Donald Trump is the chief figurehead of the radical right’s ongoing war on American democracy, the authoritarian leader around whom their political aspirations revolve. But he is not the general—the man who organizes the troops, feeds them the requisite propaganda, and deploys them strategically to undermine democratic institutions at every level. That role belongs to Michael Flynn.
A recent deep dive into Flynn’s leadership in the MAGA movement’s drive to regain and permanently seize power in America by the Associated Press and PBS Frontline exposed the breadth and depth of Flynn’s work to unite evangelical Christians with QAnon-fueled Trumpist conspiracism using election denialism as their primary culture war fodder. Flynn himself manifested the strategy he is deploying—to elect MAGA politicians to office at every level, beginning with local institutions like city councils and school boards—this weekend in Florida by signing on as a local GOP committeeman and volunteer “poll watcher.”
Flynn is “one of the most dangerous individuals in America today,” historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat told the Associated Press’ Michelle R. Smith. “He is spearheading the attack on our democracy, which is coming from many quarters, and he is affiliated with many of these sectors, from the military to Christian nationalism to election denial to extremist groups. All of this comes together to present a very live threat. And he’s at the center.”
The 63-year-old retired lieutenant general was briefly Trump’s director of national intelligence until he was caught lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador, for which he was both fired and then convicted of the felony, but later pardoned by Trump in November 2020, after the election. The pardon appears to have had the effect of unleashing Flynn as general of MAGA’s endless insurrection.
The Associated Press/Frontline investigation found that Flynn has used a seemingly endless parade of public appearances, usually accompanied by a long slate of likeminded right-wing “celebrity” speakers, designed to energize Trump voters—more than 60 in-person appearances in 24 states—with a broad array of hysterical conspiracy theories and fearmongering. These events bring factions like the Proud Boys, COVID denialists, Christian nationalists, and insurrectionists together with elected officials and Republican Party leaders and candidates.
Simultaneously, he has built a network of nonprofit groups, including one with $50 million in projected spending. In the process, the Associated Press and Frontline documented, Flynn and his companies have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for his efforts.
His primary vehicle is the ReAwaken America tour that has been holding events around the country. Organized by far-right “alpha male” Clay Clark, the rallies—often held in megachurches—feature long rosters of well-known right-wing political and evangelical speakers, including Trump’s son Eric, My Pillow executive Mike Lindell, notorious homophobe Sean Feucht, and a host of others.
One such event held in April in the Salem, Oregon, a suburb of Keizer, drew a crowd of 4,000 people. It was a nonstop circus of right-wing conspiracism and Christian nationalism. At one point, Flynn introduced a video appearance from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the onetime Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., who launched into a pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine rant. Viganò told the audience (as he has done elsewhere) that the Russian military is actually preventing deep state aggression and combatting the “globalist cabal.” He also claimed that the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion were present at the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.
Flynn covers a broad range of culture war hotspots in his speeches, reeling off crowd-pleasing one-liners with heavy religious overtones. He often tells audiences that America is in the midst of a “spiritual war” and lists a number of democratic institutions and principles as “the enemy.”
His brand of Christian nationalism is moreover decidedly authoritarian. Speaking to a Texas audience on the ReAwaken America tour last November, he explained that his idea of national unity involved everyone thinking and worshiping in exactly the same way.
“If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion,” Flynn said. “One nation under God and one religion under God, right? All of us, working together.”
He has claimed a nefarious “globalist” cabal created COVID-19 and tells his audiences that there are 75 members of the Socialist Party in Congress. Flynn tells audiences he doesn’t trust the U.S. government or government institutions that oversee the rule of law and claims Democrats are trying to destroy the country.
“The people that are in charge of our government right now, they are intentionally trying to destroy our country,” he said at one rally. “These people, they’re not incompetent. They’re not stupid. They’re evil!”
Flynn also calls the media “the number 1 enemy,” claiming it has done a “horrible, horrible disservice to the country by just constantly lying and trying to deceive us.” Public elementary schools, he claims, are teaching “filth” and “pornography.” He called the left “our enemies” and said they are “godless” and “soulless.”
But a primary focus of these rallies is election denialism. At a rally in Utah’s Salt Palace Convention Center, Flynn declared once again that Trump had won the 2020 election and said “our government is corrupt.”
