What to Know About the ‘Proud Boys’ Trump Told to ‘Stand By’

The names Proud Boys and antifa, representing polar-opposite extremes on the U.S. political spectrum, were invoked during the first debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. In the current hyperpartisan atmosphere, both have been magnified as major threats to American society even though their ranks are relatively small.

They are a group of self-described “Western chauvinists” formed in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, a Canadian writer and co-founder of Vice Media. Though McInnes denies links to the so-called alt-right -- a U.S. political fringe movement associated with White supremacy that was energized by Trump’s rise -- those who gather under the Proud Boy name can be found spouting white nationalist memes and maintaining affiliations with known extremists, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors what it classifies as hate groups. (McInnes is suing the center, according to his Parler bio.) The Anti-Defamation League estimates there are several hundred Proud Boy members. Proud Boys have appropriated, as a uniform, apparel maker Fred Perry’s black polo shirt with yellow stripes on the collar and sleeve. The company stopped selling the shirt in September 2019 and says it won’t resume sales in the U.S. or Canada until it’s convinced the association with the Proud Boys has ended.