Is this a MAGA Militia or a Clown Car?

Donald Trump has hailed those locked up for Jan. 6 as “patriots,” “hostages,” and even “warriors.” 

He may want to add “militiamen” to that list. 

Jake Lang is a defendant in a long-delayed trial for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He’s accused of multiple violent crimes, with charges ranging from an “act of physical violence in a Capitol building” to “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, inflicting bodily injury” — as well as “obstruction of an official proceeding” and “civil disorder.” 

Lang has used his extended pretrial detention to raise his MAGA-world celebrity — as well as a ton of cash. A GiveSendGo fund he controls has raked in more than $500,000, ostensibly for the legal defense of “January 6 Patriots.” (The monies raised through the site and by check go to Lang, personally.) He maintains his innocence, and his X.com handle identifies him as a “January 6 Political Prisoner.”

Lang is now attempting to launch a nationwide militia network from his jail cell in Brooklyn. The group debuted in early June with incendiary branding — as the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, or NAPALM USA. (The formation of the group was first reported on by Media Matters.) 

As a paramilitary force, Lang’s militia may be more intimidating in high concept than in physical reality. Its launch has been dogged by inflated membership rolls; supposed group leaders saying they have nothing to do with the militia; a canceled Instagram account; and by a militia name so cringe that it has already been discarded. 

Yet in a phone interview from jail, Lang tells Rolling Stone that he’s on a divine and patriotic mission: “God put into my heart to get the ball rolling,” he says, adding that by starting a new militia he’s just following “an order given to us by our founding fathers.” 

Lang disputed that the militia’s launch has been a mess. “I don’t believe it’s been sloppy,” he says. “From the basement of a prison cell, which I’ve been held in most of three years, we’ve had a beautiful launch.” Lang also sought to knock down right-wing rumors that he’s working with the feds, or that his militia organizing is a trap for would-be extremists. “My integrity stands before God,” he says. “Why would they let a federal asset be tortured in solitary confinement for years in end?”

The MAGA-oriented militia presents itself like a shinier version of the Oath Keepers. Its mission statement declares (with idiosyncratic punctuation): “We The People, to Uphold The Constitution: will Protect America from Any Enemy. Foreign or Domestic.” The bylaws call on members to be “proficient in firearms” and prepared to be “activated” in times of “Constitutional emergency, tyrannical oppression, or when called upon to assist U.S. Government authorities in the defense of the nation.” 

The original militia logo featured a mushroom-cloud fireball. (Napalm is a sticky flaming gel that was frequently airdropped against enemy troops during World War II and the Vietnam War.)

NAPALM USA touted among its “National Leadership Council” a who’s who of the conspiratorial, loudmouth, and self-promoting right — with Lang as national chairman, the virulently antisemitic shock jock Stew Peters as communications chief, and another Rumble streamer Peter Santilli (best known as a bit player from the Bundy-family federal faceoffs) as strategic operations director. 

However, the militia homepage also listed a bevy of other right-wing celebs who soon disappeared from the site, including Silk (of Diamond and Silk fame), who was named as national recruiting coordinator; Florida GOP congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini, who was listed as general counsel; as well as Richard Mack founder of the Constitutional Sheriff movement, which alleges county sheriffs can override federal and state law in their jurisdictions. Of the three, only Mack responded to Rolling Stone’s questions, insisting of his claimed NAPALM affiliation: “It was a mistake! I had them remove my photo and my name.”

Even Peters does not seem to have his heart in the fight. The supposed NAPALM communications chief gave a response to questions about the militia through his own media rep, who texted a bland statement: “Stew is an ardent supporter of the J6 political prisoners and was happy to lend a hand when asked to do so.” When Rolling Stone asked if Peters was actively involved (and noted it was odd for Peters to be outsourcing his message-man duties to a deputy), the rep responded only with a laughing emoji. 

Jon Lewis is a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He does not judge Lang’s militia as a clear-and-present danger, at least for now. “I think Jake is a grifter who’s trying to appeal to the absolute lowest common denominator,” he says. “This is the guy who has somehow stayed relevant by claiming he’s like the OG political prisoner.” (In an interview with Rolling Stone, Santilli defended Lang against Lewis’ allegation. “Jake has not grifted. He’s done the most selfless work of any other January 6 patriot.”)

Lewis adds that there’s lots of wishcasting in Lang’s militia launch. “I think he would love it to be a real thing,” he says. “I just think Lang doesn’t have the wherewithal to become the next Stewart Rhodes from his jail cell.” (Rhodes was the founder of the Oath Keepers, now imprisoned for seditious conspiracy for his role in the events of Jan. 6 and beyond.)

Lewis emphasizes, however, that Lang’s attempt to mobilize a militia should be taken seriously — as emblematic of a lurking danger from the MAGA far right. “It’s just the latest in this string of warning signs that this movement is ready and is primed for violence.”

Lang’s militia brags of “20,000+ members” including “active sheriffs, former military, farmers & pastors!” But extremism experts consulted by WIRED suggest that figure may be inflated by nearly a factor of ten. The militia’s branding also didn’t seem to, ahem, catch fire with the masses. At the end of last week, Lang ditched the NAPALM name, renaming the group the America First Constitutional Militia, or AFCM. 

Lang explained to Rolling Stone that while he liked the “marketing effect” of NAPALM, he was ultimately convinced the rebranding would create “broader, mass appeal” and make the militia look less “aggressive” he said, “because we are a defensive organization.” As the rebrand was announced, Patrick Byrne, the onetime Overstock.com CEO turned far-right gadfly, filmed a bizarre promo for the group while wearing a leather jacket, and speaking from a dark bridge, in an unnamed city in Europe.

Lang’s militia is organizing through a series of 50 state-based Telegram channels. It promises that new recruits will be contacted and vetted promptly. This reporter joined several of the channels but did not hear back from anyone. The only messaging in the channels has been a note about the rebrand, which concluded with three eagle emojis and the slogan: “Freedom isn’t Free.”

Neither Lang, nor his deputy Santilli, would give Rolling Stone a firm count of how many folks are actually engaged in the militia. When pressed, Lang said the follower counts of the Telegram channel were an “accurate” metric for judging the size of the operation.

Rolling Stone totaled up the membership of the Telegram channels last week — summing to about 13,000. That’s a far cry from the 20,000 or more claimed on the militia homepage. But even these Telegram membership numbers look peculiar. 

The militia website provides signup links organized, alphabetically, by state. And the Telegram group membership for states swells the deeper you get in the alphabet. To wit: From Alabama to Montana the state militia groups have a very narrow band of followers — ranging from 141 to 182 — despite massive differences in population sizes between e.g. Alaska and California. 

Moving down the alphabet, the membership range starts to jump to between 400 and 600 members. Closing out the alphabet, Vermont and a trio of W states — Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming — all have more than 500 members.

Such fake-it-til-you make it energy is still capable of posing a danger to democracy, of course. Lewis, the extremism expert, says he doesn’t expect Lang’s militia to become the literal “flag bearers for the next January 6.” But he does describe the effort as “a symptom of the disease.”

“We should be very concerned about how willing a significant subset of the population is to embrace the idea of political violence,” he says, “against ‘the enemy’ who has been positioned as subhuman, and as somehow less than this loyal army of patriots who are going to fight and die for this country.”