enforcement, current and former military, and was able to recruit really we think tens of thousands of people at one point who were at least nominal members of the Oath Keepers.
As far as January 6th is concerned, Stewart Rhodes was there. He was accused of being one of the masterminds of the January 6th insurrection. Some of his quote, unquote, "troops" were involved in the storming of the Capitol.
They had a cache of weapons stashed in a motel across the Potomac that they saw that they might have to access at one point, and he was ultimately found guilty, convicted of seditious conspiracy. And like Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, was imprisoned for in Stewart Rhodes case 18 years; in Tarrio's case, 22 years on these charges of seditious conspiracy.
Taylor Wilson:
Will you reported last fall on some of the fears Rhodes family was feeling when it came to a potential pardon for him. We've now reached that point. Can you talk through some of those fears that you heard from them?
Will Carless:
Sure. So Tasha Adams, formerly Tasha Rhodes, who was married to Stewart for over 20 years and her five children are essentially terrified of Stewart and extremely worried about him.
They claim that he was very abusive during the marriage. They claim that he was violent towards the children, violent towards himself, that he has a lot of firearms and they're basically worried that he will try to wreak revenge against the family, particularly against Tasha who has testified against him, who has made a lot of accusations about him over the last four years or so.
She's very worried. They live or at least lived up until a couple of months ago up in Montana where Stewart also lived for a while and they're essentially living in fear at this point that he might come after them.
Taylor Wilson:
Wow. So just in terms of what's been happening over the last few years since the insurrection, Will, I mean, what have these groups, these two groups we've been discussing, been doing since then? And I guess what happens next for Tarrio and Rhodes? Where do we go from here?
Will Carless:
It's very different for the Oath Keepers to the Proud Boys. Really, the moment Stewart Rhodes was put in prison, the Oath Keepers really sort of disappeared as an organization. We really haven't seen any movement from them at all.
The Proud Boys, I would say more went underground. Certainly, I think experts would say that they shrank, that there were fewer people who were involved in those groups. And that's partly because people were literally just scared of being associated with these groups.
As for what happens next, I think most of the people who watch these groups believed that Stewart Rhodes is going to try and step right back into his leadership of the Oath Keepers and is going to try and resurrect it. We've seen him already blogging and writing about the Oath Keepers and trying to get people back on board. I mean, this is his way towards fame and fortune.
And unlike Enrique Tarrio, the observers I've spoken to say that Stewart's likely to be welcomed as a martyr, as a hero by his fellow Oath Keepers. Now, as far as the Proud Boys are concerned, we don't know whether Enrique Tarrio is going to be welcomed back as a leader of the Proud Boys or as a martyr in the same way as Stewart Rhodes.
He has alienated himself from a lot of the Proud Boys because it was revealed that he had worked previously as a federal informant. And so there's been a real schism inside the Proud Boys as far as leadership is concerned. So we'll wait and see whether he even wants a roll with the Proud Boys and if so, whether he's welcomed back.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Will Carless covers extremism and emerging issues for Paste BN. Will, there's no one whose brain I want to pick more on this topic. Thanks for hopping on.
Will Carless:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
A fast-moving blaze that began as a brush fire yesterday spread across nearly 10,000 acres of Los Angeles County, forcing evacuations of neighborhoods, schools, and even jails as firefighters battled to contain the spread in a region already scorched for weeks.
The latest blaze dubbed: the Hughes Fire runs through the Castaic area and has put the region back on high alert according to CAL FIRE. LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said 31,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, and he expected that number to grow. The LA County Sheriff said people should be prepared to be away from their homes for up to a week.
Meanwhile, there are fire concerns in the San Diego area and tens of thousands of people there have seen power shutoffs this week. President Donald Trump's first trip since the start of his second term is set for tomorrow and is set to include stops in wildfire-stricken California after a stop in storm-ravaged North Carolina.
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President Donald Trump this week is warning corporate America to stop DEI. I spoke with Paste BN senior reporter, Jessica Guynn, about one of his first executive orders. Hey there, Jessica.
Jessica Guynn:
Hi Taylor. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on today. So President Trump assigned executive orders targeting DEI. This is, of course diversity, equity, and inclusion. What exactly did these orders say?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, President Trump campaigned on the idea that white Americans, not black Americans or other historically marginalized people, are the true targets of racism. And he's only been in office a few days, but he's already putting that philosophy to work, signing executive orders that he says will stop that kind of discrimination and create a colorblind society.
So first, he reversed the executive orders of his predecessor, President Biden, which tightly wove DEI policies into the fabric of the federal government. Then he moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and in the federal government.
At the same time, he's putting pressure on the private sector to abandon DEI initiatives that they embraced after George Floyd was murdered. In this latest executive order, he is threatening to bring the weight of his administration down on companies that don't fall in line, and he is suggesting he could prosecute them.
