WaPo: Trump’s Support from ‘Ultra-Nationalist Biker Gang’ Mirrors Putin

From Ishaan Tharoor writing at The Washington Post:

Groups such as Bikers for Trump have sprung up as a kind of volunteer security force, bent on protecting the candidate and his supporters from leftist protesters. They are joined by other organizations, such as Lions of Trump, whose website quotes the fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as inspiration.

The phenomenon of biker gangs mixing with ultranationalism, of course, is not simply an American one. In fact, perhaps the most successful convergence of bikers and power politics can be found thousands of miles away in Russia, a putative adversary.

President Vladimir Putin has for many years cultivated a muscular nationalism, beginning with his own bare-chested persona. Right-wing Russian nationalist biker gangs have flocked to Putin’s banner. Most famously, a hard-core group known as the Night Wolves has comported itself as Putin’s hog-riding vanguard.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.