It would be inaccurate to refer to Enrique Tarrio, who was the leader of the Proud Boys on January 6, 2021, when dozens of members stormed the Capitol, as the gang’s “ex–chairman.”
Within hours of being sprung free from a federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana, on Tuesday, Tarrio called into Infowars to speak with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to correct the record.
During that call, Tarrio—who received a sentence of 22 years for seditious conspiracy charges but was freed thanks to the flurry of nearly 1,600 pardons and sentence commutations for January 6-ers issued by the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump—made it very clear that he had absolutely no intention of distancing himself from the far-right street-fighting gang.
“As far as my future with the organization goes, I’m not going anywhere,” Tarrio said. “We’ve made the decision not to talk publicly about the group’s structure. But I have some suggestions for the media: They should stop calling me the ex–Proud Boys leader.”
It’s been a long time coming, but it appears that the Proud Boys are plotting a comeback. And they want revenge.
“I’m happy that the president is focusing not on retribution, and focusing on success. But I will tell you, I’m not going to play by those rules,” Tarrio told Jones. “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, they need to be prosecuted. They need to be imprisoned. We need to find and put them behind bars for what they did.”
“The Proud Boys are not terrorist masterminds. These are not the brightest neofascists out there,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “But they are committed to the cause. They are single-minded in this mission now: for revenge, for retribution. And as we’ve seen before, they are willing to go across state lines and use violence in furtherance of their goals.”
An analysis of Proud Boys’ social media channels by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism identified a surge in online activity following the January 6 pardons, including discussions of ramping up real-world activism to help further the Trump administration’s agenda. “Posts from Proud Boys groups reveal an emboldened network, with members fantasizing about mass deportation schemes and threatening to escalate their attacks during Pride Month,” the GPAHE said in a statement. “These developments point to a broader alignment between extremist groups and the Trump regime, raising urgent concerns about public safety and the normalization of far-right violence.” A North Carolina chapter, via its Telegram channel, proposed carrying out “bount[ies on illegals.” A chapter in upstate New York gleefully circulated a rumor that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was offering $750 rewards to turn in undocumented immigrants.
In the years since the Capitol riot, as dozens of Proud Boy members and leaders copped charges for the insurrection, the group became increasingly elusive and unpredictable. They pivoted away from large-scale public demonstrations—which would often involve 100 or so Proud Boys descending on a city, clad in yellow and black, reeking of beer, looking for media attention and fights—and instead embedded themselves into hyperlocal culture wars across the country, in many cases aligning themselves with Christian nationalists. They started showing up to small protests against vaccines, crashed school board meetings, and intimidated attendees at drag brunches. For the most part, they stayed away from cities or towns where they were likely to encounter opposition.
Though they mobilized in a few instances in support of Trump ahead of the 2024 election, it was, overall, fairly lackluster, especially compared to 2020. This drove speculation that the gang was on its last legs.
Then, on Monday, as Trump was taking the oath of office, more than 100 uniformed Proud Boys marched through the streets of Washington, DC, led by their south-Florida chapter.
It was a striking scene—one that seemed intended to send a clear message: “We’re back.”
Ever since January 6, 2021, DC has been perceived by the far right as a no-go zone for Trump supporters of all stripes. But on Monday the Proud Boys chanted “Whose streets—our streets.” They received a hero’s welcome by other Trump supporters in the crowd, as seen on video recorded by freelance journalist Ford Fischer.
On Tuesday, as bureaucratic snafus delayed the release of about a dozen January 6-ers from the DC jail, protesters gathered outside. Among them were at least four uniformed Proud Boys. Though three of them had their faces covered, they milled around with what appeared to be zero concern about stigma from others present. Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes, whose 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy was commuted by Trump, also appeared outside the jail—having walked free from a federal prison in Maryland the previous night.
One of the Proud Boys present spoke at the impromptu rally outside of the jail, identifying himself as “Harry Fox.” (This was the same name that other Proud Boys had given to reporters on Inauguration Day.)
“Donald Trump is back, baby. He is back, and he is stronger than ever,” he said over the microphone. “I’m so proud of what the American citizens did that day,” he added, referring to January 6, “for standing up finally after decades of being abused and oppressed by an authoritarian regime.”
He ended his speech with the Proud Boys slogan: “I am a Western chauvinist, and I will not apologize for creating the modern world.” The crowd cheered.
Tarrio, in his phone call to Jones on Tuesday, made it clear that he views the role of the Proud Boys as being no different to what it was four years ago—he sees them as the foot soldiers and the muscle of the GOP. “I think the future of the club will be what it’s always been,” said Tarrio. “A group of men that love America, get around and drink beer, and protect Trump supporters from being assaulted … We will defend ourselves and Trump supporters from being assaulted for their political views.”
He suggested that he feels vindicated by Trump’s election victory and decision to pardon almost everyone involved in the January 6 riot. “We went through hell, and I’m gonna tell you: It was worth it,” Tarrio told Jones. “What we stood for and what those guys stood for is what we’ve been fighting for, is what we saw yesterday on the inauguration stage … I can’t tell you it’s been easy. But I will tell you it’s been worth it.”
Whatever stigma may have been attached to the Proud Boys appears to have dissipated.
Trump has defended his decision to pardon or commute the sentences of January 6-ers, including those of notorious Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. And when asked by a reporter whether he could envision a place for members of those groups in politics. “Well, we have to see,” Trump responded. “They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.”
But even with talks of revenge and plans for the future, the gang is far less cohesive than it was prior to January 6. The arrests of members and leaders in connection to the Capitol riot fueled paranoia about informants and exacerbated existing rifts—especially after a report published in late January 2021 exposed Tarrio’s history as a “prolific” police informant. The Proud Boys claimed that they dissolved the group’s “Sovereign Chapter” in the years following, leaving the chapters to operate autonomously. The group also struggled to find its place in the broader far-right ecosystem, with some chapters cozying up to even more extreme factions like neo-Nazis as others sought legitimacy by seeking alliances with conservative influencers.
But as January 6 showed, someone doesn’t need to be a card-carrying member of a group, Proud Boys or otherwise, to be emboldened by the pardons. “How many people are going to be emboldened by this, how many are going to take this as justification, as their call to arms, to say ‘we have to fight now against the prosecutors, the FBI agents, the so-called deep state,’” says Lewis. “These are people who have a track record of being allowed to commit violence in the name of their ideology, and they’ve been given a second chance to do just that.”