He’s also a white nationalist, neo-nazi, and militant accelerationist.
Trenin Bayless is the current Republican candidate for the Montana State Legislature in District 74.
On the surface, Bayless appears to be a conventional contender for public office. He has a PhD and a decade-long career in academia as a writer, researcher, teacher, and public speaker. He’s worked for the Montana Office of Public Instruction and two of his alma maters (University of Montana and Montana Tech).
But for all of the bona fides he boasts in his resume, Bayless omits a lot more. What he fails to disclose – and has taken great care to conceal – is that he’s the white nationalist behind the internet persona ‘TurnCoat’.
Under cover of anonymity, ‘TurnCoat’ uses his academic background and experience to posture as a pseudo-intellectual and proto-accelerationist influencer. Through his own social media platforms, as well as those run by other white nationalists and members of actual terrorist organizations, he advocates for the infiltration of political offices by fascists and the indoctrination of graduate students (like those he mentors) into neo-nazism and toward a militant accelerationist ideology.
This article exposes Trenin Bayless as a white power extremist whose ideology extends far beyond that of a fascist sympathizer. It details his connections to various neo-nazis and his involvement with hate groups like White Lives Matter (WLM). It documents his (non-academic) writings for white nationalist publishers Antelope Hill and White People’s Press, as well as the terrorist-connected propaganda outlet The American Futurist. It reveals how Bayless has been actively preparing himself and others for a violent collapse of “the System” by posting prepping and weapons training videos under the thinly veiled cover of video game LARPing.
This article provides solid evidence that Trenin Bayless is TurnCoat. It guides readers through TurnCoat’s online history and various social media accounts, and the cross-comparison of open-source records and background information that led to the identification of Bayless.
Also included are actions that can be taken to keep our community safe by rejecting and expelling this fascist with violent fantasies from positions of influence, power, and public life.
It should be concerning to all that a white nationalist accelerationist has flown under the radar and has been ingratiating himself into mainstream Republican politics as well as the academic and scientific communities.
| Extra big thanks to the Montana antifascist community, and a special shout out to Sunlight Anti-Fascist Action for their assistance in documenting and archiving this white nationalist’s online presence. A big heart of thanks to those who’ve assisted with editorial and moral support (y’all know who you are). |
Community members in Missoula might remember Trenin Bayless as one of the alt-right type of trolls known around the University of Montana campus several years ago (along with people like Garrett Morrill).
Anti-hate researchers, however, began taking an interest in him when he joined the White Lives Matter Montana Telegram chat in January 2022 (though at the time it was not known he was the same Trenin Bayless who flew the Kekistan flag in Missoula years earlier).
When Bayless first joined the WLM MT chat as TurnCoat, he expressed interest in joining the group. Little stood out about him at the time, but when anti-hate researchers took a closer look, things got very strange, very quickly.
A Review of Trenin Bayless’ Social Media Reveals a Chronically Online Neo-Nazi Hiding Behind a Public Facade
A quick internet search for “TurnCoat” revealed multiple social media accounts using either the same username or a slight variation of it. Keen-eyed researchers noted that nearly all of the accounts used either the same picture from Blade Runner 2049 or varying versions of the infamous Unabomber sketch as a profile photo.
In addition to Telegram, accounts were found on “alternative” platforms including Gab, Dissenter, Poast and Rumble, as well as more mainstream sites like Facebook and YouTube – all of which showed that TurnCoat was far more than a random racist on the internet.
While these accounts weren’t the sole sources used to make the identification, they were instrumental in tracking his online history and revealing just how violent his ideology is. They also provided plenty of personally identifying information that was later matched to Trenin Bayless.
Gab: Trenin Bayless Was an Early Adopter of “Alternative” Social Media
On Gab, Trenin Bayless PhD posts under the pseudonym ‘Dr. Kurtis MacDaud’.
His profile bio includes a humble brag about his “strong academic background” stuffed into a play on the popular white supremacist slogan known as the ‘14 Words’. It also links to his Substack and Poast accounts.
TurnCoat’s Gab is full of the sort of antisemitic, neo-nazi, and white nationalist nonsense one would expect from a site where antisemitism and racism run rampant, the deadly Unite The Right rally was promoted, and mass murderer Robert Bowers posted in the hours leading up to his deadly attack at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue.
While it wouldn’t be surprising for TurnCoat to deny that he’s a nazi by deflecting with the type of nonsense that many of them do (such as stating that they aren’t members of the National Socialist party or that they support some obscure form of ‘fascist economics’ rather than National Socialism), his social media makes it clear that he is, for all intents and purposes, a neo-nazi.
He’s also a big fan of racial and political violence.
