Thomas Rousseau

Thomas Ryan Rousseau
Rousseau's 2023 Mugshot from Coeur d'Alene
Born (1998-10-20) October 20, 1998 (age 26)
Grapevine, Texas
Occupation(s)Far-right activist and politician
Years active2017-present
Known forFounder and leader of Patriot Front

Thomas Ryan Rousseau is an American far-right activist known for founding and leading the alt-right and white supremacist group Patriot Front.

Early life

Rousseau is a native of Grapevine, Texas located between Dallas and Fort Worth, and attended Coppell High School.[1][2] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rousseau was the editor of his high-school newspaper The Sidekick, where he wrote columns calling for banning transgender bathrooms and promoting guns on college campuses.[3] Rousseau was a Boy Scout.[4] He has also been on an FBI watchlist since he was in high school.[5][6] In an interview with ProPublica, Rousseau's classmates said "He seemed Republican, but he didn’t seem crazy", and most people who knew Rousseau personally in Grapevine expressed surprise that he founded and leads a white-supremacist group.[7]

Political activities

Flag used by Vanguard America's "Southern Front" (left) which Rousseau led before the section split to form Patriot Front (right)

Rousseau founded Patriot Front in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right rally.[2] Rousseau attended the rally as the leader of Vanguard America (VA)'s contingent, a group he joined as a teenager.[8]

In the weeks before the rally, Rousseau took control of Vanguard America's website and Discord server[a] after feuding with the "Commander" of VA, Dillon Irizarry.[9] As Irizarry suffered from the fallout from the rally, Rousseau used the website and discord server to launch a new group, Patriot Front, appealing to VA members in a Discord message "Vanguard America, as you know it, will now be the 'Patriots Front', and that the focus and goals of the group would remain the same", however, VA and Irizarry continued to operate.[10] Despite participating in the rally, Rousseau has since denounced it as "bad activism" that damaged the far-right cause in the United States.[7] On August 14, 2017, the VA Twitter account announced that Rousseau was no longer affiliated with the group.[1] An aftereffect of Rousseau's feud with Irizarry is his refusal to use any formal title as the Patriot Front leader, rejecting the term "Commander" which had been used by VA.[7] Patriot Front's core was the "Southern Front", a regional section of the VA, and was intended from the start to be a more strategic, savvy, careful alternative, adopting American symbols such as Red white and blue, the bald eagle, and patriotic language.[7] Rousseau has gained notability for being the only major figure in Patriot Front to reveal his identity.[8]

In 2020, 3 members of Patriot Front, including Rousseau, were arrested for placing stickers near the county courthouse in Parker County, Texas.[11]

In 2021, Rousseau attended a conference with Jared Taylor of American Renaissance a white supremacist website and magazine.[12]

In 2021, Rousseau was the subject of a civil suit by the State of Virginia due to Patriot Front's defacing of a statue of African-American tennis player Arthur Ashe, which Rousseau never challenged resulting in a default judgement pending for vandalism, should he ever set foot in Virginia again.[13]

In 2023, Rousseau would be named in a lawsuit by African-American singer Charles M. Murrell III for "physical and emotional challenges" stemming from what he claimed as an assault carried out by Patriot Front members during their 2018 march through Boston.[2] Murrell would be represented by Human Rights First, the group that sued the organizers of Unite the Right for violence at their rally.[2]

In 2023, Rousseau and 30 other members of Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai County, Idaho for plotting a riot at a pride parade, however, the charges against Rousseau were dropped mostly due to the length of the case and the fact the prosecution lost evidence as the group's phones had been seized before there was a warrant out for their arrests.[14][15][16][17] Another key reason Rousseau's case was dropped was because his lawyer was able to convince the judge the lead prosecutor was unprofessional, "self-congratulatory", and "braggadocious," while some judges[b] had ruled the police did not have probable cause for the arrest in the first place.[18] The prosecution handled the case so poorly that one of the judges went on record stating "I have never, in my 10 years, seen anything that even approaches this level of failure to properly disclose evidence" as the prosecution failed to properly document objections, and fed evidence in "drips and drabs."[18] After the case was dropped, Rousseau held a rally in New York City where he said "We’re going to keep doing demonstrations. We’re going to keep making ourselves known."[18]

In a 2024 vandalism case in North Dakota, Rousseau denied that Patriot Front was a far-right or white supremacist organization and claimed that "Patriot Front engages in activism through lawful political activism consistent with its First Amendment right."[19] North Dakota U.S. District Judge Peter Welte dismissed two parts of the lawsuit against Rousseau which was filed by 10 unnamed individuals for vandalizing an immigrant bus station's mural, rejecting parts of the suit including the plaintiffs’ rights to celebrate multiculturalism and diversity, as well Rousseau's alleged trespassing with intentions to destroy the mural, but kept The Ku Klux Klan Act violations and civil conspiracy allegations on the table.[19]

