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Chris Hill led the Three Percent Security Force for years, but it appears that the organization may be nearing its end. Six of nine chapters Hill led recently abandoned him, according to members鈥� posts on social media. Then those branches aligned with the leader of the group's Ohio chapter, Skylar Steward, a former member ousted by Hill. Together, they formed American Constitutional Elites. Hatewatch could not determine the status of the other three chapters.

Michael Ubriaco, who uses the name Mike Rage on Facebook and belongs to the Three Percenter movement, commented about the perpetual upheaval. 鈥淛esus christ!!!!!!! Here we go again,鈥� he wrote in a Facebook post. 鈥淚 love everyone but this is why I stay independent. This drama is too much, and the reason Patriots can鈥檛 get shit right.鈥�

Events of the last five years support Ubriaco's聽views about dissension within antigovernment militias.

Machismo, the hyper-individualism of radical libertarian philosophy and聽paranoid conspiracy theories create obstacles for unity in the militia movement. And for a movement that fancies itself a private army, criminality, petty rivalries and a lack of military-style discipline are often its undoing.

Hill, a former Marine who calls himself 鈥淕eneral Bloodagent,鈥� demanded that his state chapters stop using Facebook Messenger to discuss plans for a November protest in Virginia. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Hill聽directed some of his anger about that practice toward聽Steward, who calls himself a first lieutenant, and his father, Hank.

Using Skylar Steward鈥檚 moniker, 鈥淪kydog,鈥� Hill wrote to followers: 鈥淪kydog resigned weeks ago, he just didn鈥檛 know it. When command voted to limit command to COs and XOs only, Skylar left the command under protest. If anyone pissed away a good run 鈥� it was Hank and Skylar. Hope your f------聽Facebook messenger chat was worth it.鈥�

CO and XO refer to the military rank of commanding officer and executive officer, respectively.

Months earlier, Hill got into a heated exchange with a Virginia-based militiaman who took issue with the Three Percent Security Force for not asking his permission to enter Virginia for the November protest.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want a bunch of uninvited invaders coming into my state causing a big shit show up there in northern Virginia,鈥� a member identified as Larry Lewis of Ghost Squad Three Percent told Hill, according to a recording of a phone conversation between the men that Hill later posted in a video. 鈥淎nd then you all go home and we鈥檙e left to clean up the mess and live with what you all do.鈥�

The conversation continued to devolve until Hill ended it with an obscene recommendation.

鈥淪o you can put a d---聽in your ear and f---聽what you heard about me,鈥� Hill said before hanging up.

This type of controlling leadership and the petty squabbles that have characterized the movement appear to signal the beginning of the end for Three Percent Security Force.

Within days of Hill鈥檚 order to stop using Messenger, six of the nine chapters aligned with Steward, another ex-Marine, to form the American Constitutional Elites. Chapters from Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, New York and Texas posted their defections to their Facebook pages. As those posts went live, a fellow Three Percent comrade turned combative.

A member of the Wyoming chapter who uses the name Tom Myers and the moniker 鈥淩ed Dog鈥� initially said his chapter was sticking with Hill.

鈥淭o all weak minded patriots who feel a need to broadcast their cowardly separation from 3SF [Three Percent Security Force] to the world, you need to man up and shut the f---聽up. No one cares what groups your in or left. 鈥� Wyoming will stay with 3SF. 鈥� Our adversarys will not infiltrate us and break us up like so many are doing from within.鈥� Myers subsequently deleted that post, and Hatewatch cannot determine the membership status of the Wyoming chapter or its allegiance to Hill or Steward.

With a majority of chapters defecting from Hill, Steward is primed to inherit an already existing network of dedicated followers. Those members were part of a group deemed extreme even by many Three Percenters, including the movement鈥檚 founder, the late Michael Brian Vanderboegh. Vanderboegh once described Hill and his followers as 鈥渁 megalomaniac and the group that supports him.鈥�

Steward quickly acknowledged receiving a ready-made organization that Hill built. In an Aug. 27 Facebook video post, Steward said: 鈥淎s soon as the issues happened, within five minutes another channel was up and people were rolling in like, 鈥楬ey, what are we doing? What can we do? How can we do it? How do we move forward?鈥欌�� Earlier in the video, he said the group would use Three Percent Security Force鈥檚 previously established standard operating procedures.

