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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) defines hate groups as organizations who "vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.” The FBI uses a similar definition of a hate crime. 

In 2019, the SPLC compiled a hate group list of 940 hate groups across the U.S. According to the SPLC, during Trump’s presidency, white nationalist hate groups in the U.S. increased 55%. Why? Because Trump’s racist rhetoric played a large part in encouraging violence in America, and there is substantial evidence that Trump has encouraged racism and benefitted politically from it. The January 6 pro-Trump riot at the U.S. capitol, or something akin to it, was inevitable.  

Trump's legacy — expanded and emboldened hate groups.