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Key Points
National Socialist Front (NSF) is a small neo-Nazi group based primarily in Florida.
After rebranding as a national group in late 2023, NSF formed a new chapter on the central coast of California.
NSF openly promotes antisemitism, fascism and white supremacy through online posts, in-person demonstrations and propaganda distributions.
NSF’s demonstrations and propaganda primarily target the Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities.
Overview
National Socialist Front (NSF), formerly known as NatSoc Florida, is a small neo-Nazi group primarily based in northeast Florida.
NSF openly promotes antisemitism, fascism and white supremacy through online posts, in-person demonstrations and propaganda distributions. As their name suggests, NSF actively spreads and advocates for neo-Nazi ideology and largely directs its vitriol at Jewish people and the LGBTQ+ community.
In November 2023, NSF announced a rebrand as part of an effort to create a nationwide white supremacist collective. Part of this rebranding was the name change to National Socialist Front, dropping “Florida” to broaden the group’s national presence. By January 2024, it was announced that NSF began a new chapter in California (NSF-CA).
NSF demonstrators wearing apparel bearing the group’s logo, which consists of the letter “N,” a sowilo rune (often used as SS bolts) and a Wolfsangel rune, to spell “NSF.”
Origins
National Socialist Front was founded in early 2022 as NatSoc Florida by Joshua Dan Nunes of Jacksonville, Florida and Garret Erwin Newman of Macclenny, Florida. Both are self-proclaimed veterans; a “semper fidelis”-themed business registered to both Nunes and Newman suggests they may have served in the U.S. Marine Corps, but ADL was unable to confirm this.
Josh Nunes (left) and Garrett Newman (right)
Nunes says he modeled NSF after other well-established neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. and abroad. His inspirations include the New England-based Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131) and the Australia-based National Socialist Network (NSN). NSN is led by white supremacist Thomas Sewell, who Nunes claims was a mentor and advisor while he was establishing NSF.
Writing on Telegram in July 2022, Nunes stated, “I have to offer special thanks to @TomSewell… I've probably annoyed this Aussie more than anyone in this movement with constant questions and advice… NatSoc Florida will not soon forget the help of the Great White Aussie. Hail Tom Sewell!” In another Telegram post from September 2022, Nunes claimed, “I tip my hat to groups like NSC-131 and NSN for lighting the torch and illuminating the path forward. Nothing will stop us from achieving our goal of exposing the jewish [sic] plot against the white race.”
Ideology
NSF’s ideology centers around the most extreme version of the "The Great Replacement" theory -- the belief that white Americans are being replaced by non-whites via immigration and birth rates, all orchestrated by Jews. NSF advocates for the “preservation” of the white population in America; the group’s primary goal is to ensure that white people “will not be genocided [sic].” This ideology is reflected in NSF propaganda, which calls for white men to “wake up” and acknowledge that they are “being replaced.”
Image tweeted by Josh Nunes - May 2024.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism is a central part of NSF ideology. While NSF holds protests focusing on a variety of issues, such as “Communism” and abortion, their ideology is always filtered through a distinctly antisemitic lens, portraying Jewish people as plotters and instigators sowing divisions among white people in the U.S.
In July 2022, Nunes posted on Telegram that “we [white people] owe absolutely nothing to the jews [sic] that subvert us. We owe absolutely nothing to these subhuman monkeys that bleed our countries dry,” and “the jew [sic] is a lowly creature at best. Europeans united easily smash these weak faggots.”
Following the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against Israel, NSF printed t-shirts with “FUCK ISRAEL” and silhouettes of crossed AK-47s and parachuting terrorists. An image of one of the shirts posted on Telegram was captioned, “The Israeli people deserve zero sympathy.” and, “They deserve everything that is happening to them right now. I sincerely hope that Hezbollah and the Taliban are able to make it to the fight.”
In February 2023, approximately 10 individuals associated with NSF participated in a protest organized by the antisemitic Goyim Defense League outside the Daytona International Speedway, unfurling antisemitic banners on a pedestrian bridge that read: "Communism is Jewish” and “Henry Ford was right about the Jews.”
NSF has directed much of its antisemitism at ADL. In a June 2022 Telegram post, Nunes said that people connected to ADL and antifa will be hanged and added that seeing “ADL hanging at the end of a rope” would make him and his associates “very happy.” In late October 2023, approximately 15 members of NSF demonstrated along a public road in Lady Lake, Florida. Mostly dressed in black shirts, khaki pants and wearing face masks emblazoned with the “NSF” logo, participants held banners that read, “Ban the ADL,” “No more wars for Israel” and “Our tax $ fund Israeli bloodlust.”
NSF members protesting in Lady Lake, Florida in October 2023.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Ideology
Anti-LGBTQ+ narratives are also central in NSF’s ideology and rhetoric. The group regularly promotes “groomer” conspiracy theories alleging that members of the LGBTQ+ community are pedophiles seeking to sexualize children. In a January 2023 interview with National Public Radio, Nunes claimed that anti-drag hysteria has helped NSF’s recruitment efforts. Later that month, NSF amplified this hysteria by using a laser projector to display an anti-LGBTQ+ message on the side of the Wells Fargo corporate offices in Jacksonville. Afterwards, a small group of NSF members went to the headquarters of national transportation supplier CSX to project a large, intertwined swastika and cross.
Although NSF was previously known for these projections and others like them (often displaying white supremacist and antisemitic rhetoric), this tactic has been in decline. Several Florida municipalities, including Jacksonville, passed ordinances making it illegal to project messages on structures without the owner’s consent.
January 2023, NSF projecting swastika and cross on the side of CSX headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida.
In June 2022, individuals associated with NSF held an antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ demonstration outside of Hamburger Mary's — a drag-themed restaurant — in Jacksonville, wearing shirts with swastikas and holding signs that read: “Child groomers work here,” “Fags groom kids,” “Grooming progress” and “Judaism allows child rape.” Videos of the incident show NSF members harassing the restaurant’s patrons. The group also distributed anti-LGBTQ+ flyers in several Jacksonville neighborhoods.
Activity and Tactics
NSF engages in highly visible public demonstrations, propaganda distributions and private gatherings often focused on fitness.
NSF holds public demonstrations several times a year. Typically, a dozen or so participants will stand along a road or overpass and hold antisemitic and white supremacist banners and flags. The group’s private gatherings are slightly larger and may include a family gathering at a local park or private home.
Members also gather for fitness training and sparring. NSF created its own Active Club in 2023. Active Clubs embrace a subculture inspired by European white supremacist groups focused on mixed martial arts fight clubs that see themselves as fighters training for an ongoing war against a system they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race.
Early in its inception, NSF focused heavily on propaganda distributions. Those efforts decreased significantly after the passing of Florida’s House Bill 269, which toughened the penalties for distributing propaganda when the intention is to intimidate, threaten or harass people based on religion or ethnicity.
Unrestricted by Florida laws, NSF’s California chapter distributed propaganda throughout San Luis Obispo and Los Osos in January and May of 2024, respectively. Distributions included fliers titled “Stand Against Zionism,” which condemned the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023.
Propaganda distributed by NSF in California in May 2024.