There are far too many of these types of posts to include them all in this article, but dozens more were archived.
In one Gab post, he revealed that he has a degree in engineering. In two others, an interesting connection was revealed between him and an account called ‘Unelectable’, an alias known to be used by one of the leaders of White Lives Matter’s Montana chapter.
Those Gab posts are just two instances that show a direct relationship between TurnCoat and Unelectable. In fact, the two joined the White Lives Matter Montana Telegram chat around the same time, and additional evidence suggests that TurnCoat’s initial interest in joining the WLM MT chat was more than just a casual fash-curious phase.
Poast: Trenin Bayless “Poasts” for an Audience of None
The Poast account linked in Trenin Bayless’ Gab profile shows that he’s currently active on the platform aptly described as a “cesspool of hate”.
It doesn’t take more than a cursory glance at his “poasts” to confirm that Trenin Bayless is far more of a full-fledged neo-nazi than the impression given on some of his so-called ‘intellectually-focused’ social media accounts.
When he’s not dropping links to his Substack articles (and begging the founders of Poast to share them to no avail), he’s generally regurgitating racist tropes and reposting unoriginal memes. He even posted a message wishing Hitler a “happy birthday” which included a classic Terrorgram-style video featuring a man who looks a lot like himself.
His Poast account further shows a connection between himself and the wannabe leader of WLM Montana ‘Unelectable’.
Facebook: An Exercise in Slopsec (Courtesy of ‘Kurt Barthalemu’)
On Facebook, Trenin Bayless posts under the alias ‘Kurt Barthalemu’. Though it’s one of the rare accounts that doesn’t include a variation of the username TurnCoat, it does lead back to both the username and his real name.
Photos on his Facebook account match those used on many of TurnCoat’s social media accounts – specifically the Blade Runner imagery. At least one photo is of Trenin Bayless himself, and another included comments referencing him by name (including one from a relative who shares his last name).
There aren’t many posts (anymore) on his Facebook page, but he’s left plenty of comments on public pages and groups like Missoula Tabletop Gamers, HEMA and Decent Montana Alliance. Many of his comments are related to his home state, and most show him engaging with normal folks.
Dissenter: Trenin Bayless Advocated for Ethnic and Political Violence on the Now-Deplatormed Platform
An account for TurnCoat was also found also found on the now-defunct Gab extension site Dissenter.
The Dissenter account has since been deleted, but archives of the account show that he was active in Discord servers with other nazis in 2019.
Archives of his account also show that he’s been a proponent of ethnic and political violence for years.
In 2019, he openly called for the “culling” (ie: selective slaughtering) of gay people and Jews, and in response to big tech companies de-platforming white supremacists and violent neo-nazis, he wrote: “Violence is the only solution. Dehumanize yourself and face it… Do what must be done.”
In 2021, he made his position on “groups that commit extreme violence and political assassinations” clear: He doesn’t disavow them – he just thinks it’s bad optics for legitimate professionals to openly endorse them.
YouTube & Rumble: Trenin Bayless’ Militant Accelerationist Training Videos Disguised as LARPing
Trenin Bayless was also found to have both YouTube and Rumble channels where he posts under the aliases ‘KYPTKA: Rocky Mountain S.T.A.L.K.E.R’ and ‘DrCoat’, respectively.
His Rumble channel only features a single video (a tribute to serial bomber Ted Kaczynski) and has only attracted five subscribers.
On the other hand, his YouTube channel contains nearly eighty videos and just under five thousand subscribers.
His YouTube videos are mostly focused on simulating real-life, post-apocalyptic survival and war scenarios. It’s easy to get lost in the sheer stupidity of it all, but that’s intentional. The silliness in his YouTube videos masks the absolute seriousness of what he’s actually doing. He is training and prepping for social collapse. Fascists like to use jokes and LARPing as an excuse for their behavior, but their actions should be taken at face value regardless of how immature they appear.
As former White Lives Matter Montana leader Cleetus (Sebastian Campbell) says, “Everything is LARP until it isn’t.”
In the videos, he and his buddies LARP in the most ridiculous manner. They emulate the STALKER video games (a first-person shooter/survival/horror video game set in Chernobyl and loosely based on the classic 1970s Soviet sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic and the subsequent film, Stalker). They explore abandoned places in Montana while Trenin narrates in a faux Russian accent. It should be noted that TurnCoat has a tendency to explore mining sites.
While what he and his friends are doing in these videos appears childish and absurd, they’re effectively training with firearms and practicing outdoor survival skills. Luckily he’s not very good at hitting what he aims for, nor does he appear well-equipped to actually survive in the woods. But it’s the intent that matters. Any idiot with a gun and an ideological commitment to death and destruction is a threat regardless of whether they know how to set up a tent.
