The resolution was followed several months later by the passage of an anti-discrimination ordinance.

***

Spencer told the Missoulian Friday he has been spending “less and less” time in Whitefish, where his parents live, and more in Arlington, Virginia, where he has an apartment and where the National Policy Institute is located.

“It’ll probably be a lot less time (in Whitefish) in 2017,” Spencer said. “I’ve long thought that, as my movement grows, it makes sense for me to be on the East Coast, in Washington, D.C.”

The alt-right, a term Spencer says he coined, has rocketed into prominence with Trump’s election, and the president-elect’s appointment of Stephen Bannon as his senior adviser and chief strategist. Bannon was executive chairman of Breitbart News, credited with giving a much wider platform for the alt-right to spread its message.

Spencer said he last considered himself a full-time Whitefish resident in 2012 or 2013, and has split his time between Montana and Virginia since.

“I’ll always come back to Montana because I love it,” said Spencer, who was born in Boston and raised in Texas. “The people are extremely nice, except for the ones who claim to be dedicated to love.”