In Newly Blue Texas, Far-Right Christian Nationalists Meet to Plan for the Post-Trump Future

Irving, TX —

Disillusioned with President Donald Trump, hundreds of people gathered this weekend in newly blue Texas for a far-right Christian nationalist conference to discuss the path forward to advance their agenda after major Republican defeats in the midterm elections.

Many attendees at the conference titled “Christ Is King: America After Trump” had voted for Trump in the last three elections, but no longer support him and are at odds with much of the Republican Party.

While some conservative Christians support the U.S. war on Iran and U.S. support for Israel, among the far-right faction gathered here in Irving this weekend, Trump’s decision to go to war was the ultimate act of treason.

Speakers at the event promoted anti-Semitic tropes, discussed the need for the United States to remain a majority-white nation, argued that Christianity should take precedence over other religions in this country, called for mass expulsions, and considered revoking the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote. Much of this was met with enthusiastic applause and standing ovations from the largely male audience.

Far-right streamer Nick Fuentes, an online arsonist known for his unapologetic racist, anti-Semitic and sexist comments, gave an hour-long speech at the event’s closing Saturday.

Other speakers included conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Buckley Carlson, the brother of Tucker Carlson.

Fuentes rarely appears in public, opting instead to broadcast his show nightly from home and appear on other people’s podcasts, but on Saturday he spoke of the need for him and his supporters, known as “grypers,” to mobilize ahead of the 2028 elections.

“The midterm elections were a rejection of Donald Trump. It was not a rejection of Trumpism. And maybe that’s the most important point,” Fuentes said.

“100,000 grypers doesn’t swing the country 50 percent in favor of our ideology, but 100,000 grypers can make 100 million phone calls. They can knock on 100 million doors. We can go to the Iowa caucus,” Fuentes added.

It’s difficult to determine Fuentes’ follower count, but his nightly feed is regularly viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and young men who openly identify as groypers are now often seen at conservative events wearing Fuentes merchandise. Some Fuentes fans that CNN spoke with during Saturday’s event had traveled across the country to see the 28-year-old streamer speak.

In 2022, Fuentes joined Trump and Kanye West (now known as “Ye”) for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Trump later said he had no idea who Fuentes was.

This weekend’s event took place at the Irving Convention Center near Dallas and was sponsored by NXR Studios, a far-right Christian nationalist media company,

Joel Webbon, a preacher who runs NXR, gave a speech filled with anti-Semitism, racism and misogyny in which he laid out his vision of a United States where white Christian men reign supreme.

“We are done with equality,” Webbon said, despite the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment ban on the government favoring one religion over another. “Christianity is American. Islam is not, Hinduism is not, Judaism is not,” he proclaimed to applause.

A decade ago, MAGA was the insurgent movement that pushed the Republican Party even further to the right. The cohort that gathered in Texas this weekend believes that MAGA has not gone far enough to the far right, and Fuentes pointed to the recent success of left-wing democratic socialists as a model for a successful insurgent movement within the post-Trump Republican Party.

“Actually, my role model is the DSA,” Fuentes said, “it’s the Zohran Mamdanis, Abdul El-Sayeds.”

But Fuentes and company may have difficulty building a successful political coalition given the large number of people they hope to one day exclude from the political process.

“Anytime you see a woman in a leadership position, I guarantee you there were at least a thousand men more qualified than her for that position,” Webbon said on stage, before reminding the audience that he supports revoking women’s voting rights.