An Examination of Trenin Bayless’ Publications Uncovers the Militant Mindset Behind the Pseudo-Intellectual
Trenin Bayless’ social media accounts leave no doubt that he is, indeed, a white nationalist.
A review of his writings and publications proves that his ideology encompasses white nationalism’s most violent form: Militant accelerationism.
The American Futurist: Trenin Bayless Published on the Terrorist Propaganda Site
The username in the email address included in Trenin Bayless’ Dissenter profile (@turn_king) led researchers to a series of articles he’d written for The American Futurist.
The American Futurist is considered a hard-core neo-nazi website. The site is run by Jack Espinoza and Ryan Hatfield, both of whom were early members of the terrorist organization, Atomwaffen Division (AWD). Multiple members of AWD have been arrested, charged, and sentenced for committing terrorist offenses, numerous murders, and other serious crimes in the U.S. and abroad.
‘Turn King’ is listed on the staff page of The American Futurist website. He’s credited as a contributor alongside known pedophile and neo-nazi accelerationist cult idol James Mason, as well as AWD’s founder, Brandon Russell, a twice-failed terrorist who is currently in custody for plotting to destroy the Baltimore power grid, and John Cameron Denton, a Satanic pedophile who took over leadership of the group during Russell’s first prison stint before serving his own time.
Simply put: No one is involved with The American Futurist who doesn’t support mass violence and terrorism.
| Note: The American Futurist is a mouthpiece for terrorism. The term “terrorism” is not used lightly, and in this case, it is referring not only to a formal designation but also to very real acts of terror. For years, antifascists, anti-hate researchers, journalists, and counter-extremist organizations all declined to name the site in publications due to public safety concerns. While still relatively obscure, The American Futurist has become well-known enough in relevant circles that concerns over naming what is essentially a website dedicated to educating and recruiting potential white-power terrorists are minimal. That said, the decision to name the site and provide even limited screenshots was not made without hesitation. Ultimately, it was deemed necessary to provide evidence of Trenin Bayless’ extremism and connections to these terrorist groups – particularly due to the anticipated denials from Bayless, potential backlash from Republicans, and possible pushback from the academic community he’s involved with. For more information, see: “The Threat Is the Network: The Multi-Node Structure of Neo-Fascist Accelerationism” | Combating Terrorism Center at West Point |
To grasp the nefarious nature of Bayless’ involvement with The American Futurist, it’s important to understand some of the history behind the group that started it and the purpose the outlet serves.
A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF A MODERN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION
The American Futurist was created in 2020 to serve as a propaganda outlet for the National Socialist Order (NSO). NSO was a rebranding of AWD, though little more changed than their name. Just like its “predecessor” NSO promoted itself as a “political and paramilitary group.” The rebranding came not after a series of high-profile arrests due to its members committing murders and organizing terror plots, but when the group’s connection to the satanic cult ‘Temple of Blood’ began negatively impacting the ability to recruit new members.
The American Futurist was used (in part) to launch the “new” AWD off-shoot. Both the organization and its propaganda arm were dedicated to avoiding the “mistakes” made by AWD and other militant groups. It’s important to note that for them, the acts of violence and sabotage (planned, committed and failed) weren’t the issue – it was getting caught that had become a problem.
It’s also especially important to note that Bayless’ articles for The American Futurist were a contribution toward helping those who commit racially and politically motivated acts of terrorism avoid getting caught – as well as teaching them how to be more effective in their endeavors.
Bottom line: It doesn’t matter whether Trenin Bayless is or was an “official” member of AWD or NSO, or whether he’s personally threatened or made plans to carry out an attack of his own. The fact he actively sought to help the group, as well as other militant accelerationists and so-called “lone wolves” who are attracted to this extremely violent ideology, achieve a shared goal makes him complicit (at the very least).
These days The American Futurist has been reduced to little more than a sideshow of petty spats with former allies and fellow Terrorbros, and trolling Patriot Front on Telegram. But when Bayless began publishing on the site, it was known for being a central hub for white supremacist-motivated terrorism.
He published three articles for The American Futurist. The first two were published in 2020, shortly after the site was created, and a follow-up to his first article was published in 2022. Though he initially spoke highly of both the site and the organization behind it, his support appears to have stopped after the group lost its edginess and split up due to infighting, revelations of pedophilia, and the infiltration of federal informants.
Regardless of his current stance, the articles he wrote for The American Futurist helped to educate, influence, and even encourage those who are prone to committing acts of violence and terror. In his articles, he advocates for cells of neo-nazis to mobilize for on-the-ground action.
