SPLC report: Hate propaganda is outpacing hate groups
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Proud Boy members gather at the Carolina Ale House in Coral Gables, Florida, on May 1, 2025, to discuss the group's future. Photo: Maggie Steber for The Washington Post via Getty Images
America had fewer active hate and anti-government groups in President Trump's first year back in power, even as "hate-flyering" incidents surged, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's annual Hate & Extremism report released Tuesday.
Why it matters: The report frames 2025 as the year the hard right moved decisively "from extreme to establishment." But the SPLC is itself under Justice Department indictment, sharpening a fight over who defines extremism in Washington.
- The White House did not immediately respond to Axios.
The big picture: SPLC identified 1,263 hate and anti-government groups operating in 2025, down from 1,371 in 2024 — an 8% decline.
- But it reported a surge in episodes of hateful flyers being placed in various communities.
- Florida saw 331 hate-flyering incidents, a 92% jump from 2024.
- Georgia showed the same pattern: Its group count fell by 15, but cases of hate flyers spreading rose by 122 incidents to 199.
In Florida, the state with the most Proud Boys chapters in the country, multiple chapters attended counterprotests targeting the No Kings rallies and showed up at the ICE detention facility nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz."
- Male supremacist podcaster Myron Gaines, operating out of Florida, launched a "Toxic Masculinity Tour" that brought him to colleges, where he argued that women should not be allowed to vote.
Zoom in: SPLC says hard-right influencers and "suit-and-tie" extremists gained new access in D.C., from White House briefings and immigration raids to congressional hearings and federal advisory groups.
- The report says the Trump administration shifted federal law enforcement resources toward deportations and away from white supremacist and militia-associated extremism.
- It also says DOJ terminated 56 hate crime prevention and anti-extremism grants, while DHS gutted its Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships.
Between the lines: In April, the Justice Department indicted the SPLC on wire fraud and money laundering charges, alleging the organization defrauded donors to secretly fund violent extremist groups.
- The 11-count fraud indictment alleges that the group secretly funneled more than $3 million to paid informants embedded in extremist groups.
- The SPLC called the charges false, saying the program "saved lives" and that it is "outraged by the false allegations."
- FBI Director Kash Patel had already ended all relationships between the bureau and the SPLC, calling the group a "partisan smear machine."
