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

The Capitol Dome and the US Senate are seen as the Senate participates in a series of votes on a bill that would fund ICE and border patrol in Washington DC on 4 June 2026. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen The Capitol Dome and the US Senate are seen as the Senate participates in a series of votes on a bill that would fund ICE and border patrol in Washington DC on 4 June 2026. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock Hard-right groups have expanded their influence across US government, report finds Southern Poverty Law Center releases report as US government pursues federal fraud charges against group 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 you