His articles also offer insight into his personal motivations, particularly in running for local office. He provides detailed plans for white power extremists to infiltrate and take over local conservative organizations and the Republican party. In his view, this should be done through the creation of “secret local networks of ultraconservative subversives”, stacked with members who wield political and academic influence. The goal is to continually expand that influence through the “subversive hiring of [white nationalist] allies” and “the quiet pushing of like-minded people into positions of power”.
Just like every other white nationalist, Bayless projects everything. Much of what he advocates for is something that he’s already doing. Considering this tendency, his argument that “graduate students are an ideal group to target” into the secret societies of subversives he’s a proponent of is a red flag that cannot be ignored.
Contrary to the image he projects to the public, Trenin Bayless does not support the Republican party or even conservative principles. He’s a radical racialist who follows the playbook of 1930s Germany. His writings make it clear that he knows his objectives are so abhorrent that he has to resort to using underhanded tactics and undermining the trust of his colleagues and the community to achieve them.
His focus on operational security (opsec) makes clear that he fully understands that being exposed for who he really is and what he truly believes in would be detrimental to his current career in academia and the political career he aspires toward. Unfortunately for him, it was in his own writings regarding opsec where some of the key clues as to his identity were found – despite some of the misrepresentations of himself and his “qualifications”.
Does this mean that he too will, in a socially darwinian sense, also cease to exist?
Substack: Trenin Bayless Critiques the Literary Works of Eco-Fascists, Offers Uninformed Analyses of Social Movements and Encourages Radical Nazis to Study the Taliban
The Substack account linked in many of Trenin Bayless’ social media profiles shows that he’s written semi-regularly on his blog since late 2021.
The entries on his blog, Endings of Empire, come off as having been written by an author with an elitist attitude and they are tiresome to read.
He’s written reviews of books and manifestos from eco-fascist ‘icons’ like Mike Ma and Ted Kaczynski. Eco-fascism is very closely intertwined with neo-nazi accelerationism and several high-profile mass-murderers have been identified as eco-fascists. Bayless’s writings show that he not only supports eco-fascism but also the mass murderers who share that ideology.
In one blog post, he referred to Brenton Tarrant, who carried out the most deadly attack in New Zealand’s history when he killed 51 people at two Mosques, as “the patron saint of kabab removal”. “Saint” is a very specific term in this context. It’s commonly used by hardcore militant accelerationists to refer to white supremacists who have killed (and sometimes died) for the “movement”.
His personal writings offer insufferable analyses of cultural issues and critiques of social movements bolstered by “facts” that are more often than not flat-out wrong.
An entire psych paper could be published on Bayless’ writings, but that is not the purpose here. However, there are a few blog posts worth mentioning.
Based on the entirety of the blog post, what he really meant was that he commented online about stuff that happened at the time.
In “The Culture War: 11 Year Retrospective”, Bayless claims to have a unique understanding of current social issues based on his personal experience and involvement in all of them over the past decade+. But what he’s actually done is mistake his observations about events that just happened to take place during his lifetime for a superior sense of understanding them.
As if waging war against reality and facts, Bayless argues that the current culture war started with Occupy Wall Street (as if anything that happened before he started paying attention wasn’t real).
He begins by claiming Occupy was mostly online (clearly he’s never heard of Adbusters). He then immediately begins mixing fact with fascism and whines that the true victims of the Occupy movement were white men. In Bayless’ white nationalist revision of events, the Jews sent Black people and feminists to destroy the OWS movement. He entirely ignores the reality of it having been an anarchist, anti-capitalist movement that critiqued all hierarchical structures of power from the beginning. He did what white nationalists always do: Reimagining reality and framing it to see themselves as the victims.
One of the most bizarre parts of Bayless’ ahistorical overview of Occupy is how he describes his personal involvement in the movement and how it consisted of little more than what sounds like snitching – and even that doesn’t appear to be true.
The “little rural town” he claims to have lived in at the time, and where his personal friend was supposedly arrested by the FBI, was Missoula, MT – a city that can hardly be considered little or rural. His distortion of the facts here likely has less to do with opsec and more to do with maintaining his ‘rural man’ persona.
After looking into the matter, researchers were unable to find evidence that there was ever an FBI raid on Occupy Missoula. But facts and reality didn’t stop Bayless from making up a story and bragging that he got to meet some FBI agents. Even in a seemingly fictional story, Bayless’ means of supporting his friend during a fed raid was to take the friend out of the house to let the FBI search without observation or challenge.
In another one of his social commentary articles, Bayless looks at why there are so many “femboys” in the nazi community.
