KKK Faction Rebrands as 'The Knights Party' as White Supremacist Groups Spread Across US

A faction of the Ku Klux Klan once led by David Duke has rebranded itself as "The Knights Party" in an apparent effort to attract new followers, as white supremacist movements across the United States seek to widen their reach midway through President Donald Trump's second term.

Al Jazeera correspondent Phil Lavelle travelled to Boone County, Arkansas, to assess whether the organization formerly known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has gained influence. What he encountered was a group attempting to soften its public image by refocusing its message on family and faith, even as it clings to an explicitly racist ideology.

The organization's leader, Thomas Robb, a Christian pastor who took charge in 1989, has spent decades trying to broaden the group's appeal. He abandoned the traditional title of "grand wizard" in favour of "national director," introduced confidential mail-in membership, and publicly distanced himself from the Klan's history of violence. Those changes, however, have not altered the group's core philosophy.

When Lavelle asked whether a Black person would be welcome at the group's church, Robb's reply was unequivocal: "No. Because this is a white nationalist church." The exchange laid bare the contradiction between the group's rebranding effort and its entrenched beliefs.

Robb also dismissed two prominent Muslim American politicians, Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, as "not Americans." When Lavelle noted that El-Sayed was born in Michigan, Robb brushed the point aside, saying he did not care where El-Sayed was born. He then drew a racial line between the children of white and non-white immigrants, arguing that only the children of white foreigners could be considered American "because they're white."

The Ku Klux Klan emerged in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, formed in reaction to government efforts to extend civil rights to Black people and other minority groups. Through lynchings and targeted violence, the Klan worked to block non-white participation in government and to preserve racial divisions across American society.

Robb claimed the current surge in white nationalist sentiment predates Trump, tracing its origins to 2008 and the election of Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president. "People are beginning to stir and being angered by what they see happening to the country," he said. "So we're kind of a voice for that."

Yet Robb conceded that many sympathizers remain reluctant to formally join his organization. "As for people actually to become members, that's kind of a line they [are] a little hesitant to cross sometimes," he acknowledged. He also declined to provide membership figures or evidence for his claim that support for his movement is growing.

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is just one of dozens of white supremacy organizations operating in the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group that tracks extremist movements, estimates at least 152 such groups are currently active in the US, part of what it describes as a decade-long upward trend.

That trend has been visible in public demonstrations. Earlier this year, the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched through the Washington, DC, area during Independence Day festivities, drawing attention to the continued visibility of such movements on the national stage.

Experts have warned for years about a resurgence of white supremacy in the US, fueled in part by the mainstreaming of ideas once confined to the political fringe. Critics have accused Trump of normalizing such views through rhetoric that describes immigration as an "invasion" and "an assault on Western countries."

The president has also faced accusations of cozying up to white nationalists, including a 2022 dinner with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, a prominent figure in the movement. After white nationalists clashed violently with protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, Trump said there were "fine people on both sides."

A Public Religion Research Institute survey conducted in 2025 and released this year asked more than 20,000 US adults to evaluate the statement, "Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background." The institute found that 32 percent of respondents, nearly one in three, agreed with the idea, a cornerstone of the so-called great replacement theory.

That conspiracy theory falsely asserts that immigrants, Jews and nonwhite groups are seeking to supplant white people in Western nations. Its growing acceptance among a substantial share of the public has alarmed civil rights advocates, who see it as a driver of racist violence and a sign that extremist narratives have moved closer to the mainstream.

Trump has told The New York Times that "white people were very badly treated" in fields such as academics. His administration has moved to dismantle diversity initiatives and has launched probes into whether universities and companies, including Nike, discriminate against white people. The president has also prioritized white South Africans in refugee admissions, falsely claiming they are facing a "genocide."

Taken together, these developments suggest that while the Klan's traditional brand remains a barrier to recruitment, the broader ecosystem of white nationalist organizing may be finding new avenues for growth, even as groups like Robb's struggle to convert sympathy into formal membership.