Trump administration eliminates funding for group countering white nationalism

ThinkProgress

The Trump administration has dropped federal support of an organization dedicated to countering white nationalist and neo-Nazi extremism, a Politico report revealed on Friday.

The organization, Life After Hate, was founded in 2009 and is run by a small staff of men and women who were once part of racist activist and extremist movements, and who now work to de-radicalize others involved in violent extremist groups.

In its final days, the Obama administration awarded the group a $400,000 grant as part of its Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) program. Life After Hate was the only group dedicated to fighting white nationalist extremism to receive a grant under the program.

It’s also in increasing demand: Picciolini told Politico that since President Trump’s election, Life After Hate has seen a 20-fold increase in requests for help, coming “from people looking to disengage or bystanders/family members looking for help from someone they know.”

But Life After Hate Founder Christian Picciolini told ThinkProgress in February the group never received its check from the federal government. And now, the organization has been dropped altogether from the list of grants associated with the CVE program, which the Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday.

DHS did not clarify to Politico why Life After Hate was dropped, and Life After Hate did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment on the news by publishing time.

Picciolini previously told ThinkProgress, however, that the group feared its grant would be rescinded after Reuters reported that Trump planned to rebrand the CVE program to focus solely on terrorism carried out by groups that claim to be Islamic, and wouldn’t target far-right and white supremacist groups.

“It sends a message that white extremism does not exist, or is not a priority in our country, when in fact it is a statistically larger and more present terror threat than any by foreign or other domestic actors,” Picciolini said at the time.

Since 9/11, far more Americans have been killed in attacks by right-wing organizations than by groups claiming to be Islamic, according to the SPLC. [MORE]