{"id":885630,"date":"2026-10-17T15:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885630\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:14:11","slug":"key-player-in-false-talarico-rumor-has-history-of-online-posts-invoking-nazi-germany-far-right-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885630\/","title":{"rendered":"Key player in false Talarico rumor has history of online posts invoking Nazi Germany | Far right (US)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An influencer who played a key role in hoax claims<\/a> that James Talarico was in a mental health facility has a long history of social media posts that favorably invoke Nazi Germany<\/a>, express antisemitism<\/a> and anti-Black racism<\/a>, criticize miscegenation<\/a> and call for \u201cremigration\u201d<\/a> of refugees.<\/p>\n

On X, the Lake Oswego, Oregon, resident<\/a> Ryan Amacher, known online as Rhein Amacher, has described Muslims as \u201csub-human\u201d<\/a>, claimed that Black Africans are \u201cmonkeys\u201d with low IQ<\/a>, characterized immigrants as \u201cvermin\u201d<\/a> and expressed support for the far right, including Germany\u2019s AfD<\/a> and the UK\u2019s Tommy Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His attempt to damage Talarico\u2019s campaign with false claims<\/a> about a supposed inpatient admission to an Ohio facility fell apart quickly on Sunday night<\/a>, but not before his claims were boosted by a staffer<\/a> on the campaign of Talarico\u2019s Republican rival, Ken Paxton. Since working for the Trump campaign<\/a> in 2024, he has remained in the milieu of Republican politics<\/a> and rightwing influencers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neither Amacher nor the Paxton campaign responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Last week, Amacher phoned the Lindner Center of Hope<\/a>, a psychiatric hospital in Mason, Ohio, three times, trying to confirm a false rumor that Talarico had been admitted there. The rumor apparently began with a 9 October post<\/a> by an anonymous X account, TickleTexts, which claimed Talarico had been \u201chospitalized at Lindner Center for HOPE\u201d, and was picked up by the Republican fundraiser Caroline Wren, who falsely tied it to a private flight<\/a> between Ohio and Austin. Before calling, Amacher had posted<\/a> as fact that Talarico \u201cwas hospitalized at the @LindnerCtrHope\u201d and tagged the hospital<\/a> asking it to confirm.<\/p>\n

In the full recording<\/a> of the second call, he gives his name as \u201cTim\u201d, says he wants to send a care package to his cousin, and offers a four-digit patient code. \u201cI simply made one up (2244) in an attempt to bypass the facility\u2019s security restrictions to discuss the patient,\u201d he later wrote on X<\/a>. For most of the six-minute call the employee tells him she has no record of Talarico. In its final seconds she says a man that looks like Talarico \u201cwas just discharged this evening\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Senate candidate. Photograph: Joel Angel Juarez\/Reuters<\/p>\n

An excerpt of the recording was incorporated into a 47-second clip that Nick Sortor posted on Sunday afternoon<\/a> under the headline \u201cOhio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week\u201d. Amacher posted his own version<\/a> minutes later, and Elon Musk replied<\/a> with a characteristic \u201c!!\u201d. Amacher had first offered the recording to Blaze Media and the Daily Mail, which reportedly declined to run it<\/a>, and said in an X Space that evening that influencers are \u201cnot held to the same journalistic standards<\/a>\u201d. By Tuesday he had reportedly<\/a> pulled out of an interview with the writer and podcaster Jesse Singal, saying his attorney had given him a \u201cstand down order\u201d.<\/p>\n

The purported legal advice coincides with coverage<\/a> of the fiasco, which has included<\/a> speculation that Amacher\u2019s attempt to access private health information may land him in legal trouble<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previous coverage, however, has not probed Amacher\u2019s long history of extremist commentary.<\/p>\n

