“Spider-Man Did Nothing Wrong” : Holding Fascism at Bay in the Streets under Trump 2.0

One of the enigmas of the second Trump administration is that the grassroots fascist activity of 2017 to 2020 has not returned with comparable force. But as Trump’s hold on power weakens, we will likely see the far right return to the streets. This makes it important to track what fascists are trying to do today and to block them every step of the way.

The above illustration appears courtesy of Chris Veal. You can support Spider-Man in his efforts to resist fascism here.

---

By contrast with the first Trump administration, Trump’s second term has not yet seen large-scale street mobilizations involving fascists and other white supremacists. Neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, and Trump supporters have attempted to disrupt anti-Tesla protests, No Kings rallies, and the recent demonstrations at Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey. Yet so far, these efforts have only taken place on a small scale and have met with massive resistance.

Nonetheless, neo-Nazis like Jake Lang are testing the waters, hoping to revitalize mass far-right street politics, while groups like the Proud Boys have once more taken to showing up at Democratic Socialists of America events. Disgraced Trump official Greg Bovino has launched a run for the presidency after speaking at a white supremacist conference in Portugal. The far right are attempting to regroup for the battles ahead.

We should track the fascists as they endeavor to return to street action—especially as they as the midterm elections grow closer and the institutional far right becomes concerned about losing control. Various far-right ideologues are now attempting to stoke frustration about the administration’s slow rollout of repression targeting the opposition; some are argung that lethal street violence is the only path forward for the right. As Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio recently posted, “They’re still doing it because we didn’t hang them last time.”

Two things are certain. First, the far right will continue to pressure the Trump administration to ramp up repression of anarchists and the left, from the DSA to autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-fascist groups. At the same time, they will claim that the Trump administration has not gone far enough, and will attempt to promote and normalize vigilante violence—which could be especially dangerous at a time when the state is providing cover for fascist terror. As the Trump era nears its end, the far right see a narrowing window of opportunity in which they can act before power changes hands.

Autonomous movements must monitor the far right and block their efforts while working to strengthen and support grassroots mobilizations against state violence and the fascists who cheerlead for it.

Why Spider-Man Punched Jake Lang

Since Trump pardoned him, no one has done more than Jake Lang to advance the cause of street-level far-right violence. Despite being denounced, laughed at, and sidelined by most of the existing fascist movement, including the leaders of the Proud Boys, neo-Nazi podcast grifters, and even Nick Fuentes, Lang has sought to draw together a coalition of white supremacists to take the offensive against those who oppose Trump’s rule. To that end, Lang has organized a series of ill-conceived rallies around standard MAGA grievances: supporting ICE, attacking Somali immigrants, and rallying against Muslim communities.

While Lang’s racist and Islamophobic stunts date to the beginning of Trump’s second term, Lang entered the spotlight on a national scale in 2026. Last January, in the midst of Operation Metro Surge, Lang held a rally in Minneapolis, aiming to capitalize on the Trump administration’s fixation on the local Somali community. Lang only managed to mobilize a handful of supporters, but hundreds of people rallied to oppose him, forcing him to flee the scene. Over the next several weeks, Lang continued to use Minneapolis as a backdrop for his stunts, receiving a felony charge after vandalizing an anti-ICE sculpture erected by veterans and being filmed giving a Nazi salute while rallying in support of ICE.

Lang then pivoted to attacking Muslims, attempting to hold rallies in New York against the democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. In August, Lang attempted to rally in Dearborn, only to be run out and attacked, then returned weeks later, gathering a crowd of several hundred, as Trump supporters seized on the primary victory of progressive democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim. Drawing a mostly older crowd of Trump supporters and far-right bikers, Lang confronted a comparable crowd of local Dearborn residents, who eventually pushed Lang’s supporters off the street.

In late August, Lang returned to Minneapolis to hold a march attacking Black people. Hundreds of Twin Cities residents came together in opposition. Lang’s rally lasted less than ten minutes. Hundreds of people confronted him and his handful of supporters. With the full support of the police, Lang and his supporters drove a truck onto a public sidewalk and into a crowd of counter-demonstrators. Lang was joined by a team of hired security, who pepper-sprayed many people in a failed attempt to hold back the crowd.

In the ensuing chaos, a demonstrator dressed as Spider-Man jumped on top of Jake’s truck and punched him. Although police quickly arrested Spider-Man for his civic-minded effort, Lang and his small group of supporters were nonetheless forced to flee the area, only to themselves be arrested on riot charges.

