Rick Wiles is a non-denominational, self-appointed senior pastor and belligerent antisemite from Vero Beach, Florida. Wiles uses his fundamentalist Christian streaming YouTube channel, TruNews, to spread horrific racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories. Wiles also has a long record of disseminating anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ messages.
TruNews videos consists of Rick Wiles hosting one or more guests praying, using racist opinions to explain current events, talking about the “End Times” and asking for money. Wiles and his guests frequently espouse extreme conspiracy theories, including alleging the U.S. government planned to spread the Ebola virus on U.S. soil, that the U.S. and Israel created ISIS, and mass shootings are false flag operations carried out by “super-secret covert killing teams”.
Since the beginning of 2019, Wiles and his co-hosts began taking an increasingly extreme anti-Semitic and conspiratorial anti-Zionist positions. Eliminating any distinction between Israelis, Zionists and Jews, they have been spewing a series of extreme antisemitic and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories including the following:
“Jew Coup”: Since November, 2019, Wiles has promoted the idea that the impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives against the President is part of a “Jew coup” to “overthrow the President" and install a “Jewish cabal” which will control the country.
Jews building a “Zionist empire”: Wiles railed against “old evil wicked kabbalah wizard rabbis,” claimed that Jews crucified Jesus 2000 years ago in order to build a “Zionist empire” and that Jews are going to kill and persecute Christians in the near future. He also alleged that Jews and Zion pornography and have “attacked Christian culture.”
The “Jewish mafia” controls politicians: Wiles and his co-hosts repeatedly claim that American Jews control the U.S. government. On one episode they claimed that Jewish Senators and Representatives are citizens of Israel and that all members of Congress (even non-Jews) are required to sign “Israeli pledge cards.”
Jews promote abortion and homosexuality: During a March 2019 episode, Wiles stated “Our culture has been decimated. Through abortion, pornography … all of it owned by the synagogue of Satan [Jews]".
Jewish books are “blasphemous”: In another episode of TruNews, Wiles said that “the old evil wicked Kabbalah wizard rabbis” were planning to “destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque [and wage] war against the Muslims at the Temple Mount” in order to build the Third Temple.
Christian leaders throughout the United States have condemned Wiles’ horrific antisemitism. On Dec. 4, 2019, Laurie Cardoza Moore of Proclaiming Justice to The Nations and Special Envoy to the UN for the World Council of Independent Christian Churches (WCICC) stated "Christian leaders must join me across the U.S. in calling this man out publicly by condemning his outrageous incitements to violence."
On January 13, 2020, Paypal, Bloomerang, and Spreedly, announced they had stopped processing TruNews' donations because of the rampant bigotry spread by Rick Wiles and his co-hosts.