FBI cuts ties with Southern Poverty Law Center after MAGA push

The FBI announced Friday that it had severed ties with the Southern 
Poverty Law Center, a civil rights watchdog group, after a push from MAGA 
allies on social media.

Elon Musk called the group — a liberal-leaning organization that has for 
years tracked hate groups and provided law enforcement with information 
about them — “an evil organization that spreads hate propaganda 
relentlessly” and accused it of “incitement to murder Charlie Kirk” in a 
series of Thursday social media posts.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and 
turned into a partisan smear machine,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X. 
“Their so-called ‘hate map’ has been used to defame mainstream Americans 
and even inspired violence. That disgraceful record makes them unfit for 
any FBI partnership.”

Patel also cited an administration-wide push to combat “anti-Christian 
bias” in his decision to terminate the FBI’s affiliation with the SPLC.

Conservative allies of President Donald Trump — including Musk and Turning 
Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet — had previously called on the 
administration to disaffiliate from the SPLC, citing its “Hate Map” — a 
25-year-old interactive initiative that displays organizations classified 
by the SPLC as hate groups.

The map still lists conservative group Turning Point USA, which Kirk co-
founded, under the designation “Antigovernment General.” Per the SPLC’s 
website, the organization defines anti-government groups as “part of the 
antidemocratic hard-right movement.”

“For decades, we have shared data and analysis with the public to protect 
civil rights and hold extremists accountable,” the SPLC said in a 
statement. “We remain committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work 
to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of 
marginalized people.”

The decision comes two days after the FBI severed ties with another civil 
rights group — the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Israel organization that 
tracks antisemitism and other extremism — which had previously conducted 
mandatory workshops on hate crimes, violent extremism and antisemitism for 
new FBI agents and trainees at the agency’s Virginia academy.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/03/fbi-southern-poverty-law-center-
cut-ties-00593416