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THE ‘SACRED’ PLEDGE THAT WILL POWER THE RELAUNCH OF FAR-RIGHT
MILITIA OATH KEEPERS  
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Alexander Lowie
December 29, 2025
The Conversation
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_ What does the Rhodes interview indicate about the future of Oath
Keepers? _

Enrique Tarrio, left, former leader of the far-right group the Proud
Boys, shakes hands with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in
Washington on Feb. 21, 2025., Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

 

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers
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a far-right militia, announced in November 2025
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relaunch the group after it disbanded following his prison sentence in
2023
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Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy
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and other crimes committed during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6,
2021.

In January 2025, President Donald Trump granted clemency
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to the over 1,500 defendants convicted of crimes connected to the
storming of the Capitol.

Trump did not pardon Rhodes – or some others found guilty of the
most serious crimes on Jan. 6. He instead commuted Rhodes’ sentence
to time served
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Commutation only reduces the punishment
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full pardon erases a conviction.

As a political anthropologist
[[link removed]] I study the Patriot
movement
[[link removed]],
a collection of anti-government right-wing groups
[[link removed]] that include the Proud
Boys
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Oath Keepers and Moms for Liberty
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I specialize in alt-right
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beliefs, and I have interviewed people active in groups that
participated in the Capitol riot.

Rhodes’ plans to relaunch the Oath Keepers, largely composed of
current and former military veterans and law enforcement officers
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is important because it will serve as an outlet for those who have
felt lost since his imprisonment. The group claimed it had over 40,000
dues-paying members
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at the height of its membership during Barack Obama’s presidency. I
believe that many of these people will return to the group, empowered
by the lack of any substantial punishment resulting from the pardons
for crimes committed on Jan. 6.

In my interviews, I’ve found that military veterans are treated as
privileged members of the Patriot movement. They are honored for their
service and military training. And that’s why I believe many former
Oath Keepers will rejoin the group – they are considered integral
members.

Their oaths to serving the Constitution and the people of the United
States are treated as sacred, binding members to an ideology that
leads to action. This action includes supporting people in conflicts
against federal agencies
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organizing citizen-led disaster relief efforts
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Jan. 6. The members’ strength results from their shared oath and the
reverence they feel toward keeping it.

Who are the Oath Keepers?

Rhodes joined the Army after high school and served for three years
before being honorably discharged after a parachuting accident in 1986
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He then attended the University of Nevada and later graduated from
Yale Law School in 2004. He founded the Oath Keepers
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in 2009.

Oath Keepers takes its name from the U.S military Oath of Enlistment,
which states [[link removed]]:

“I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and
that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States
…”

[Several men wearing hats cheer in front of a federal building.]
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From left, Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers, and Enrique
Tarrio, Joe Biggs and Zach Rehl, members of the far-right group the
Proud Boys, rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 21, 2025. Chip
Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Informed by his law background, Rhodes places a particular emphasis on
the part of the oath that states they will defend the Constitution
against all enemies, foreign and domestic [[link removed]].

He developed a legal theory that justifies ignoring what he refers to
as “unlawful orders” after witnessing the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina
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Following the natural disaster, local law enforcement was assigned the
task of confiscating guns, many of which officers say were stolen or
found in abandoned homes [[link removed]].

Rhodes was alarmed, believing that the Second Amendment rights of
citizens were being violated. Because of this, he argued
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enforcement backgrounds had a legal duty to refuse what the group
considers unlawful orders, including any that violated
constitutionally protected rights, such as the right to bear arms.

In the Oath Keepers’ philosophy, anyone who violates these rights
are domestic enemies to the Constitution. And if you follow the
orders, you’ve violated your oath
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Explaining the origin of the group on the right-wing website “The
Gateway Pundit [[link removed]]”
in November 2025, Rhodes said: “… we were attacked out of the
gate, labeled anti-government, which is absurd because we’re
defending the Constitution that established the federal government. We
were labeled anti-government extremists, all kinds of nonsense because
the elites want blind obedience in the police and military.”

Rebuilding and restructuring

In 2022, the nonprofit whistleblower site Distributed Denial of
Secrets [[link removed]] leaked more than 38,000 names on the
Oath Keepers’ membership list
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The Anti-Defamation League estimated
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that nearly 400 of the names were active law enforcement officers, and
that over 100 were serving in the military. Some of these members were
investigated
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by their workplaces but never disciplined for their involvement with
the group.

Some members who were not military or law enforcement did lose their
jobs over their affiliation. But they held government-related
positions, such as a Wisconsin alderman
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who resigned after he was identified as a member.

This breach of privacy, paired with the dissolution of the
organization after Rhodes’ sentencing, will help shape the group
going forward.

In his interview with “The Gateway Pundit
[[link removed]],” where he
announced the group’s relaunch, Rhodes said: “I want to make it
clear, like I said, my goal would be to make it more cancel-proof than
before. We’ll have resilient, redundant IT that makes it really
difficult to take down. … And I want to make sure I get – put
people in charge and leadership everywhere in the country so that, you
know, down the road, if I’m taken out again, that it can still live
on under good leadership without me being there.”

There was a similar shift in organizational structure with the Proud
Boys in 2018. That’s when their founder, Gavin McInnes, stepped away
from the organization
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His departure came after a group of Proud Boys members were involved
in a fight with anti-fascists in New York
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[Several men dressed in military gear stand in front of a federal
building.]
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Members of the Oath Keepers stand on the East Front of the U.S.
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File
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Prosecutors wanted to try the group as a gang
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McInnes, therefore, distanced himself to support their defense that
they weren’t in a gang or criminal organization. Ultimately, two of
the members were sentenced to four years in prison
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attempted gang assault charges.

Some Proud Boys members have told me they have since focused on
creating local chapters, with in-person recruitment, that communicate
on private messaging apps. They aim to protect themselves from legal
classification as a gang. It also makes it harder for investigators or
activist journalists to monitor them.

This is referred to as a cell style of organization
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which is popular with insurgency groups. These groups
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are organized to rebel against authority and overthrow government
structures. The cell organizational style does not have a robust
hierarchy but instead produces smaller groups. They all adhere to the
same ideology but may not be directly associated.

They may have a leader, but it’s often acknowledged that they are
merely a figurehead, not someone giving direct orders. For the Proud
Boys, this would be former leader Enrique Tarrio
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Proud Boys members I’ve spoken to have referred to him as a
“mascot” and not their leader.

Looking ahead

So what does the Rhodes interview indicate about the future of Oath
Keepers?

Members will continue supporting Trump while also recruiting more
retired military and law enforcement officers. They will create an
organizational structure designed to outlive Rhodes. And based on my
interactions with the far-right, I believe it’s likely they will
create an organizational structure similar to that of the cell style
for organizing.

Beyond that, they are going to try to own their IT, which includes
hosting their websites [[link removed]] and also using
trusted online revenue generators [[link removed]].

This will likely provide added security, protecting their membership
rolls while making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to
investigate them in the future.[The Conversation]

Alexander Lowie
[[link removed]],
Postdoctoral associate in Classical and Civic Education, _University
of Florida_
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This article is republished from The Conversation
[[link removed]] under a Creative Commons license. Read
the original article
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* Presidential Pardons
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* Fascism
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* law enforcement
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* Donald Trump
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* U.S. Military
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* U.S. Constitution
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* Alt-Right
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* Proud Boys
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* Oath Keepers
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