Militias 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 Scot Seddon, founder of Pennsylvania-based The American Patriots Three Percenters (APIII), in a video posted to TikTok on Sunday. APIIII is a decentralized militia network with chapters across the United States. “There comes a time when all members of this group need to start being held accountable for what they’re doing to help the organization grow and build 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 is considering coordinating a meeting with other militias in Pennsylvania. “This is not going to go away just like that. We need to become very strong lions,” Seddon says. “Start reaching out to people in your state who are trustworthy, who have the same vision of strong local communities, to hold the fort, in case of war or when things get ugly.”
Following the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left the former president wounded in the ear, one person dead and two others injured, incendiary rhetoric and calls for retaliatory violence erupted online.
Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, says this kind of rhetoric has been fairly common in online spaces since 2020, especially since January 6. But she’s especially concerned about the heightened rhetoric coupled with aggressive recruitment efforts by militia groups, which have, historically, opportunistically taken advantage of 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 “might be driven to act on their own.” She also sees the militias’ emphasis on organizing over knee-jerk calls for retaliatory violence as a sign that the movement is focused on long-term goals and growth.
According to research from the Tech Transparency Project shared exclusively with WIRED, APIIII conducted a major recruitment drive across major social media platforms including Facebook, X, TikTok, and even NextDoor last year. Despite including Three Percenter in its name — a clear nod to the militia movement — APIIII advertises a disclaimer on its website, insisting that they are not a militia. This is in line with the broader trend seen since January 6, 2021, when paramilitary activists were quick to distance themselves from the militia movement implicated in the Capitol riots.
But increasingly, groups like APIIII have been trying to rebuild the militia movement from below, urging people to organize in their communities. According to Seddon, APIIII and the Light Foot Militia, another decentralized paramilitary group with chapters across the country, have been coordinating closely. Last month, a video circulated on TikTok and Facebook purportedly showing a training meeting with APIIII and Lightfoot at 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 we will leave the same way. No retreat, no surrender.”