In February 2024, Rousseau was booked into the McLennan County Jail in Waco, Texas for a felony charge in Virginia where Rousseau was "burning an object to intimidate"—namely, for carrying a Tiki torch at the Unite the Right rally.[13] The state of Virginia is seeking his extradition as the felony carries the potential sentence of 5 years in prison, while Rousseau and Patriot Front have denounced the charges as fabricated.[13] His extradition would also allow the default judgment for his earlier vandalism case to go through.[13]

Views

Rousseau supports the United States becoming a white Ethnostate.[3]

Rousseau claims that Donald Trump is a white supremacist in line with the values of Patriot Front, but that he only "indirectly supports" the alt-right.[4]

Rousseau stated that his group has found it easy to recruit on college campuses and that "Colleges are porous, easy to access, full of our target demographic."[4]

Rousseau claims that "[White people are] being relentlessly erased on all sides, by the Jew, by non-whites who hate us."[4]

Rousseau has frequently denounced calls to violence, even within his own organization, with one Patriot Front infiltrator saying that Rousseau's biggest fear is a member of the group committing an act of terrible violence as that would "end the group."[7] VA had become "radioactive" due to the Charlottesville car attack being perpetrated by one of its members.[1]

Rousseau is also a strong supporter of anonymity, despite his own openness about his identity, mandating all members of Patriot Front be anonymous, and refuse to indulge any details about the group or its inner workers and goals.[7]

Note list

  1. ^ The primary form of communication for VA's membership and leadership[1]
  2. ^ At any given point, the case against the 31 Patriot Front members had up to nine different judges and the defendants had been tried individually, then as a group, and then individually again.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Thomas Rousseau". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Williams, Michael (August 8, 2023). "Texas extremist group Patriot Front sued over Boston attack of Black man". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Wakefield, Lily (June 14, 2022). "Leader of white supremacist neo-Nazi group Patriot Front among 31 arrested at Idaho Pride". PinkNews. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d Whisted, Haleigh (April 2, 2020). "With rise of Trump came rise of white nationalism, critics say". Capital News Service. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  5. ^ Ward, Whitney (August 29, 2022). "Who is Thomas Rousseau? Meet the leader of Patriot Front". KREM (TV). Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  6. ^ Bernd, Candice; Buckley, Jordan (January 29, 2018). "Nazis Go To School". The Texas Observer. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Schaeffer, Carol; Zimmermann, Fritz (November 8, 2019). "They Are Racist; Some of Them Have Guns. Inside the White Supremacist Group Hiding in Plain Sight". ProPublica. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Monacelli, Steven (July 10, 2023). "Homegrown Neo-Fascist Movement Marches in Austin". The Texas Observer. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  9. ^ "Patriot Front". ADL. Archived from the original on December 17, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  10. ^ Rousseau, Thomas. "Message from @Thomas Ryan". Discord Leaks. Unicorn Riot. Archived from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  11. ^ Monacelli, Steven (November 2, 2022). "The Most Notorious Neo-Fascist Hate Group in Texas Can't Catch A Break". The Texas Observer. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  12. ^ Williams, Phil (December 2, 2024). "Inside the influential white-supremacist conference that calls Tennessee 'home away from home'". WTVF. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  13. ^ a b c d Dickinson, Tim (February 26, 2024). "Patriot Front Leader Booked on Intimidation Charges Linked to Charlottesville". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  14. ^ BOONE, REBECCA (June 14, 2022). "Experts: Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric could galvanize extremists". WETM-TV. Associated Press. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  15. ^ King, Matthew (November 24, 2023). "Judge dismisses charges against Patriot Front founder". KREM (TV). Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  16. ^ Cabeza, Garrett. "Judge dismisses conspiracy to riot charge against Patriot Front founder, prosecutors appeal". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  17. ^ "Leader of white supremacist group among those arrested near Idaho Pride event". CBC. Associated Press. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  18. ^ a b c d Walters, Daniel (February 12, 2024). "How North Idaho prosecutors lost the case against Patriot Front's white nationalist leader". Idaho Capital Sun. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Baumgarten, April (October 7, 2024). "Patriot Front leaders ask for Fargo vandalism lawsuit to be dismissed". Grand Forks Herald. Retrieved December 26, 2024.

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