Militia and anti-government groups across the United States are using the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump as an opportunity to organize, recruit, and train.
“An attack on President Trump was an attack on us, people like us—like-minded American patriots,” says Scott Seddon, the Pennsylvania-based founder of the American Patriots Three Percenters (APIII), in a video posted to TikTok on Sunday. APIII is a decentralized militia network with chapters across the US. “There comes a point in time where everybody in this group needs to start being accountable for what they’re doing to help grow the organization and building a network of like-minded people in their area. Because they’re coming for us.”
Seddon goes on in the video to say that he’s looking at coordinating a meeting with other militias around Pennsylvania. “This is not going to just go away. We need to become fuckin’ strong, fuckin’ lions,” says Seddon. “Start reaching out to individuals in your state that are trustworthy, that have the like-minded vision of local strong communities, to hold down the fort, just in case [of] war, or for when shit hits the fan.”
In the aftermath of the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania—which left the former president wounded in his ear, one person dead, and two people injured—incendiary rhetoric and calls for retaliatory violence exploded online.
Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, says that this type of rhetoric has been pretty commonplace in online spaces since 2020, especially since January 6. But she’s particularly concerned about the heightened rhetoric in tandem with aggressive recruitment efforts by militia groups, who historically have opportunistically pounced on moments of national chaos to encourage organizing and training. Paul says the confluence of militia activity and heightened rhetoric could inspire “individuals who are susceptible to online influence and acceleration” who “could be triggered to act on their own.” She also sees militias’ emphasis on organization over knee-jerk calls for retaliatory violence as a sign that the movement is focused on long-term goals and growth.
In the past year, APIII has made a significant recruitment push across major social media platforms, such as Facebook, X, TikTok, and even NextDoor, according to research from the Tech Transparency Project shared exclusively with WIRED. Despite featuring “Three Percenters” in its name—a clear nod to the militia movement—APIII touts a disclaimer on its website insisting that it is not a militia. That’s in line with the broader trend seen since January 6, 2021, when paramilitary activists scrambled to distance themselves from the militia movement implicated in the Capitol riot.
But groups like APIII have increasingly been trying to rebuild the militia movement from the ground up, urging people to get organized in their communities. According to Seddon, APIII and the Light Foot Militia, another decentralized paramilitary group with chapters nationwide, have been coordinating closely. Last month, a video circulated on TikTok and Facebook purporting to show a training meetup with APIII and Light Foot in an undisclosed location. About 100 heavily armed men and women in fatigues are shown standing in formation. Text over the video reads: “Now is the time to join a MF’in Militia, Not a Political Party,” and “We came into this world screaming covered in blood and will be leaving the same way. No retreat no surrender.”
Other militias also led recruitment pushes following Saturday’s attempted assassination. The admin of a Facebook page for the “New Confederate American Family,” which Paul describes as a Confederate militia, claimed in a post that many members had inquired about stepping up into leadership positions since the shooting. “Excellent,” one person responded to the post. “Maybe this is the push that will help fill our ranks when the time comes.”
The leader of a Kentucky militia responded to the shooting with an ominous prediction of more violence to come. “I told you things were going to heat up in July,” he wrote on Facebook. “Come September, many will fall! It’s just getting started.”
“You can sit and enjoy the show,” he wrote in another post. “Or you can join it. There will come a time, you will have no choice!”
Individuals with links to the paramilitary movement also sounded off on Facebook, with some calling for militias to provide security for Trump. “How the hell can [we] trust the Deep State/Police State with the life of candidate Trump?” wrote one individual on Facebook, claiming to be part of the “American militia freedom forces.” Another individual called for the formation of a “citizens militia” at the RNC, though that idea was promptly swatted down by some of their followers.
These conversations are taking place on Facebook, which in theory has had a years-long ban in place against militias organizing on the platform. They are also taking place despite the fact that WIRED flagged militia recruitment on Facebook back in May.
Erica Sackin, a spokesperson for Meta, told WIRED in an email that APIII is banned under Facebook’s list of “Dangerous organizations and Individuals.” She asserts that Facebook is an adversarial space, where groups often employ new strategies to evade detection and enforcement, and stressed Meta’s commitment to enforcement and monitoring.
“Groups like the Three Percenters are already banned from the platform, and the glorification of groups calling for political violence is not allowed,” says Paul. “The outright failure of major platforms like Facebook to address ongoing militia recruiting, unchecked misinformation, and calls to violence has been a problem for years. The issue is enforcement—and that failed enforcement can have real-world consequences with political violence on the rise.”
This story has been updated with comment from Meta.