\u2018Modern Freikorps volunteers are needed\u2019<\/p>\n

Amacher often invokes Nazi Germany, and the paramilitary movement that preceded it, with apparent admiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1919, Germany\u2019s defeated soldiers came home only to be stabbed in the back by socialists and communists who wanted to burn the nation down and install a Soviet-style dictatorship,\u201d he wrote on 29 July<\/a>, over an AI-generated image of German soldiers beneath Soviet flags beside uniformed men under crescent moons at Berlin\u2019s Brandenburg Gate. In a follow-up post<\/a> he wrote: \u201cModern Freikorps volunteers are needed to step up to purge the German nation of the filth destroying it from within.\u201d An AI-generated image accompanying it showed a masked soldier wearing \u201cFreikorps\u201d and \u201cDeutsches Reich\u201d patches, with the black, white and red flag of imperial Germany flying over the Reichstag.<\/p>\n

The Freikorps<\/a> were paramilitary units of demobilized soldiers that crushed leftwing uprisings in Germany after the first world war. In January 1919, Freikorps troops murdered the communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. In June, Amacher told<\/a> critics to \u201cread up on the German Freikorps after 1919\u2013and what became of Luxemburg and Liebknecht\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory has a way of repeating itself when revolutionary movements collide with a nation pushed to the brink,\u201d he added. The Freikorps are widely seen as an ideological ancestor of Adolf Hitler\u2019s Nazi party, though he later turned against them.<\/p>\n

In July, replying to a post that said \u201cwe fought the wrong enemy in WW2, just like General Patton said before the jews assassinated him in 1945\u201d, Amacher wrote<\/a>: \u201cWe should have immediately re-armed the German Wehrmacht and auxiliary troops and joined forces to defeat Soviet communism, once and for all!\u201d<\/p>\n

A Freikorps unit on the streets in Berlin, circa 1923. Photograph: Universal History Archive\/UIG\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Patton died in December 1945 after a car crash in occupied Germany; conspiratorial claims that he was assassinated have long been debunked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When fellow influencer Cam Higby complained in February that saying Nick Shirley was not a Nazi had led others to call him one, Amacher replied<\/a> that \u201ca colleague\u2019s great-grandfather served as a paramilitary adjunct in Germany\u2019s \u2018other\u2019 military force (not the Wehrmacht)\u201d. He went on: \u201cBy your logic, does that make him a Nazi? Asking for a friend\u2026\u201d and attaching an \u201cOK\u201d emoji.<\/p>\n

He has captioned a photo of a figure skater with her right arm raised \u201cHeil yes!\u201d<\/a> and offered to recruit a man \u201cstraight into my elite Panzer division<\/a>\u201d. Panzer divisions were armored tank units in Nazi Germany\u2019s army. In July 2025 he joked<\/a> that his ancestors \u201cfled to Argentina as well, but way back in 1945, departing from the Deutsches Reich\u201d.<\/p>\n

He has also called for the return of the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, writing<\/a>: \u201cBring back Francisco Franco!\u201d in July under a post claiming that \u201cAfrican military-aged males by the THOUSANDS\u201d were entering the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. And he has praised Germany\u2019s AfD, which the country\u2019s domestic intelligence agency labeled<\/a> a \u201cconfirmed rightwing extremist\u201d force last year. \u201cThe @AfD is the ONLY party left that will actually SAVE Germany from destruction,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in April. \u201cWe will restore traditional German societal norms, identity, and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018He looks like a Jew\u2019<\/p>\n

In January, replying to a post attacking the San Francisco Democrat Scott Wiener, Amacher wrote<\/a>: \u201cHe looks like a Jew\u2013I\u2019m guessing he is a Jew!,\u201d and included a nose emoji.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, after another user wrote of a man that \u201cHe\u2019s also jewish, no surprise there\u201d, Amacher replied<\/a>: \u201cA ginger Jew? Worst of both worlds\u2026\u201d Under a December post blaming Somali Muslims in Minnesota for \u201cthe largest theft of tax payer dollars in American History\u201d, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cBoth peoples are despicable, but the Somalis are ahead of the Jews by far!\u201d<\/p>\n

