As part of our series on exposing the neo-Nazis of the White Art Collective, in this piece we present a musician having a long association with white nationalist movements. While in his younger days, he was a wandering hippie troubadour who participated in the Occupy DC movement, years later he made a dramatic reversal, going full alt-right, participating in both the so-called "Unite the Right" rally in 2017 and the January 6, 2020 Capitol Building insurrection. The White Art Collective (also commonly referred to as "WAC") promoted his music under the name "James Ryan," but to the general public he is Jamie Ryan Troutman, and he is a white supremacist.
Troutman came to our attention when we noticed that in the early days of the White Art Collective one promoted performer was a "James Ryan" who was "a musician, songwriter, painter, photographer and Alt-Right activist," according to archived views of its website on the Wayback Machine. But as it turns out, Troutman had already been known as a neo-Nazi by various other media sources on the internet, although he was misidentified as "James Troutman." Nevertheless, we won't let that stop us from dunking on this folk-singing fascist a little more.
Troutman, as “James Ryan,” was one the artists featured at the first “WAC Fest” in 2021. The song “Deserae,” a trademark song of his, was played in response to a shouted request from the crowd. Although this song and information about it proved difficult to find, we did eventually find this same song under a different title, from many years earlier. Before he became a neo-Nazi, Troutman played in a traveling folk group promoting social justice. But first, let's have a look at Troutman's activities as a neo-Nazi activist.
Jamie Troutman, aka "AltRightVa"
Troutman appeared as "AltRightVa" in leaked neo-Nazi Discord chats from 2017, and spoke of donning Trump regalia for recruitment and spreading alt-right neo-Nazi messaging. While many Trump supporters may not identify with the label "Nazi," Troutman most definitely was one that did. Jamie Troutman and his brother Brandon Troutman, who used the alias "ManWithTheHand," were obnoxious mainstays at numerous alt-right public appearances in the Washington D.C. area.
Troutman was not just a casual participant in white nationalist movements, but was very involved in numerous local groups including the Beltway Bigots and DC Stormers and rubbed shoulders with the major “movement leaders” like Richard Spencer, Michael "Enoch" Peinovich and neo-Confederate Virginia senate candidate Corey Stewart. He was also very close with another set of neo-Nazi brothers, Jeffery and William Clark, whose descent into Nazism culminated in prison and suicide.
Troutman was involved with the first Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in May of 2017. Since that event was invitation-only event and much smaller than the violent August 2017 event, his attendance was indicative of his connection and stature within white nationalist circles. He also attended the “Free Speech Rally” in Washington, DC on June 25, 2017, which was a deceptively named white nationalist and neo-Nazi rally featuring speakers like Richard Spencer as well as neo-Nazi groups like Identity Evropa and Vanguard America. He attempted to broker an alliance with the increasingly optics sensitive Proud Boys. While the Proud Boys officially distanced themselves from explicit Nazi and white supremacist associations, their rank and file members were less shy.
Troutman was heavily involved in planning for the violent Unite the Right rally in August 2017 and his name appeared several times in the subsequent legal proceedings. He made the "Unite the Right" rallies a ride-or-die cause, even returning to Charlottesville for the ill-advised and poorly attended Unite the Right 3.0 a year later. The event was so poorly attended that not even Jason Kessler, the organizer of the original event. The sad spectacle of a couple dozen die-hard Nazis singing “Dixie” on a rented bus was a fitting document of the sad, sputtering demise of the “Alt-Right” era incarnation of white nationalism and Nazism.
A WACky Past
We mentioned earlier that Troutman came to our attention as "James Ryan," a musician promoted by the White Art Collective. An interesting bit of trivia is that Benjamin Joseph Arvin, aka "Jeff Winston," the founder of the White Art Collective, was living in Arlington, Virginia around the time of the Unite the Rally. It is no coincidence that an address connected to Arvin during this time was also associated with Troutman because they were roommates. Arvin promoted Troutman's music as an "AltRight artist" on the WAC website, with this trademark song called "Deserae." Troutman, as "James Ryan," played at the inaugural "WAC Fest 2021" where the song was enthusiastically requested for by the audience.
But proving that Nazis have no imagination, we learned that this was not a new song and in fact Troutman had recycled it from his early days when it was called "The Duel." This discovery led to our examination of Troutman's strange path to white nationalism, from being a member of a wandering hippie troupe to outright all-in neo-Nazi weirdo.
Troutman had once been a member of a traveling folk musician group called "The Revolujahs." His early social media posts were antiracist, pro-immigrant, and supportive of LGBTQ+ rights. In 2011 as an "itinerant 22-year-old artist and musician," Troutman was featured in multiple media outlets as one of the public faces of Occupy DC.
The Occupy-Movement-to-Nazi pipeline is not unheard of, but Jamie Ryan Troutman's six year evolution from social justice warrior to actual fascist is one of the most jarring we have encountered. Perhaps his commitment to social and economic justice faltered due to his own circumstances as a child of privilege. On this, we can only speculate. His family owns Troutman Custom Homes, a luxury building business in Arlington, Virginia and Troutman's white nationalist activism extended into the family business. On June 8, 2016 Troutman posted in a neo-Nazi internet chat room on behalf of Troutman Custom Homes : "Looking for white sub-contractors in the residential home building trades, located around the Washington DC Beltway. We build custom homes."
Troutman Attempts to Hide His Neo-Nazi Past
At the time of his dark spiral into Nazism, Troutman was establishing himself as a photographer specializing in real estate and architecture. Apparently believing himself beyond accountability, he used the same headshot for his Nazi profiles. As a Nazi activist, Troutman was brazen with his public persona but in recent years has taken several steps to mask his identity. On his Facebook profile he used "Johan" as his first name and misspelled his surname as "Trautmann."
His current West Virginia-based photo business, Stone Ridge Photography, states on its website that it is a "veteran owned business" and Troutman, using the name "James Troutman," described himself as an "Army veteran." According to a statement made on another photography website, Troutman wrote: "I joined the Army National Guard in 2018 as a Horizontal Construction Engineer. In March of 2020 I was activated to serve in the Coronavirus emergency response. I served over 15 months and earned 4 decorations." This allowed Troutman to meet the bare-minimum requirements for the state of West Virginia to grant his business a "veteran owned" status. Along with real estate, this Nazi's new company has added food and restaurant photography to its services and claims UberEats and GrubHub as clients.
Even while serving on the National Guard, though, Troutman was never far from fascist activism. He was spotted at the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, wearing a red "Trump" cap, along with his wife, Crystal Sabra Kingree Troutman, who shares his bigoted, extremist views.
Brothers, Sisters, We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang!*
Jamie Ryan Troutman, aka "Johan Trautmann," aka "James Ryan," aka "AltRightVa" of Harpers Ferry, WV is proof that if you're a neo-Nazi you can run but you can't hide. Although Troutman has attempted to clean up his public image and obscure his white nationalist activities, the internet never forgets and it is only a matter of time before nosy antifascists like us dig up your dirt.
In the next installment we'll present Jamie Troutman's brother, the equally obnoxious neo-Nazi "rapper" Brandon Troutman! Check it out!
