Rick Wiles (born August 20, 1953) is a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

American

conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

, and

Christian fundamentalist Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British an ...

senior

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

at the

non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism, Baháʼí Faith, Zoro ...

Flowing Streams Church. He is the founder of '' TruNews,'' a website promoting

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

, and

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

. Wiles has said that

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

seek to obtain control of countries to "kill millions of

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

", and has claimed that Jews are "deceivers" and that Jews "plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda". In February 2020,

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

permanently banned the ''TruNews'' channel.

Career

Before becoming a radio host, Wiles worked as an advertising and marketing sales manager for

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

in the early 1980s, and in 1984 joined the

Christian Broadcasting Network The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long-running TV series ''The 700 Club'', co-produces the ongoing ''Superbook (198 ...

as their first National Cable Marketing Manager. In 1995, he was hired as the Marketing Director for

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...

. He resigned from the network in September 1998. Wiles previously broadcast his radio show on

WRMI WRMI (Radio Miami International) is a shortwave radio station broadcasting from Okeechobee, Florida, United States. WRMI is a commercial radio station that sells airtime to businesses and organizations. Programming WRMI relays several internat ...

(Radio Miami International), but now has adopted the internet as the primary platform, with short-wave radio also hosting.

TruNews

Wiles founded the organization later to be called '' TruNews'' in September 1998, in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. On May 24, 1999, the organization, then named ''America's Hope'', made its first broadcast. After five years of regular broadcasts, the news station changed its name to ''America Freedom News'' for a brief period. Wiles later changed it a second time to its current name, ''TruNews''. It has also been known as ''Christian News Channel''. ''TruNews'' is known for promoting racist and

conspiracy theories and medical misinformation. Regarding the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001, Wiles said: " /11wasn't done by the Muslims. It was done by a wildcard, the Israeli Mossad, that's cunning and ruthless and can carry out attacks on Americans and make it look like Arabs did it." ''TruNews'' frequently described

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

as a "demon from hell". Obama, he claimed while the former president was in office, was the "jihadist-in-chief" who was "waging jihad against the United States from inside the White House" and murdered Supreme Court Justice

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual an ...

as a "pagan sacrifice." Via Twitter in November 2019, ''TruNews'' said its channel had been suspended by

. It was removed for violating YouTube's rules on

hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...

. Wiles has denied his rhetoric has antisemitic intent: "It's hard to say. I don't know. I can tell you from my heart there is no ill will toward the Jewish people, with all sincerity." He blamed

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

for organizing a campaign against him. In late February 2020, ''TruNews'' was permanently banned from YouTube. Pastor Rick Wiles has spoken out in defense of

Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...

and against Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

and the

Israeli occupation of the West Bank The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under military occupation by Israel since 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured the territory, then ruled by Jordan, during the Six-Day War. The status of the West Bank as a militarily oc ...

. Proclaiming, "I am a friend of the Palestinian people. I am not an enemy of the Jews. I am a friend of the Palestinians. I simply want the Jews to treat them like Human."

Advocating violence and mass murder

In October 2019, Wiles stated that if

Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

was defeated in the 2020 presidential election:

there is going to be violence in America. There are people in this country, veterans, cowboys, mountain men, guys that know how to fight, and they're going to make a decision that the people that did this to Donald Trump are not going to get away with it and they're going to hunt them down. If these people in Washington think that they are going to get away with it, it's not going to happen. The Trump supporters are going to hunt them down. It's going to happen and this country is going to be plunged into darkness and they brought it upon themselves because they won't back off.

In late July 2020, Wiles urged Trump to use "billions of hollow-point bullets" against

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

protestors in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

to put down the "insurrection". He claimed the bullets were hoarded by Barack Obama "to round up Christians and constitutionalists under a President Hillary Clinton". In late November 2020, after Trump's defeat was confirmed, Wiles stated that the Trump administration planned "to shoot some people". He said:

They're going to have a bunch of traitors, they're going to line them up against the wall, and start shooting them, because that's what they deserve. The Democrats, the news media...If the leftists, if the scientists, professors have been working secretly with the Chinese Communist Party, then line them up against a wall and shoot them. That's what you do with them.

COVID-19

In March 2020, at a ''TruNews'' broadcast, Wiles claimed that the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

was God's punishment to Jews for opposing Jesus Christ and the disease spread in synagogues. Wiles also

claimed "Claimed" is the eleventh episode of the The Walking Dead season 4, fourth season of the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic Horror fiction, horror television series ''The Walking Dead (TV series), The Walking Dead'', wh ...

that the outbreak in the United States started at the

American Israel Public Affairs Committee The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ) is a pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates its policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States. It is one of several pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the ...

conference in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, on March 2, 2020. Wiles has claimed that the vaccines for protection against coronavirus are a plot for "global genocide" and has opposed vaccination efforts. In late May 2021, it was reported that Wiles himself had contracted COVID-19 and had been hospitalized. He said that his wife was "very fatigued," that his daughter-in-law was hospitalized, and that his grandson and other family members were suffering from coronavirus symptoms.

Political campaign

In 2024, Wiles filed to challenge U.S. Representative

Brian Mast Brian Jeffrey Mast (born July 10, 1980) is an American politician and U.S. military veteran who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Florida's 21st congressional district since 2017. The district, numb ...

in the Republican primary, and denounced Mast for supporting Israel and for having worn an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

uniform on Capitol Hill. Wiles lost the primary with 14% of the vote.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiles, Rick 1953 births Living people Alt-right Christians Alt-right writers American conspiracy theorists American political commentators American talk radio hosts American anti-Zionists Antisemitism in Florida Christians from Florida Protestantism and antisemitism Christian conspiracy theorists Christian fundamentalists Christian nationalists Far-right politics and Christianity COVID-19 conspiracy theorists People from Vero Beach, Florida Candidates in the 2024 United States House of Representatives elections