The Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, has recently been in trouble for allegedly funding the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the National Socialist Party of America, as well as facing 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The agency tried to explain its actions of providing financial backing to these hate organizations by claiming it was part of its informant program. However, SPLC has now ended the program, suggesting that maybe they realize the error of their ways. But that’s not all. The organization released its yearly report, and wouldn’t you know, the country’s racism problem can be laid at President Donald Trump, his administration, and supporters’ feet.
Ending the Informant Program
The SPLC has admitted to providing funds to extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, but argues it was doing so as part of an undercover informant program to be able to get more intel on such organizations. But suddenly, the program was shut down and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, wanted to know why. During a June 16 hearing, he asked the center’s interim CEO, Bryan Fair, “Do you wish you hadn’t done the program? You said the program was successful, helpful, but now you’re stopping it.”
“We stopped the program because we believe hate and extremism has migrated significantly online and into government agencies,” Fair responded.
Jordan chuckled at the idea, saying, “That makes no sense.”
Various sources allege people went to SPLC to solicit help to get out of the hate groups that they belonged to but were told to stay in instead and they’d be paid for their services – hence, the informant program.
The organization, however, puts the blame on the current administration and the political right for escalating extremism in laws and practices, which is what its annual report, Year in Hate and Extremism, focuses on for 2025. The report published during the current hearings.
SPLC Report on Hate and Extremism
The subtitle on the report reads: “From Extreme to Establishment” and appears to be a lengthy rant against President Trump and his supporters. Rachel Carroll Rivas, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, dubbed 2025 “the year hate and extremism infiltrated institutions.” She wrote:
“Both the federal government and the private tech sector embraced the ideas of the hard right and advanced its agenda. The hard right effectively seized the power of government as a messenger for extremist rhetoric and a tool to dictate policies affecting the everyday lives of millions of people.”
She warned that this agenda comes “at the expense of black and brown people, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ people, families with low incomes and everyone who benefits from an inclusive democracy.”
Under it’s “Empowering Extremists” section, the report goes on and on about Trump pardoning January 6 protesters, how his administration “fundamentally altered the focus of federal law enforcement by shifting personnel at law enforcement agencies away from traditional focus areas and massively increasing the budgets of agencies involved in immigration enforcement,” and even how the attitude and policies of the administration promotes violence from far-right extremism.
According to the report, Trump officials “undermined and defunded programs and initiatives designed to prevent white supremacist and hard-right extremist violence, and they actively promoted a skewed, partisan assessment of the actual threat landscape.” Yet nothing was mentioned about the lefts’ crimes, violence, assassinations, and attempts.
SPLC condemns conservative groups such as Turning Point USA, which was added to its hate map last year and whose own founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated, Moms for Liberty, and PragerU, to name a few on the new list of the 1,263 “active extremist groups,” with 556 designated as “hate groups,” and 707 identified as “antigovernment extremist groups.”
The organization went after campus speakers as well, saying: “This movement — which rejects equality and pluralism, instead embracing an authoritarian brand of politics alongside racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry — focuses on institutions of higher learning because of the critical role they play in our society and the strategic opportunities they offer.”
Yet critics argue it is the left who are trying to silence the voice of Republicans and conservatives, schools sometimes forbidding them to speak on campuses. As Liberty Nation News previously reported, the SPLC has been accused of indoctrinating children with their school study subjects, and then links and access to those curriculums mysteriously disappeared, providing nothing but 404 error website pages.
And then there’s the section titled “Crypto Financing Hate.” Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, working with crypto could be aligned with hate groups. SPLC described a situation where neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin who is the editor of the website The Daily Stormer and considered a conspiracy theorist, lost a harassment case against Montana real estate agent Tanya Gersh. He was ordered to pay more than $14 million in damages, but SPLC said he used cryptocurrency to keep his assets out of the court’s reach. “Anglin’s use of cryptocurrency demonstrates not only how extremist movements bankroll harassment but also how they insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions.”
Democrats went off the rails when allegations were made against the SPLC. Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) claimed Republicans held a hearing about the agency because they support white supremacy, and said the party is “nothing more than a death cult and a political front for the white supremacist movement.” Furthermore, “The Republican Party protects these groups because they have the same goals: erase Reconstruction, erase the civil rights movement, destroy multiracial democracy, and restore Jim Crow in America.”
Perhaps a history lesson and a better understanding of current politics is needed because erasing history is more easily demonstrated by progressives who tear down statues and ban books by Laura Ingalls Wilder because the language is outdated. Requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to be able to vote is not a return to Jim Crow. But with the SPLC, and numerous other groups, attempting to rewrite and redefine language itself, it's really no surprise that some lawmakers might think that's the case.
