Deleted: Experts have warned over the past decade of a resurgence in white supremacy in the United States, fuelled in part by the mainstream influence of political figures like President Donald Trump. Just this year, the Public Religion Research Institute released the results of a 2025 survey that asked more than 20,000 US adults to evaluate the statement, “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” That belief is the cornerstone of the great replacement theory, a conspiracy that falsely claims that immigrants, Jews and nonwhite groups seek to supplant white people in Western countries. The research institute found that 32 percent of respondents – nearly one in three – nevertheless agreed with the idea.
Critics have accused right-wing leaders like Trump of normalising such views, through rhetoric that paints immigration as an “invasion” and “an assault on Western countries”. Trump has also been accused of cosying up to white nationalists, even dining in 2022 with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, a key figure in the movement. When white nationalists engaged in a deadly clash with protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, Trump said there were “fine people on both sides”.
Al Jazeera correspondent Phil Lavelle travelled to Boone County, Arkansas, to see whether one of the most infamous white supremacist organisations in US history had seen a bump in its influence midway through Trump’s second term. He spoke to Thomas Robb, the head of what was formerly known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group founded in the 1970s by David Duke. What Lavelle found was a group seemingly eager to rebrand.
The group had shortened its title to The Knights Party, and members told Lavelle they were trying to re-centre their message around family and faith. But when Lavelle asked if a Black person would be welcome at the group’s church, Robb’s answer was simple. The movement began at the end of the civil war in 1865, as a response to government efforts to expand civil rights to Black people and other minority groups.
Through lynchings and other targeted acts of violence, the KKK attempted to block non-white participation in government and maintain racial divides. Robb, a Christian pastor, took over as the head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan – a faction of the KKK – in 1989. He has since attempted to broaden the group’s appeal.
He changed his title from “grand wizard” to “national director”, allowed new members to participate confidentially by mail, and distanced himself from KKK violence in public outreach campaigns. Still, he has adhered to the racist philosophy his organisation is known for. When Lavelle pointed out that El-Sayed was born in Michigan, Robb brushed off the contradiction.
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