White nationalists gather in Washington during July 4th celebrations

Washington / New YorkThis Saturday, a handful of masked men from a recognized supremacist group marched through Washington shouting "Reclaim America!". The gathering —held as the US capital prepared for the main events of its 250th anniversary— was brief and, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police Department, they left the city shortly before 11 a.m.

The members wore brown baseball caps marked with the logo of the white supremacist group Patriot Front, which includes a ring of 13 white stars referencing the early American colonies. They also carried several flags, including the Confederate battle flag. The Patriot Front is known for calling for the United States to become an ethnically white nation.

The group — which in 2017 split from another white nationalist organization, Vanguard America — organizes high-profile demonstrations, almost always in the same uniform: dark shirts, khaki pants, work boots, and white masks. Furthermore, as Mary McCord, former deputy assistant attorney general for national security during the Obama and Trump administrations, explains, their logos include images reminiscent of Italian fascist symbols.