Flynn—who was a participant in the Dec. 20, 2020 meeting with Trump at the White House to plan ways to prevent Joe Biden from assuming the presidency, including Flynn’s suggestion that Trump use the military to seize ballot boxes—repeatedly tells ReAwaken America audiences that the election was rigged against Trump, and that moreover Biden’s ascension constituted “a moment of crisis” for America. He tells audiences the election system is “totally broken,” and blames both Democratic “socialists” and establishment Republicans “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only).
His solution is the key to his unfolding strategy: Go local. Flynn, who touts the adage that “local action has national impact,” tells audiences that “people at the county level have the ability to change this country.” He explains that elected county commissioners could write more restrictive voting laws, and that elected sheriffs could enforce those laws—which happens to mesh neatly with the strategy currently under way by “constitutionalist sheriffs” and their Trumpist allies, who are also advocating the seizure of voting machines.
“We need to take this country back one town at a time, one county at a time, one state at a time, if that’s what it takes,” he told a crowd in Salt Lake City.
Flynn began working in earnest to expand MAGA power at the local level in May 2021 after he became chairman of America’s Future, the longtime paleoconservative organizing nonprofit cofounded by Phyllis Schlafly. He promptly partnered with Charlie Kirk’s far-right campus group, Turning Point USA, and others to form a large coalition they named County Citizens Defending Freedom USA (CCDFUSA), which describes itself as “an organization that empowers and equips American citizens to defend their freedoms and liberties at the local level.”
While it has sponsored an array of training programs, protests, and candidate meetings with a focus on mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and critical race theory, CCDFUSA so far has not spread widely. All of its affiliates to date are located in only three states: Texas, Georgia, and Florida.
Flynn’s actions last week in Sarasota, Florida, demonstrated that he intends to lead by example. On Thursday evening, Flynn was sworn in as one of several dozen new members of the local GOP executive committee. He also signed up to be a “poll watcher.”
Flynn was elected by voice vote at the Morgan Family Community Center in Northport, Florida, alongside James Hoel, a local leader of the Proud Boys. Hoel and another Proud Boy, Nicholas Radovich, took active roles in turning the Sarasota County School Board from a longstanding 3-2 liberal majority to a 4-1 far-right body in its Aug. 23 election. Radovich was photographed the victory party flashing a white power sign while dressed in a Proud Boys hat and T-shirt.
The Facebook page for Sarasota Watchdogs, which is associated with Hoel and the Proud Boys, ran photos of Flynn along with his newly elected colleagues. “Congratulations to all the new Sarasota Republican Executive Club members!” the page said. “This is local action at its best! For the first time in a long time, families are involved and excited! Please message us for an application to get involved at the October meeting! Fighting for our freedoms in Florida...we will hold the line! Prayers and love to each of the 50 plus new members.”
“As long as I got a breath left in me, I am going to continue to push this message of local action and national impact,” Flynn said later. “And now I, now I wanna be able to tell people when they say, when somebody says, well, are you doing, what are you doing specifically? I'm gonna, I am now part of the Republican executive committee for the Sarasota, GOP. And I also am volunteering to be a poll watcher in the upcoming elections, particularly in this county, in the state of Florida.”
The “poll watching” operations are part of this local strategy. Another Flynn operation financed by Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne called the America Project has created affiliate groups in at least nine states as part of its “Operation Eagles Wings.”
Last month, its Florida affiliate announced on Facebook that it’s seeking “America First Poll Watchers,” offering free training to interested groups. This training includes grassroots social activism, poll-watching, and get-out-the-vote efforts. Promotional material for the sessions says it will to teach participants to “expose weaknesses,” “monitor and evaluate absentee voting,” and conduct “investigative canvassing.”
Sarasota attorney Ron Filipkowski, a longtime Republican activist, told the Associated Press that this latest move was just part of Flynn’s larger plan. “He’s going to build this grassroots movement, local elected officials beholden to him, loyal to him,” Filipkowski said.
Flynn’s detachment from reality would, in a normal political environment, relegate him to the fringes of American politics. The problem is that so many other people are similarly detached. Polls and surveys regularly demonstrate that millions of Americans, nearly all of them Republicans, believe what Flynn says.
“Any of these factors alone could be considered dangerous. But all of them together and the distrust it is sowing in our democracy,” Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of history at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told the Associated Press. “I think it’s extremely dangerous in this moment.”
Du Mez says that Flynn’s dualistic rhetoric positing a war between good and evil has long been a staple among conservative Christians. It also can foment violence.
“They’re out to get us. Therefore, we need to strike first. And the threat is always dire,” Du Mez says in describing their logic. “And if the threat is dire, then the ends justify the means. These values are not unconnected from the violence that we saw on Jan. 6,” she added.