He begins by arguing that trans and queer folk, who are healthy and comfortable in their identity, are “degenerate social failures”. He then makes an unexpected (and rather nonsensical) pivot. He advocates for the inclusion of gender non-conforming individuals into the white nationalist community – but only those who sleep with nazis (either openly as their non-binary selves or by secretly posing as women).
It only gets more bizarre from there.
He argues that the existence of non-binary people is rooted in the passage of the 19th amendment, and blames feminists for forcing mothers to hate their sons. In his opinion, because of feminism men have only two options: to become gay or to become hyper-masculine nazis.
Of course, Bayless would think of himself as strong-willed enough to become one of those hyper-masculine right-wing extremists (but that’s about as realistic as his ‘rural man’ persona he wants people to believe).
In “Clans, Family and Household Gods”, Bayless claims to have real-life connections to white nationalists across the country. He writes of going to conferences with them and making plans for the collapse of society during their national meetup.
In his article “Surf the Kali Yuga” Bayless is much more explicit about what he believes small, local cells of neo-nazis should be doing. He doesn’t just call for the standard firearms and survivalist training – he calls for people to study the Taliban (specifically their explosive manuals and chemical warfare).
A covert accelerationist with direct ties to a terrorist outlet like The American Futurist, who claims friends have engaged in real-life, on-the-ground “actions,” calling for fellow nazis to familiarize themselves with terrorist texts and offering to provide sources if needed is extremely concerning.
It should be noted that the title for the last article comes from a meme with origins in a very specific type of esotericism (a fusion of Hindu-Aryanism mythology and occult nazism). The simplest meaning behind the phrase is: “Do what needs to be done during the current (and darkest) age to usher in the new “Golden Age” of Aryan Supremacy. To most white nationalists, the meme simply means embracing your inner hate and racism. In the white power accelerationist circles Trenin Bayless is involved in, it means committing acts of terror like the destruction of infrastructure and mass murder.
Trenin Bayless Creates Bad FanFic (and Even Worse Art) for White Nationalist Publications
Beyond providing opsec advice for potential terrorists on The American Futurist and offering bad takes on contemporary events on Substack, Trenin Bayless has also had articles and short stories published on more ‘mainstream’ white nationalist publications like Antelope Hill and White People’s Press, and has contributed generic fashy digital art to the White Art Collective.
Antelope Hill is a publishing company specializing in translating historical Nazi literature and contemporary works by neo-fascists. The fact that Bayless’ writings are published by them proves in and of itself that he’s a white nationalist. The fact that his cliché and predictable short story is considered “award-winning” is a testament to the incredibly low standards of white nationalism.
Bayless’ other short stories, like the ones published for White People’s Press, are basically fascist fan fiction rip-offs of Hollywood sci-fi (like Blade Runner, a show he clearly loves considering his use of its imagery in nearly all of his profile photos). The cringe works celebrate racism and misogyny and are supplemented with an added level of victimhood. In his fiction, like his social commentary, women are the villains.
His fiction is suited for an audience of edgy teenagers at best.
As cringe as they are, Bayless’ short stories are nothing compared to his works of neo-nazi “art”.
His creations have been posted on Gab, used in his Substack posts and submitted to the White Art Collective. They all contain explicit nazi imagery, and they’re all so bad.
Trenin Bayless is objectively smart. He’s got a PhD and he surely knows a lot about his field of engineering. But the white nationalist brain rot is real and it makes his writings and social commentary absolute garbage. Rather than just be proud of his accomplishments in his field of actual expertise, he clearly wants to be praised for his mediocre writing, unsophisticated social commentary and rudimentary photoshop skills.
The only place he would ever receive praise for that low quality of work is within the white nationalist community. Short of a miraculous epiphany, he’s likely to remain stuck in a self-fulfilling and destructive feedback loop.
Identifying ‘TurnCoat’ as Trenin Bayless
Although he doesn’t appear to have participated in public neo-nazi demonstrations, it was remarkably easy to connect TurnCoat’s multiple social media accounts and, using several clues found within them, identify the “anonymous” neo-nazi accelerationist behind them as Trenin Bayless.
Telegram Drama Gave Away TurnCoat’s Location
One clue to Bayless’ identity was found in a Telegram chat run by the National Socialist Movement (NSM). The post was written by a locally-known Montana neo-nazi named Andrew Salacinski.
Salacinski, who claimed to have personally met TurnCoat, was quick to turn his back on his fellow neo-nazi for being a “race traitor” (having an Asian wife and a mixed-race child are generally considered deal breakers in the White Nationalist community). Since Salacinski wrote this post while he was still confined to living in Butte, MT due to parole restrictions, it was safe to assume that TurnCoat was also in Butte.