He has told a pro-Israel account that it was \u201ca hollowed-out puppet dancing on Zionist strings\u201d<\/a> whose loyalty was \u201cto a parasitic regime halfway across the world\u201d, and written<\/a> that \u201cZionist infiltrators have sunk their claws deep into U.S. policy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another recurring subject is George Soros, the Jewish financier who is a frequent target<\/a> of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Amacher has called<\/a> him \u201ca spawn of the Devil himself\u201d, and in February 2025 wrote<\/a> that Soros \u201callegedly turned in his own people during WWII just to save his own skin\u201d, a claim factcheckers have repeatedly debunked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Monkeys typically have an estimated IQ below 70\u2019<\/p>\n

In June, TickleTexts, the anonymous account that started the Talarico rumor, baselessly claimed, \u201cas a born South African\u201d, that \u201csome villages believe r*ping a 6 month old baby girl will cure their AIDS\u201d. Amacher replied<\/a>: \u201cMonkeys typically have an estimated IQ below 70.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replying in January to a post about a Somali asylum seeker who, it claimed, had raped a 10-year-old girl in Denmark, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cSeriously, f*ck international obligations! These people are sub-human animals meant for zoos for viewing purposes only!\u201d In February, he wrote<\/a> that a dog said to have led police in Louisville, Kentucky, to a missing three-year-old had \u201cdemonstrated an intelligence far superior to that of any illegal Somali invader!\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, he credited Nick Shirley, whose videos about Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota<\/a> set off a national panic, with exposing a \u201cmastermind\u201d who, Amacher wrote<\/a>, had \u201cfunded the savage, low-IQ black Tusken Raiders fleecing Minnesota taxpayers\u201d. In January, under a post about Trump\u2019s claim that fraud in Minnesota could reach $80bn, he proposed<\/a> \u201cone-way, remigration flights back to Somalia as starters!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Future super predators in the making\u2019<\/p>\n

In June 2025, after another user told the Hodgetwins, a pair of Black conservative YouTubers, that they were \u201cNO longer welcome\u201d, Amacher wrote<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m waiting for their response of, \u2018hey sorry, blame it on my negro brain!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On 7 October he replied<\/a> to a comment about \u201cthe white girl in the front\u201d of an image: \u201cGetting strong mudshark vibes with that one.\u201d \u201cMudshark\u201d is a racist slur<\/a> for a white woman who partners with Black men.<\/p>\n

Last November, under a post about \u201ca mob of black \u2018kids\u2019\u201d accused of attacking a pregnant woman in Chicago, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cF*cking savages and future super predators in the making!\u201d In May, replying to a post about a weekend of shootings in Chicago, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cYou can\u2019t override biology or selectively breed out the \u2018predator\u2019 gene in certain populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, under a post claiming that \u201cthe biggest scandal in American history\u201d was \u201cconvincing millions of people that Michelle Obama is beautiful\u201d, Amacher wrote<\/a>: \u201cHey now\u2013\u2018BIG Mike\u2019 ain\u2019t playing around! No monkey business here\u2026\u201d The reference to \u201cBig Mike\u201d probably comes from a baseless conspiracy theory<\/a> that Michelle Obama is a man.<\/p>\n

That month, Karmelo Anthony was convicted of murder<\/a> in Texas for the 2025 stabbing of a fellow student, 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. Replying to a video<\/a> of a crowd of Anthony\u2019s supporters, most of them Black, outside the trial, Amacher wrote<\/a>: \u201cI hope none of these animals breed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Remigration is the ONLY answer\u2019<\/p>\n

