Antisemites and anti-Israel activists rallied in Detroit to protest a conservative political convention. They also attempted to hold a conference of their own over the weekend, seeing the likes of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and white nationalist Nick Fuentes in attendance.
Fuentes and mixed martial artist Jake Shields were denied access to Turning Point Action’s the People’s Convention (TPUSA) on Friday when they attempted to attend, Shields told social media content creator Nicolas “Sneako” Kenn De Balinthazy on his Rumble stream the same day. Shields claimed that TPUSA security gave no reason for the expulsion from the event, suggesting that it was because Fuentes was an anti-Israel activist.
“Should I pull up to TPUSA this year?” Fuentes asked followers on social media, before updating shortly after, “I got kicked out.”
Fuentes was set to hold his own event – the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) – on Saturday, but said on Saturday on X, “We finished setting up our stage and then the venue called the cops to kick us out 24 hours before the event.”
Danish physician and anti-Israel influencer Anastasia Maria Loupis, who said on X on Friday that it was great to be “with the f**k Israel movement in Detroit,” responded to the cancellation by proclaiming on social media, “Nick was right. America is Israel-occupied territory. America is a banana republic. Jews have no power.”
Anti-Israel commentator Sulaiman Ahmed said that the AFPAC was canceled a second time at another venue, which saw a scuffle with security.Loupis did post a video of a flashpoint between AFPAC attendees and a guard. A security guard told the group to leave, and when they started to film him, he told them to cease doing so, calling them “sluts” and “whores” in the process, and started dancing while presenting them with his two middle fingers. When De Balinthazy flipped off the guard’s hat, the security man proceeded to perform a flying punch on the streamer. Ahmed later showed in a video that De Balinthazy received a chipped tooth as a result.
Shields said that Fuentes being escorted out of TPUSA and the cancellation of AFPAC twice showed how “feared and banned he is from society.”Fuentes returned to TPUSA’s convention, according to Shields, giving an impromptu speech as a Muslim-American supporter shouted, “Down with Israel.”“Jesus Christ is the king of the United States of America,” said Fuentes, who went on to critique former US president Donald Trump for his relationship with philanthropist Miriam Adelson.
“I will never vote for Joe Biden. But I cannot pledge to support Donald Trump until he becomes America first again,” said Fuentes. “We only voted for Donald Trump because we didn’t want any more wars in the Middle East, and we don’t want a war with Iran now. I will not vote for Donald Trump until he can give a commitment that we will not go to war with Iran.”
Fuentes alleged that Israel, “through war, through revolution, through subterfuge, is destabilizing the Middle East to carve out a path for ‘greater Israel.’ It’s always been their plan. And right now in order to accomplish that they are committing a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
Loupis said on social media that alt-Right activists, who often call themselves Groypers, had made a significant showing in Detroit in support of Fuentes.
One of the personalities that attended the protest at TPUSA’s convention was Duke, according to journalist Cam Higby.
Duke said in a clip published by Higby that he was there to support Fuentes and all those working “to save our country and save us from Jewish supremacism because we’re being genocided just like the Palestinians, just [in] a different form.”
Higby remarked on X, “This is the most obscenely insane and disgusting event I’ve ever seen.”
Ahmed and De Balinthazy announced on Sunday that Duke sat down with them for an interview.
Shields responded to an interviewer by saying that he was a “freedom of speech absolutist” and believed “everyone has a right to be heard.”“I want to listen and decide for myself if he’s really the vile man that they claim he is,” Shields said of Duke.