The Proud Boys were the face of political violence in America during Trump’s first term.
They hosted bloody street fights across the country week after week, and helped to normalize violence at everyday civic events. They intimidated and attacked people at libraries, school board meetings, drag queen story hours, reproductive health events and political rallies. They cozied up to Trump’s inner circle, enjoyed support from prominent Republicans and right-leaning media and secured political seats of their own. And on Jan. 6, 2021, they led an attempted insurrection at the Capitol.
Dozens of Proud Boys were incarcerated over the Capitol attack, including four leaders who were found guilty of a rare seditious conspiracy charge. Their sentences had a dramatic effect on the extremist landscape over the next few years; though the incidence of political violence continued to swell throughout Biden’s term, the Proud Boys and many of their allies were forced to decentralize and flee the national spotlight. The public support they once enjoyed from right-wing politicians and pundits began to wane. They were rarely seen gathering en masse, and some of their chapters splintered or disbanded altogether. By 2023, the Proud Boys as an organization appeared to be circling the drain.
But on Monday, a newly inaugurated President Donald Trump granted clemency to the lot of them. A handful of Proud Boys who led the siege at the Capitol on Jan. 6 had their sentences commuted, but the majority — including their leader, Enrique Tarrio — were gifted full, unconditional pardons, alongside the rest of the Capitol rioters.
The cascading effects of pardoning some 1,500 insurrectionists remain to be seen. But to researchers, activists and reporters covering extremism in America, the implication was clear: Political violence will be tolerated, and even rewarded, when it’s carried out on behalf of Trump.
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