Since November 2025, Amacher has used the word \u201cremigration\u201d in more than 30 posts. The term, promoted by Europe\u2019s far right<\/a>, describes the mass deportation of migrants; plans discussed at a meeting in Potsdam attended by AfD members included people with German citizenship. Last month Germany\u2019s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, accused<\/a> the AfD of pursuing an \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word for 2026 is remigration!\u201d Amacher posted<\/a> in January. Asked by another user in November 2025 what should happen to Muslims in America, he replied<\/a>: \u201cRemigration to native homelands for those with insufficient loyalties.\u201d In April he shared<\/a> an AfD video with the comment: \u201cRemigration is the ONLY answer\u2013great video by the @AfD!\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, under a post complaining about the Muslim call to prayer in Dearborn, Michigan, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cThese sub-humans must be forcibly extracted from America and shipped off in crates back to the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also cheered Jake Lang, a pardoned January 6 rioter<\/a> who has led anti-Muslim protests. Replying last November to a post about clashes between Muslim residents and Christian protesters in Dearborn, where rightwing influencers have staged anti-Islam rallies<\/a>, Amacher wrote<\/a>: \u201cJake is the general leading our generation\u2019s Crusade to save our nation\u2019s cultural identity and heritage. Brave, fearsome, and ready to drive out the foreign invaders!\u201d When Lang led a protest in Plano, Texas, in December \u201cagainst the Islamic takeover of America\u201d, Amacher tagged him<\/a> in a post calling him \u201cthe leader for the next Crusades!\u201d On 21 December he wrote<\/a> that he had texted Lang to confirm he was \u201cnot Jewish\u201d. Earlier this month, he posted<\/a>: \u201cWe need another Crusades\u2013except on our own home turf!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake Lang in Bridgeview, Illinois, on 4 October. Photograph: Chris Riha\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Two national guard members were shot in Washington DC<\/a> last November, and an Afghan man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was arrested as the suspect. That evening Amacher wrote<\/a> that the attacker \u201cshould be publicly executed in Lafayette Square using bacon grease, with the entire nation watching\u201d. He added: \u201cThis will send a clear message to third world invaders that we will not tolerate their presence!\u201d<\/p>\n

Other posts urge that migrants be shot, or rounded up by ordinary citizens. Under a June 2025 post by the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson about a defaced statue of Joan of Arc in Paris, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cThese invaders don\u2019t deserve deportation\u2013better yet, shoot them and save the cost!\u201d This June he wrote<\/a> that \u201cthose uncivilized savages can leave Britain on their own\u2013or be removed at gunpoint by a mob of furious native Britons\u201d.<\/p>\n

Replying in April to Nick Sortor\u2019s post that \u201chard choices are going to have to be made soon\u201d, he wrote<\/a> that if the federal government would not deport \u201cthese third-world invaders, then we, the American people, will have no choice but to hunt them down ourselves, round them up like the illegal trash they are, and throw their asses back across the border where they belong!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBounty hunters get paid to track down bail jumpers and hand them over,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in July. \u201cWe should be able to do the exact same thing with illegal immigrants\u2013hunt them down, turn them in to @ICEgov, and get rewarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public records show Amacher has used two first names. Oregon business filings list Ryan David Amacher, at a house in Lake Oswego, as the registered agent<\/a> of Amacher & Company LLC, formed in 2012. In 2018, a letter from \u201cRyan Amacher\u201d calling for the repeal of US immigration law drew a rebuttal<\/a> in the Lake Oswego Review. By 2024 he was signing himself Rhein: federal campaign finance records list \u201cRhein Amacher\u201d, at the same address, as the company\u2019s president<\/a>, and his columns<\/a> in the Review now carry that name. Last year a Portland police dispatcher logged<\/a> a call from \u201cRYAN AMACHER\u201d at the city\u2019s ICE facility, while officers ran a records check on \u201cRhein David\u201d Amacher. The Daily Mail has reported<\/a> that his \u201creal name is Ryan\u201d.<\/p>\n

Until now, Amacher has been a lower-tier player<\/a> in a rightwing influencer economy whose currency includes live streams of contentious events<\/a>, tendentious coverage of perceived political foes<\/a>, and disinformation campaigns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even now, his social media following is relatively modest. His biggest platform is X, where his follower count (about 35,000) is dwarfed by those of similar rightwing creators such as Nick Shirley (1.8m), Nick Sortor (1.6m) and Katie Daviscourt (512,000).<\/p>\n

His first brushes with broader notoriety<\/a> came during anti-ICE protests in his native<\/a> Portland, Oregon, last year, when his antagonism toward protesters<\/a> extended to the self-confessed theft of leaf blowers<\/a> and other items<\/a> from an abandoned protest camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n