Needless to say, a nazi with an Asian wife living in Butte MT really narrows down the potential suspects in identifying TurnCoat.
TurnCoat Revealed His Niche Degree
As evidenced in many of his social media posts and articles, TurnCoat often boasted about his advanced degrees. He was even more specific in a Telegram chat in mid-2021, sharing that he had just graduated with “a PhD in engineering” and clarifying that he was a “physical materials engineer”.
Researchers started looking at graduates from Montana Tech since the school has a Materials Science program and was located in the same city (Butte, MT) as the neo-nazi he’d previously met up with had been living.
There aren’t many PhD graduates each year, and his niche major narrowed the list of names down to less than a dozen. Among them was the name Trenin Bayless.
A quick search of the name “Trenin Bayless” brought up a profile on a site commonly used by researchers and academics in the STEM fields that featured a “Stonetoss Comics” profile photo. The use of a picture from the comic wasn’t enough to prove an identity, but it was a very good indicator that Trenin Bayless was familiar with the fascist cartoon. Since TurnCoat was already known to be a fan of the comic (having shared Stonetoss’ content on his Gab account multiple times), this was a positive sign that researchers were digging in the right direction.
Trenin Bayless was found in the Montana Tech directory. He’s listed as a Post Doc Researcher, which further matches what TurnCoat has said about himself.
Trenin Bayless’ Wife Shares an Alias with TurnCoat’s Alt
In Trenin Bayless’ thesis, he thanks his wife, mentioning her by both her legal name and her alias. In a stunning coincidence, his wife was found to go by the same last name that TurnCoat did on his Dissenter profile: MacSidhe.
(Additional research into Bayless’ background revealed that his middle name is Kurt.)
Bayless’ wife, Shiyan Sun, is named in this article not only because her alias, ‘Sunia MacSidhe’, provides a direct and crucial link between TurnCoat and Bayless, but also because she’s an active participant in her husband’s pro-societal collapse and militant training activities. For this reason, she cannot be considered naive or innocent, regardless of her ethnicity and status as a first-generation Chinese immigrant.
In one of the training videos posted on TurnCoat’s YouTube account, there are multiple shots of him and his wife on a camping trip. The couple in the video closely resembles Bayless and his wife.
As this article was in the final stages, ‘TurnCoat’ uploaded a new YouTube video where he, his wife and “the boys” went to the movie theater to watch “Civil War” – while dressed head to toe in LARP military swag.
Dude probably shouldn’t be trusted with any responsible decision-making, much less with mentoring students.
Trenin Bayless and TurnCoat Look Identical
Though it was already obvious that Trenin Bayless was the man (previously) only known as ‘TurnCoat’, it was still important to do a visual comparison.
Unsurprisingly, there’s an uncanny resemblance between TurnCoat and Bayless. Note the distinctive droopy eyes and the indent in his ear (both of which are distinct genetic features).
The lack of freckles seen in the video stills can be attributed to the use of filters, but the resemblance in all of their features can’t be explained away.
Trenin Bayless and TurnCoat Drive the Exact Same Vehicles
Trenin Bayless and ‘TurnCoat’ both happen to drive the exact same vehicles: a black Chevy Silverado 1500 and a blue Yamaha XVS V-Star 1100 motorcycle.
Conveniently, Trenin Bayless is currently running as a Republican for the Montana State Legislature in District 74. Because of that, his address is public information provided by the State of Montana. Lo and behold, the exact same vehicles TurnCoat has are parked in front of Bayless’ house.
While researchers have collected photos of Bayless’ residence and his vehicles, a Google Maps search of the address also shows both his truck and motorcycle parked on the street next to his home.
Note the sticker on the driver-side rear window.
A few modifications have been made to the bike’s saddlebags and seats since Google Maps captured it in 2021. A recent visit past Trenin’s house suggests his motorcycle might be in storage at the moment.
TurnCoat Advocates for Seizing Power from Within Bureaucies. Trenin Bayless Works for Them.
Trenin Bayless and TurnCoat have both worked in state bureaucracies.
In one Substack post, TurnCoat claimed to currently be working in an unnamed bureaucracy. The post was written during the period when Bayless worked for the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI).
While Bayless no longer works for OPI, his work there should be reexamined due to the high likelihood of it being done through the lens of a white nationalist with an obvious racial bias.
Considering that Bayless uses his TurnCoat persona to encourage covert white nationalists to take advantage of their connections inside of institutions to help get others like them into positions of power and influence, it raises the question as to whether his relationships with other white nationalists contributed to his hiring with the Office of Public Instruction, and whether he got others in after securing his own position.
