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How the Proud Boys are rebuilding to rally behind Trump

Four years after the failed effort to overturn Donald Trump's electoral defeat, the violent extremist group that led the storming of the US Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, is rebuilding and regaining strength, according to interviews with eight Proud Boys, two law enforcement officials and four experts who track the group's online activity.

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The Proud Boys are becoming more prominent at former President Donald Trump's events, such as at this May 11 rally in Wildwood, New Jersey. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

Behind the news

"What surprised me as I began working on this (story) is how active the Proud Boys are still," my colleague Aram Roston told the Reuters World News podcast. "After January 6, the chairman at the time, Enrique Tarrio, stepped down from his position. And as a rule, the entire grouping of Proud Boys decided there would be no leader, no national spokesmen, no committee. They were going to decentralize and not coordinate anymore."

What do they believe in? "They like to say that they're Western chauvinists," Roston said. "They're a men's movement, they'll say, a fraternal organization. But they also have a whole bunch of other issues, and they hate communism, Antifa, they'll say. And they're passionate about Trump."

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