Earlier this year, far-right Christian nationalist activist C. Jay Engel gloated that with the return of the Trump administration to power, representatives of the online right are now in power.
"We have our guys are in Washington and I think that the momentum is on our side," Engel declared. "This isn't going away."
On Wednesday, Engel—a virulently anti-immigrant commentator and podcast host who has cheered on the administration's brutal deportation campaign, called for the "repeal of the Twentieth Century," and for Taylor Swift to be "arrested and executed"—appeared on "The Green Tavern" podcast, where he bragged that he personally knows that multiple people who share his far-right worldview are stationed in positions of power throughout Washington, D.C.
"I really think that in the last two or three years, Americans understand the existential nature of what we're going through," Engel said. "We always laugh about the grill Americans and the people that would just rather watch the football game than get involved in politics, and I think that is basically no longer the chief characteristic of young right-wing men. I think they really do care a lot."
"With [President Donald] Trump and Stephen Miller and [Vice President J.D.] Vance, maybe we can't say they're perfect, but we can say that our guys are getting into positions of influence," Engel added. "And I can say for certain, because I know some of these people, that there are very good right-wing Heritage Americans in staff positions all over Washington. And I trust them, I know them, and good things are happening."
The term "Heritage American" is, when used by Engel and his ilk, essentially a euphemism for a form of anti-immigrant white nationalism that insists only those whose ancestors have been in this country for several generations truly qualify as Americans.
"We just have to continue to fight and double down," Engel continued. "The American right wing of 2026 needs to make the American right wing of 2025 look like liberals, and that we need to do that every single year. We need to push the Overton Window. And I think that we really have a bright future ahead of us. It's going to be some struggle, probably some violence, but I think our children will be able to take up where we've left off. And so I would encourage everyone to just keep pushing it because we're doing great things."