It’s known that at least one of Bayless’ long-time friends going back to the alt-right white nationalist scene of 2017, Garrett Morrill, still works at OPI. This relationship, and what Bayless wrote in his Substack, begs many questions about what is going on at the Office of Public Instruction.
Trenin Bayless is TurnCoat
As detailed above, there are too many ‘coincidences’ between TurnCoat and Trenin Bayless to be explained away and the evidence provided is impossible to ignore.
The only reasonable conclusion is that Trenin Bayless is TurnCoat – and that the academic researcher with political aspirations lives a double life as a pseudo-intellectual, white-power accelerationist.
For Trenin Bayless, It’s All About Proximity to Power
In his public-facing roles in academia and politics, as well as in his secret life as a neo-nazi, Trenin Bayless’ main objective is to get as close to central leadership as possible in order to position himself and his like-minded friends to eventually seize control of both state institutions and groups of racist activists. They know their ideas are abhorrent, but they also know they can influence those whom others listen to if they can normalize themselves into society. And that is exactly what Bayless is hoping to achieve. But he is not a normal conservative, he is a neo-nazi and the white power movement will always come first in his list of priorities.
White Lives Matter: Trenin Bayless Has Close Connections to Montana State Leaders
Trenin Bayless is undoubtedly involved with the Montana chapter of White Lives Matter, as evidenced by his own posts in the group’s Telegram chat and through his admittedly close friendship relationship with ‘Unelectable’, who has been vying for control of the group since the arrest of WLM MT’s former leader, ‘Cleetus’ (real name: Sebastian Campbell).
Though WLM MT isn’t exactly what anyone would consider a powerful (or even influential) group, Bayless and his buddy appear to believe the group has potential – especially considering that most neo-nazis refuse to associate with Campbell, yet Bayless and Unelectable elected to hang out with him while he was still heading the hate group.
Ten months before Campbell’s arrest, Bayless visited Ceetus’ castle: the abandoned Old St. James Hospital in Butte, MT the former WLM leader had been living in squalor at the time (and where he claimed to have found human remains).
Cleetus guided Bayless through the abandoned, mold-infested, haunted hospital, and Bayless later posted the urban exploration footage on his YouTube.
In the comment section of his YouTube video, Bayless admitted to having connections to the WLM nazi and convicted felon.
Six months after the ghost-hunting LARP mission, Campbell launched a campaign to have a scheduled lecture given by Adria Jawort at the Butte library about the history of Two-Spirit people in Montana canceled.
He cited the now overturned (but at the time recently passed) law prohibiting “drag queens” from performing in public spaces like libraries. It didn’t matter that Jawort was not performing (or even giving the lecture) in drag. Neither did the fact that the talk wasn’t specifically intended for children. Her existence as a trans woman was enough for the County Attorney to cave to the demands from literal nazis and pressure the library to cancel the event.
It was no surprise to find that Bayless was among the neo-nazis and transphobes who popped up in the comments section when Jawort wrote about the incident. It’s almost as if the WLM MT neo-nazis tried (and failed) to coordinate a pile-on after the fact too.
Though it’s been suspected that he has participated in at least one of the hate group’s public rallies, the person believed to be Bayless concealed their identity just well enough that it couldn’t be definitively proven. But what is known, without a doubt, is that he actively contributes to WLM behind the scenes.
Local Politics: Trenin Bayless Encourages Fellow Fascists to Follow His Lead and Infiltrate the Republican Party
Trenin Bayless’ current run for state legislature isn’t his first foray into politics. In 2022, he ran for a Butte-Silver Bow County Commissioner seat and lost. Badly.
Even if he hadn’t been exposed, he’d likely have lost this current election as well. But the loss wouldn’t have been a total loss – not in the long term, anyway.
For an unknown candidate like Bayless, a run for office is an opportunity to appear legitimate. An unsuccessful campaign can still lead to a seat at the table, and, eventually, to the ear of someone who actually does have power and influence.
And it’s a safe bet that he, his friends, and other cryptofascists and covert neo-nazis will continue running for office or attempting to politic by proxy if they aren’t ejected immediately after being found out.
Even though the GOP in Montana has taken a far-right turn over the past decade (especially since 2020) it’s still difficult to imagine the Montana Republicans accepting that one of their own candidates has been advocating for fascists, neo-nazis, and other types of white nationalists to infiltrate their party by taking over groups like the Young Republicans and local elected offices.
Republicans should be alarmed that some of his calls to infiltrate their party were published in a propaganda outlet that serves as a mouthpiece for actual terrorists.
