Conservative commentator Erick Erickson is naming the white men he says are pulling the right toward white nationalism and dictatorship, and he says some of them are close to Vice President JD Vance.
In a lengthy Substack essay published Wednesday, Erickson accused a small, well-funded group of men of quietly working their way into conservative think tanks and church organizations.
“You might think it does not affect you, but, in time, you will see their efforts in your church pews, in your kids’ brains, and in your politicians’ mouths,” Erickson wrote on X. “It begins with shampoo.”
At the center of the network, Erickson explained, is Charles Haywood, who made his fortune selling shampoo before selling his Indianapolis hair-care company. Haywood wrote a manifesto describing a future government that would not be democratic and would bar women from choosing careers over family, Erickson reported.
Erickson cited reporting that Haywood’s foundation has given $390,500 to the Claremont Institute since 2022. He also tied Haywood to a men’s fraternal order that he says includes Claremont’s president and the chief executive of the venture firm New Founding.
Erickson argued the ideas have reached the vice president’s orbit. He noted Vance blurbed “Unhumans,” a book by right-wing activist Jack Posobiec that Erickson said holds up dictators Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet as models for dealing with the left. He also wrote that Haywood’s foundation funds American Moment, a staffing pipeline he said was founded with Vance’s support to place young conservatives in administration jobs.
“Unfortunately, the Vice President keeps all of it within arm’s reach,” Erickson wrote.
Erickson also accused Vance of refusing to forcefully denounce antisemites on the right, including followers of white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes.
The criticism follows conservative writer Rod Dreher’s claim that Vance ended their friendship after Dreher urged him to draw that line. Dreher, who had warned last fall that Fuentes’ influence was spreading among young GOP staffers, has said he doesn’t believe Vance is racist or antisemitic.
On X, Erickson summarized his findings.
“A group of white guys have subtly inserted themselves into conservative institutions and church organizations,” he wrote. “To varying degrees, they embrace white nationalism, antisemitism, and even Nazi sympathies. They are getting added to conservative institutional boards, attempting to purge churches, and are desperate to indoctrinate young conservatives into fascist ideology.”
Erickson’s essay quickly split the right, with even MAGA Fox News host Mark Levin urging his followers to read it.
“Very important piece. Read the whole thing and share it,” Levin wrote on X.
Figures with long ties to white nationalism fired back, seizing on Erickson’s opening description of “a group of white guys.”
Kevin DeAnna, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center identified as a longtime writer for the white nationalist site VDARE under a pen name, defended the phrase.
“Every meaningful advance in human history has been done by a [sic] ‘a group of white guys,’” DeAnna wrote.
Scott Greer, a former Daily Caller editor the SPLC has tied to white nationalist circles, took a shot at Erickson’s weight.
“I guess Erick prefers to be identified as ‘fat’ rather than ‘white,’” Greer wrote.
Patrick Casey, who led the white supremacist group Identity Evropa and its successor before it disbanded in 2020, questioned Erickson’s focus.
“Do you ever attack the left?” Casey asked.
The exposé comes as Vance faces scrutiny over a line he used to deny Republicans are racist, and as critics accuse him of accommodating white nationalists.
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