Nick Fuentes has built a digital empire around irony, extremism, and racial nationalism. But there’s nothing ironic about what he means when he says “America First.” It’s not just a slogan—it’s a brand he’s tried to monetize, and a banner he raises while praising Adolf Hitler as “cool” and misunderstood like Vladimir Putin.
This isn’t a distortion of the phrase. It’s a return to form.
When “America First” first entered public consciousness in the late 1930s and early 1940s, it wasn’t a cry for unity or protection. It was a shield for isolationism, anti-Semitism, and fascist apologism. The original America First Committee (AFC), founded in 1940 by Yale students (yes, Yale) and backed by prominent businessmen and public figures, gained a following of over 800,000 members before it was disbanded in 1941—four days after Pearl Harbor (the same day, incidentally, that Hitler declared war against the U.S.).
Among its most famous spokesmen was Charles Lindbergh. In a now-infamous September 11, 1941, speech, Lindbergh said: “The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration.”
He warned of Jewish influence in Hollywood, finance, and foreign policy, and accused Jews of dragging America into a war that wasn’t ours to fight. At the time, many mainstream voices condemned Lindbergh’s remarks as anti-Semitic and un-American. But they also revealed the true undercurrents of what “America First” meant to many of its adherents.
This story sounds eerily familiar
Fast-forward 80 years, and a new class of influencers has resurrected the phrase with eerily similar undertones. They use different memes, but the message rhymes: keep the borders closed, trust no outsider, blame the Jews when convenient.
Fuentes is just the most explicit. Others hide it in post-ironic punchlines, white Christian nationalism, and shallow contrarianism masquerading as bravery or “just asking questions.”
What binds them together isn’t strategy. It’s scapegoating.
“America First” then + now: a pattern of exclusion
| Theme | 1940s “America First” | Modern “America First” |
| Blame the outsider | Jews, British, internationalists | Globalists, Zionists, migrants |
| Anti-Interventionist | No aid to Britain, no war with Hitler | No Ukraine/Israel support, soft on Russia |
| Elite-Driven Rhetoric | Lindbergh, industrialists, isolationist press | Influencers, podcasters, online grifters |
| Scapegoating Jews | Explicit in speeches | Implicit in conspiracies, coded language, and “questions” |
| Patriotism as Cover | Flag-waving, anti-Roosevelt, pseudo-neutrality | Flag-waving, anti-woke, pseudo-neutrality |
Why it still matters
When Jewish Americans see “America First” trending again, it’s not paranoia to raise a red flag. History has shown us that when this phrase gets popular, it’s rarely because of actual patriotism. It’s because someone is looking for someone else to blame.
When Jewish Americans see “America First” trending again, it’s not paranoia to raise a red flag.
They blamed us then. Some are blaming us now.
How do we defeat it?
You don’t defeat fascism with think pieces or TED Talks. You defeat it with fortitude, clarity, and better memes. With American flags in one hand and tefillin in the other. You do it by being exactly what makes them nervous: loud, proud, sharp, trained, and unashamedly Jewish and American.
You mock their aesthetic. You remix their talking points. You flood the timeline with images of Jews lifting Torah and dumbbells in the same breath while lecturing everyone on the greatness of Ted Williams and Frederick Douglass. You put Jewish dads in plate carriers and young Jews like Shabbos Kestenbaum on debate stages. You remember that every gaslighting post and “red-pill” thread is a paper tiger compared to a people who have outlived empires.
As I wrote in “The Jewish-American Birthright”: being Jewish in America isn’t a compromise. It’s a power-up. And that power doesn’t come from being accepted. It comes from being undeniable.
You don’t fight hate by playing defense.
You fight it by owning the damn court.
So, the next time someone like the Hodge Twins call you a “damned Jew” while pivoting to the screed of “America First,” smile. And ask them which version? The version of “America First” predicated on ignorance, hate, and believing literally anything you read on the Internet? Or the version of American values first, predicated on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and personal responsibility?
Because putting American values first does not need anybody’s permission. It just needs a basic understanding of what it means to be American. Something about which the “America First” cadre doesn’t know the first thing.
We’re taking back our country, America, because we—the Jews to whom George Washington sent letters to all the way back in 1790—are as American as apple pie and baseball.If we are going to be Americans—proud, strong, bold—we better learn the full story of who’s been claiming that label. Because, if we don’t name the pattern, they’ll keep naming us.