Taylor Wilson:
So you know anti-DEI activists both inside and outside the Trump administration. Jessica have been pushing for these steps. What are they saying about them and what led us to this point?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, they're thinking DEI can be summed up with a tweet from Elon Musk. He said, "DEI is just another word for racism," meaning he and others believe that diversity initiatives that focus on race and gender come at the expense of individual merit and are basically a form of illegal discrimination. And that's not a new perspective.
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he actually campaigned on this notion of reverse discrimination. And while he was in office, he tried to undermine affirmative action in the federal government and in federal contracting ultimately backed off because he got pressure from corporations and politicians in both parties. But Trump picked up that mantle in his first term and he issued an executive order banning diversity training among federal contractors, for example.
And once he was out of office, there was a lot of activism from anti-DEI figures that was really accelerated by the Supreme Court decision in 2023 to strike down affirmative action in college admissions. Many of these anti-DEI activists are working in the Trump administration or are close to it, and they were at the forefront of these challenges.
Taylor Wilson:
Civil Rights leaders have told Paste BN for months they're concerned about Trump rolling back progress for black Americans and people from historically marginalized communities. Jessica, you and I have talked about this here on the show. What are they saying today?
Jessica Guynn:
The conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, laid out a game plan to do it. So no one is surprised today, but they say this idea birthed in the Civil Rights era that affirmative action and robust diversity policies are needed to fight race and gender discrimination in the workplace are as true today as they were in the 1960s.
And some of our own data analysis bears that out. We took a look at federal contractors, anyone who has a contract serving hot meals or making missile defense systems, these contractors, as part of their agreement with the US government, are bound to a higher standard than other employers.
They have to ensure that women and people of color have equal opportunities in hiring, training, and promotions. And our analysis in 2023 found that there were deep racial divides that cut across those workforces among federal contractors, and most of the top jobs that command the best pay and benefits went mostly to white men.
Taylor Wilson:
You know Jessica, President Trump has clearly taken direct aim at the private sector with this executive order. So how are employers reacting?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, corporations have walked back some DEI policies in response to the Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action in higher education. They've walked back others under pressure from anti DEI activists.
They've also taken a hard look at these programs that were rushed into existence after George Floyd's murder, and they're only keeping those that work. But even in this pressure cooker political climate, most employers tell me they're not giving up on DEI. They say these initiatives help them hire the best and brightest and create environments that fuel innovation.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, lots to keep an eye on over the next few months and beyond. Jessica Guynn is a senior reporter with Paste BN. Thanks as always, Jessica.
Jessica Guynn:
Thanks Taylor so much for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
More than a quarter million LGBTQ+ young people and family members in the US have relocated to other states because of LGBTQ+ related politics or laws according to estimates outlined in a new report exploring the population's response to hostile policy environments.
According to the brief compiled by The Trevor Project and Movement Advancement Project, nine in 10 LGBTQ+ young people say politics have impacted their well-being. Four in 10 say they've thought about moving to another state because of unfriendly LGBTQ+ politics or laws at home.
The portion was even higher for transgender and non-binary youth. 94% of whom said politics had affected their well-being and nearly half, 45%, who said they'd considered relocating. While just 4% of LGBTQ+ young people aged 13 to 24 reported actually uprooting because of anti-LGBTQ+ policies. That translates to roughly 266,000 young people and family members, the group said.
The report comes as President Donald Trump returns to the White House after making gender identity issues a focal point of his campaign. On Monday after being sworn in, Trump issued a spate of executive orders that included seeking to remove legal protections for transgender people in federal spaces, laying the groundwork to potentially bar transgender individuals from military service, and declaring that the US government will only recognize two sexes: male and female.
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Every year, tens of thousands of people are killed by fentanyl, but there's a glimmer of hope.
Maurice Tamman:
In some parts of the country, we're seeing 25-30% reduction year-over-year in the number of people who are dying from synthetic overdose deaths, the vast majority of which are from fentanyl.
Taylor Wilson:
The drug helping fight these deaths, Naloxone, is becoming more readily available. I sat down with Reuters' investigative reporter, Maurice Tamman, to discuss how Naloxone is making a difference and what other factors are at play and the decrease of fentanyl overdose deaths. You can find that conversation right here beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on this feed.
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If it feels like there's been a firehose of news this past week, you're not alone. That's why we're starting a new weekly segment called Editors' note. Every Saturday, The Excerpt will take listeners behind the editor's curtain to share stories about how we covered the week's biggest news, which stories made the newsroom buzzy, and which ones posed the biggest challenges.
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If you have a question you want to ask Paste BN's politics editors, send it to us. Email podcasts@usatoday.com with the subject line: Editor's note. Your question just might make it onto the show. Make sure to include your name and city so we can give you a shout-out.
And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.