But while the city and local law enforcement made a grand show of arresting Lang, as Unicorn Riot later reported,

felony riot charges against white supremacist provocateur Edward Jacob “Jake” Lang [were later dropped]… citing “extensive evidence of communication and logistical coordination between the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and Lang’s security detail,” according to a press release.

After a few days in jail, Lang was released, already promoting his next neo-Nazi rallies.

Although Lang walked free as a result of police collusion, in early September, over 100 people rallied in solidarity with William Nicholas Love, the “Minneapolis Spider-Man” who is still facing misdemeanor charges of attacking Lang. Love’s attorney addressed the crowd, arguing that Love pled “not guilty” because he had acted in self-defense and proclaiming, “Spider-Man and the rest of the people of this city have the right to defend themselves.”

Speaking to the assembly in a full Spider-Man costume, Love told the crowd, “Black, white, Mexican—whatever race you are, we are in this together.”

In a recent episode of the podcast Posting Through It, the hosts documented how Lang considers himself to be operating under the direct protection of the Trump administration, believing that Trump officials will intervene to protect him. And while Lang has managed to rack up charges across the US as a result of his various stunts, so far, law enforcement across the country has continued to roll out the red carpet for him. In Minneapolis, police were prepared to work directly with Lang to inflict violence on locals, despite the explicitly racist content of the rally and Lang’s recent history of violence against police in Washington, DC. It turns out that blue lives don’t matter after all, should they accidentally pose an obstacle to establishing an even more authoritarian order.

This is the context in which Lang is traversing the US in hopes of finding issues that can mobilize the MAGA base to engage in street violence. So far, he has not succeeded. By contrast, the outpouring of support for the “Minneapolis Spider-Man” is reminiscent of the viral moment of celebrity for the masked anti-fascist who punched suit-and-tie white supremacist Richard Spencer at Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. Already, two crowd-funding campaigns have raised almost $200,000 in support of Love, as supporters have flooded the internet with supportive memes and costume look-alikes.

The state is allowing Lang to keep attempting to set off fascist street violence, but so far, the public has turned out over and over again to prevent that spark from catching.

Putting the Fascists Out to Pasture

Jake Lang is not the only one seeking to catalyze a new wave of fascist street violence. After mass grassroots resistance forced ICE to draw down immigration raids in the Twin Cities, the Trump administration removed Greg Bovino from his leadership role within the Border Patrol. Bovino pivoted to openly embrace the white supremacist movement, posting photos of himself giving a Nazi salute and traveling to Europe to speak at a white nationalist conference alongside various neo-Nazis.

On August 1, Bovino was scheduled to speak at an anti-immigration rally in Fishers, Indiana. Over a thousand people marched in opposition. As a consequence, in the end, the white supremacists and Republican bureaucrats held a gathering of less than a hundred people at a secret location—a muddy field.

This outpouring of resistance in a city of less than 100,000 is encouraging. It shows what is possible in an era that has brought millions of people out into the streets in resistance to ICE, Flock cameras, and data centers.

For precisely that reason, another section of the far right is attempting to create a wedge within the emerging movement against AI data centers. Humans First, a non-profit led by pro-Trump figures, recently called for protests against data centers project across the US. While Trump has been quick to denounce the movement and offer his full support for data center expansion, neo-fascist thought leaders like Tucker Carlson and Steven Bannon have pivoted to attempting to co-opt opposition to data centers and Flock cameras. Carlson is now hawking anti-Flock merch complete with ski masks and anti-surveillance slogans. The far right exists to impose inequality and domination by force; it only masquerades as populist and libertarian in order to sell itself to the public. We have to drive these two fascists out of these growing social struggles and expose them as enemies of freedom.

As opponents of fascism, we have several responsibilities. The first is to build a mass collective resistance to the state’s assault on anti-fascist and anti-capitalist movements. The second is to rally our communities against far-right attempts to take the streets, so they cannot rebuild their capacity to inflict violence. The third is to thwart fascist efforts to engage in entryism targeting the emerging social struggles against AI, data centers, and Flock surveillance cameras.

These are massive tasks, but the good news is that a new generation of activists is getting involved in community organizing on a mass scale. Seasoned organizers are in a position to pass on their knowledge and analysis to communities fighting against fascism. There’s lots to do. Let’s get to work.