They should also make no mistake: Trenin Bayless does not support the Republican Party. Much like the Groypers in North Idaho who have attempted to take over the Republican Party there, he just sees it as a means to an end.
“Idiots With Ph.D.’s“: Trenin Bayless is Biding His Time and Making Plans to Purge His Department
Just a year after being hired by Montana Tech, Trenin Bayless made it clear that his career aspirations weren’t limited to teaching or excelling in his chosen field. While he’s laying low for now, he’s just waiting until he has full-time job security before attempting an academic purge at his alma mater.
While it’ll be a long time before Bayless can begin enacting that abuse of power fantasy, his current position provides him with ample opportunity to abuse his power in other ways.
As covered earlier in the article, he has argued specifically for the targeting of graduate students for recruitment into the white nationalist movement. Even though graduate students are adults, the power dynamics between students and faculty are not equal, and his specific targeting of the students he is charged with managing and acting as a sort of mentor for is nothing short of predatory behavior and it is entirely unacceptable.
He cares less about these students’ success in their education than he does their potential use for the white nationalist movement.
Trenin Bayless needs to be immediately dismissed from his position at Montana Tech and expelled from the larger academic community. He has proven – in his own words – why he should never be allowed around students.
This isn’t even touching on the fact that it would be extremely dangerous for the local community of Butte, MT (and society in general) for the university to continue to allow someone who supports violent social collapse and white-power accelerationist terrorism to be allowed access to chemicals and laboratories.
Bayless is also a fan of chemical weapons.
Seeing as how Trenin Bayless is 3D printing firearms, an audit should probably be done of the lab spaces he’s had access to. It would not be surprising in the least, considering what he’s written under his alias, if items and supplies were found to be missing.
Action Items
Trenin Bayless is a neo-nazi terrorist sympathizer who actively networks with other white supremacist accelerationists across the United States. It’s clear that he not only desires a violent collapse of society and the establishment of a fascist state, but that he is actively preparing for that goal.
He publicly endorses terrorist groups like Atomwaffen Division and the Taliban and encourages others to seek out weapons manuals and materials related to chemical warfare. He manufactures 3D-printed weapons and owns several high-power firearms.
Trenin Bayless is clearly a threat to society and has no business having access to political or academic power and influence.
The Republican Party Must Denounce the Candidacy of Trenin Bayless
Contact the Montana State Republican Party and politely inform them that their state legislature candidate for District 74 is an active neo-nazi masquerading as a conservative.
Politely contact your local Republican office and representatives to let them know that Trenin Bayless intends to infiltrate the Republican Party only to use its pre-existing infrastructure and established community trust to push his goal of establishing a fascist, white-only ethnostate.
Consider sending the Butte-Silverbow County Republicans a message on Facebook (although Butte Republicans are not very active and you might have to get creative to reach them).
Montana Technological University Needs to Immediately Sever Ties with Trenin Bayless
Politely contact Trenin Bayless’ department head and kindly insist that this neo-nazi is removed from both the department he works in and the University entirely.
Ask that they protect their staff (and their integrity) by ensuring that he and his hateful, violent ideology are not welcome in the Montana academic community.
Remind them of their responsibility to protect their students, and ask them to put a stop to his admittedly predatory practice of targeting (and possibly pressuring) them as potential recruits into the white-power movement.
The activities and beliefs of Trenin Bayless are a blatant violation of the values proclaimed by Montana Tech. While everyone is entitled to their own personal beliefs, using one’s academic training and connections to help advance domestic terrorist goals (the extermination of all Jews, non-whites, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and else anyone who doesn’t share their ideology of hate) is not a protected right or a free speech issue.
Feel free to reach out to the Montana Tech Leadership Team, whose job is to assist with fulfilling the university’s values, and politely inform them that Trenin Bayless is a white nationalist and that allowing him to remain with the university would counter their stated values.
The Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Should Exclude Trenin Bayless from Future Conferences
Please politely contact SME and inform them that one of their members, Trenin Bayless, is an active neo-nazi who is using their community for recruitment.
Let them know they probably shouldn’t invite a now-known white nationalist back again regardless of his knowledge regarding the synthesis of T1O2.
SME can be reached at cs@smenet.org
Trenin Bayless has attended out-of-state conferences with students (to protect their privacy, screenshots from the events were not included). It’s a shame that their incredible opportunity has to be soured by the fact that Bayless is a neo-nazi. The mining and metallurgy community needs to ensure this does not happen to any other students by immediately expelling Trenin Bayless.
| If anyone has any further information on Trenin Bayless or any other white nationalist in Montana or elsewhere, please reach out: fashfreenw[@]proton[.]me |