Hard-right groups have expanded their influence across US government, report finds

A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) finds hard-right groups have increasingly expanded their influence across the US government, which is pursuing a federal fraud case into the civil rights organization.Tuesday’s report – which identified 1,263 hate and anti-government groups in operation throughout 2025 – comes less than two months after it was indicted by the government it says the hard right has infiltrated.According to the SPLC’s annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, Donald Trump’s administration has “radically transformed government policy in favor of far-right interests and individuals” since the start of his second presidency in early 2025.In addition to the administration’s “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons of approximately 1,500 people involved in the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021, the report cited the administration’s shifting the focus of federal law enforcement from combating violent crime to conducting immigration raids against marginalized communities.The report said 23% of all FBI agents have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, leading to the stripping of personnel from other areas including white-collar crime, counter-terrorism, organized crime and cybercrime.“The Trump administration’s shift away from traditional law enforcement priorities, staffing and funding, along with its embrace of dangerously aggressive and reckless immigration enforcement tactics, has made US citizens less safe and more likely to be victimized,” the report asserted.It also said that the administration has “downplayed the threat of right-wing extremist violence” – and in the process has increased the threat posed by far-right extremism.The report pointed to the US Senate’s confirmation of senior administration officials including defense secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI director Kash Patel and former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent, all of whom have espoused racist and misogynistic views.In addition to the administration’s dismantlement of a national database that tracked domestic terrorism and hate crimes, the SPLC report cited the justice department’s removal of a peer-reviewed study from its website that found far-right attacks continue to “outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism”.The report also cited a rise in younger, digitally savvy rightwingers who have been “granted unprecedented access to the federal government, gained political power in exchange for creating content that helped sell the administration’s policies targeting immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, women and poor folks”.The report pointed to the conservative influencer Andy Ngo, who told Trump during a roundtable in October that “perhaps the state department should designate Antifa – its international arm – a foreign terrorist organization”.The report noted Trump’s response: “Would you like to see it done? You think it would help? I’d be glad to do it. I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do. Does everybody agree? If you agree, I agree. Let’s get it done.”Antifa is a reference to the anti-fascist movement. After the roundtable, the Trump-led US state department declared four leftwing military groups as foreign terrorist organizations.The SPLC report said: “Throughout 2025, the administration and its allies leaned on an increasingly extreme set of influencers to sell their reactionary, hierarchical vision of the world to a younger generation.”In a statement accompanying the report, Erin Wilson, the director of the SPLC’s intelligence project, urged the public to act on the rising threat of hard-right groups, saying: “Communities are facing the harsh realities of this hard-right power grab. From kitchen table conversations to mass-mobilizing marches, everyone has a role to play right now.“There is power in civic engagement and everyday acts of solidarity, education and action.”