An influencer who played a key role in hoax claims that James Talarico was in a mental health facility has a long history of social media posts that favorably invoke Nazi Germany, express antisemitism and anti-Black racism, criticize miscegenation and call for “remigration” of refugees.
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that → play → refugees
On X, the Lake Oswego, Oregon, resident Ryan Amacher, known online as Rhein Amacher, has described Muslims as “sub-human”, claimed that Black Africans are “monkeys” with low IQ, characterized immigrants as “vermin” and expressed support for the far right, including Germany’s AfD and the UK’s Tommy Robinson.
asserted
Africans → know → AfD
His attempt to damage Talarico’s campaign with false claims about a supposed inpatient admission to an Ohio facility fell apart quickly on Sunday night, but not before his claims were boosted by a staffer on the campaign of Talarico’s Republican rival, Ken Paxton.
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claims → damage → rival
Since working for the Trump campaign in 2024, he has remained in the milieu of Republican politics and rightwing influencers.
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he → work → politics
Neither Amacher nor the Paxton campaign responded to requests for comment.
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Amacher → respond → comment
Last week, Amacher phoned the Lindner Center of Hope, a psychiatric hospital in Mason, Ohio, three times, trying to confirm a false rumor that Talarico had been admitted there.
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Talarico → phone → rumor
The rumor apparently began with a 9 October post by an anonymous X account, TickleTexts, which claimed Talarico had been “hospitalized at Lindner Center for HOPE”, and was picked up by the Republican fundraiser Caroline Wren, who falsely tied it to a private flight between Ohio and Austin.
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who → begin → Ohio
Before calling, Amacher had posted as fact that Talarico “was hospitalized at the @LindnerCtrHope” and tagged the hospital asking it to confirm.
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Talarico → call → it
In the full recording of the second call, he gives his name as “Tim”, says he wants to send a care package to his cousin, and offers a four-digit patient code.
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he → give → code
“I simply made one up (2244) in an attempt to bypass the facility’s security restrictions to discuss the patient,” he later wrote on X.
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he → make → X.
For most of the six-minute call the employee tells him she has no record of Talarico.
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she → tell → Talarico
In its final seconds she says a man that looks like Talarico “was just discharged this evening”.
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that → say → Talarico
An excerpt of the recording was incorporated into a 47-second clip that Nick Sortor posted on Sunday afternoon under the headline “Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week”.
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Talarico → incorporate → facility
Amacher posted his own version minutes later, and Elon Musk replied with a characteristic “!!”.
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Musk → post → characteristic
Amacher had first offered the recording to Blaze Media and the Daily Mail, which reportedly declined to run it, and said in an X Space that evening that influencers are “not held to the same journalistic standards”.
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influencers → offer → standards
By Tuesday he had reportedly pulled out of an interview with the writer and podcaster Jesse Singal, saying his attorney had given him a “stand down order”.
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attorney → pull → order
The purported legal advice coincides with coverage of the fiasco, which has included speculation that Amacher’s attempt to access private health information may land him in legal trouble.
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attempt → coincide → trouble
Previous coverage, however, has not probed Amacher’s long history of extremist commentary.
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coverage → probe → commentary
‘Modern Freikorps volunteers are needed’
Amacher often invokes Nazi Germany, and the paramilitary movement that preceded it, with apparent admiration.
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that → need → admiration
“In 1919, Germany’s defeated soldiers came home only to be stabbed in the back by socialists and communists who wanted to burn the nation down and install a Soviet-style dictatorship,” he wrote on 29 July, over an AI-generated image of German soldiers beneath Soviet flags beside uniformed men under crescent moons at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
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he → defeat → Gate
In a follow-up post he wrote: “Modern Freikorps volunteers are needed to step up to purge the German nation of the filth destroying it from within.”
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volunteers → write → within
An AI-generated image accompanying it showed a masked soldier wearing “Freikorps” and “Deutsches Reich” patches, with the black, white and red flag of imperial Germany flying over the Reichstag.
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flag → generate → Reichstag
The Freikorps were paramilitary units of demobilized soldiers that crushed leftwing uprisings in Germany after the first world war.
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that → demobilize → war
In January 1919, Freikorps troops murdered the communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
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troops → murder → leaders
In June, Amacher told critics to “read up on the German Freikorps after 1919–and what became of Luxemburg and Liebknecht”.
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what → tell → Luxemburg
“History has a way of repeating itself when revolutionary movements collide with a nation pushed to the brink,” he added.
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he → have → brink
The Freikorps are widely seen as an ideological ancestor of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, though he later turned against them.
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he → see → them
In July, replying to a post that said “we fought the wrong enemy in WW2, just like General Patton said before the jews assassinated him in 1945”, Amacher wrote: “We should have immediately re-armed the German Wehrmacht and auxiliary troops and joined forces to defeat Soviet communism, once and for all!”
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We → reply → all
Patton died in December 1945 after a car crash in occupied Germany; conspiratorial claims that he was assassinated have long been debunked.
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he → die → Germany
When fellow influencer Cam Higby complained in February that saying Nick Shirley was not a Nazi had led others to call him one, Amacher replied that “a colleague’s great-grandfather served as a paramilitary adjunct in Germany’s ‘other’ military force (not the Wehrmacht)”.
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grandfather → complain → force
He went on: “By your logic, does that make him a Nazi? Asking for a friend…” and attaching an “OK” emoji.
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him → go → emoji
He has captioned a photo of a figure skater with her right arm raised “Heil yes!” and offered to recruit a man “straight into my elite Panzer division”.
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arm → caption → division
In July 2025 he joked that his ancestors “fled to Argentina as well, but way back in 1945, departing from the Deutsches Reich”.
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ancestors → joke → Reich
He has also called for the return of the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, writing: “Bring back Francisco Franco!” in July under a post claiming that “African military-aged males by the THOUSANDS” were entering the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
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males → call → Ceuta
And he has praised Germany’s AfD, which the country’s domestic intelligence agency labeled a “confirmed rightwing extremist” force last year.
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agency → praise → which
“The @AfD is the ONLY party left that will actually SAVE Germany from destruction,” he wrote in April.
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he → leave → April
“We will restore traditional German societal norms, identity, and culture.”
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We → restore → norms
‘He looks like a Jew’
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He → look → Jew
In January, replying to a post attacking the San Francisco Democrat Scott Wiener, Amacher wrote: “He looks like a Jew–I’m guessing he is a Jew!,” and included a nose emoji.
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he → reply → emoji
In May 2025, after another user wrote of a man that “He’s also jewish, no surprise there”, Amacher replied: “A ginger Jew?
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Amacher → write → Jew
…and 51 more, not listed.
The Aporia
