On the Proud Boys’ account on the messaging app Telegram, members of the group celebrated the apparent endorsement.
“Standing down and standing by sir,” the account wrote.
One of the Proud Boys’ leaders, Joe Biggs, took the president’s endorsement as a call to violence.
“Trump basically said to go f**k them up,” Biggs said in a chat on the right-wing social media app Parler. “This makes me so happy.”
