What Is The Alt Right? Meaning And Definition Of Extreme Nationalist Group Supporting Donald Trump

The alternative right has always existed on the fringes of the Republican party. The term was officially coined in 2008 as a way to refer to the extremist movement. Donald Trump's election, however, has brought the faction to the forefront in a much more prominent way.

The alt-right is comprised of "a range of people on the extreme right who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of forms of conservatism that embrace implicit or explicit racism or white supremacy," according to the Anti-Defamation League. Those who identify as such generally "regard mainstream conservatives as weak and impotent, largely because they do not sufficiently support racism and anti-Semitism."

Richard Bertrand Spencer, the president of the white nationalist think tank the National Policy Institute, put the term on the map in 2008 and installed himself as the movements de facto leader. The National Policy Institute describes itself as an organization "dedicated to the heritage, identity and future of people of European descent in the United States and around the world."

Spencer led members of the group Saturday at a dinner in Washington, D.C., where they celebrated Trump's victory and raised their hands in what appeared to be Nazi salutes.

"America was, until this last generation, a white country, designed for ourselves and our posterity," Spencer said in a speech at the dinner. "It is our creation and our inheritance and it belongs to us."

The restaurant where the dinner was held apologized and said it did not know the nature of the meeting when the reservation was made. The restaurant also said it would donate $10,000 to the Anti-Defamation League.

Members of the alt-right have also taken to Twitter, using the hashtag #AltRight to share their support for the movement.

Trump has repeatedly come under fire for not denouncing the alt-right and its support of him. During his "60 Minutes" interview Nov. 13, Trump told people perpetrating hate crimes to "stop it," though he did not explicitly mention the alt-right by name.