White Nationalist Networks Are Using Fake Aid Efforts to Recruit Audiences After Natural Disasters: Report

White nationalist and far-right networks are using natural disasters as opportunities to present themselves as relief providers, produce viral content and recruit new followers, according to a CBS News "60 Minutes" report focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

After Helene hit remote mountain communities in September 2024, groups including white nationalists, militias and conspiracy theorists arrived in affected areas, sometimes armed and often without coordinating with local authorities. One group, Patriot Front, delivered supplies and cleared debris, then posted videos and photos of the effort online.

"Their purpose really was to take videos of themselves doing these good works so that they could present themselves online as do-gooders," correspondent Lesley Stahl said. "They're looking for eyeballs."

John Kelly, head of the data analytics firm Graphika, told CBS that natural disasters create rare moments of shared public attention. "There are very few things that bring the public's attention to focus on one thing in unison. And natural disasters is one of those," he said.

The report highlighted a post from a chapter of Active Club, a self-described white nationalist network, showing men clearing tree branches after the storm. The caption read, "We have learned from this experience that whites are on our own" and "White unity at every opportunity."

Kelly said such groups are increasingly avoiding explicit extremist symbols in public-facing content. "They've kind of decided to leave the more triggering iconography in the closet and try to appeal to a more mainstream audience," he said.

The CBS report also found that disaster-related posts are often paired with misinformation or anti-government claims, including allegations that federal response efforts failed. Kelly said conspiracy theories can help extremist groups reach broader audiences because they "may resonate with a larger audience, to help build their following."

Back in November, reporting from The Dispatch found DHS was increasingly using memes drawn from right-wing online culture to promote immigration enforcement and recruit thousands of new personnel. The materials, that too imagergy from popular IP such as The Lord of The Rings and Halo, increasingly framed immigration as a threat to American "identity" and "culture," as the site points out.

Labor leaders and historians also took exception to a January Labor Department post reading "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage," claiming it echoed exclusionary nationalist rhetoric. Users on X and the platform's AI tool Grok noted similarities to the Nazi slogan "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer," or "one people, one realm, one leader."

The 60 Minutes report also noted that foreign influence operations, including accounts linked to China, have amplified divisive disaster-related posts, using U.S.-made content to argue that American institutions are failing.