If there was one person who seemed like he’d be truly enjoying the social and political carnage that is 2018, it was Ammon Bundy. He’s the Nevada rancher who, along with his dad Cliven, is fond of armed standoffs opposing the federal government. The Bundys have generally made the news for their guns and racism; his father once began a monologue by saying, "I want to tell you one more thing I know about the negro," and concluded it with, "And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves?" But Ammon is back in the headlines for a surprisingly different reason: He's quitting the militia movement in which he's been a national leader, all out of solidarity with the migrant caravan.

BuzzFeed News reports that Bundy has disavowed "patriot groups" over their support for President Trump. Before closing his social media accounts, he posted a Facebook video from his ranch in the appropriately-named Bunkerville, Nevada. In it, he decried Trump’s treatment of Central American migrants.

"To group them all up like, frankly, our president has done — you know, trying to speak respectfully — but he has basically called them all criminals and said they're not coming in here,” he said. "What about individuals, those who have come for reasons of need for their families, you know, the fathers and mothers and children that come here and were willing to go through the process to apply for asylum so they can come into this country and benefit from not having to be oppressed continually?"

BuzzFeed noted that while Bundy’s support of migrants may have pissed off his legion of followers, it’s consistent with his Mormon faith and his championing of individual liberty. Bundy went as far as to compare the Trump administration to Nazi Germany:

The time we find ourselves in now that is closest found in history is Germany in the 1930s, and they had a leader that was loved, and it was the same kind of following...I don't want to say there is that extreme similarity, but it very well could go that way, and people just give up their thinking, their rights, and they give up their government because they were so willing to follow him.

On one hand, it’s kind of great that a popular leader of the fringe right wing is willing to give up his platform out of solidarity with migrant families. On the other hand, if even this guy is picking up on the Nazi vibes, we might all be truly screwed.



Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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