Steward made another declaration: 鈥淲e will not fall into the bullshit. We will not fall into the drama.鈥�

However, division and drama have dogged militias and the broader antigovernment movement for years. A perfect example occurred in 2014 when the Oath Keepers split from a network of militiamen during the Bundy family standoff.

The Oath Keepers and聽militias supported Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his family against the Bureau of Land Management, which wanted him to pay 20 years of past-due grazing fees and fines for using federal land. Bundy asserted the federal government lacked authority to manage federal land. The Bundys soon accepted support from militias, which flocked from across the United States for a showdown with the government.

But the president of the Oath Keepers, Army veteran Stewart Rhodes, called on his followers to retreat, fearing a government drone strike on the extremists鈥� camp. The militia alliance, commanded by fellow Army veteran Ryan Payne, turned on the Oath Keepers and called Rhodes a traitor who was guilty of dereliction of duty and desertion.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e lucky that you鈥檙e not getting shot in the back,鈥� Payne said of Rhodes in a video taken from the paramilitary camp. 鈥淏ecause that鈥檚 what happens to deserters on the battlefield.鈥�

Rhodes later described Payne and his followers in a video as a 鈥渂unch of hotheads鈥� and a 鈥渢icking time bomb鈥� who weren鈥檛 鈥渦nder sufficient command and control.鈥�

A later standoff shows how the militia movement can descend easily into chaos.

The 2016 armed seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, also was聽plagued by self-destruction and competing visions聽within the movement. The occupation鈥檚 leaders, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, Cliven鈥檚 sons, sought to build upon the standoff two years earlier and split from a peaceful protest to occupy a public building on the refuge. Influential members of the antigovernment movement opposed the occupation.

Ironically, the Three Percent of Idaho 鈥� one of the groups that condemned the armed takeover 颅鈥� fractured following allegations that its leader, , reportedly used militia funds for personal expenses.

Rhodes and his Oath Keepers and Richard Mack of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association also opposed this occupation. Mack, a former sheriff in Arizona, endorses the far-right idea that sheriffs have the right to prevent federal agents from enforcing laws that local officers deem unconstitutional. Even Alex Jones, arguably America鈥檚 most influential conspiracy propagandist and key contributor to the contemporary Patriot movement worldview, decried the occupation as a potential 鈥渇alse flag.鈥�

Inside the wildlife refuge-turned-combat outpost,聽a聽聽between militants and members of an outside group, Veterans on Patrol. There were also accusations of 鈥渟tolen valor鈥� 鈥� a term used to describe falsely claiming military affiliation 鈥� against militants who made up or exaggerated their military ties within a movement that fetishizes militarism.

The chaos surrounding the southern border-based United Constitutional Patriots (UCP)聽illustrates the volatile nature of antigovernment extremist groups. The paramilitary group made news after uploading videos on Facebook showing members dressed in military-style clothing. The group, in a press release, also claimed it was working with Border Patrol to stem illegal immigration, an assertion the federal law enforcement agency refuted.

Then came the rift.

A UCP member, Steven Brant, filed a report with the Sunland Park, New Mexico, police accusing another member of making 鈥渢erroristic threats,鈥� according to 听补苍诲 . Armando Delgado Gonzalez allegedly asked why immigrants weren鈥檛 being lined up and shot and championed the return of gas chambers from 鈥淗itler days.鈥� Gonzalez later told BuzzFeed that he did not make those comments.

After the police report surfaced, UCP spokesman Jim Benvie split from the organization.

Benvie鈥檚 new group, Guardian Patriots, included a handful of former UCP members. The group eventually crumbled after 聽with two counts of impersonating a U.S. officer or employee in June. If convicted, Benvie faces up to three years in prison, .

Last fall, Patriots of the Constitution, another far-right group mobilizing around the southern border, severed ties with UCP听补苍诲 its leader Larry Mitchell Hopkins 鈥� aka Johnny Horton Jr. Jim Peyton, leader of Patriots of the Constitution, soon broke off from his own group, though he reserved the right to retain his rank in the Patriot movement.

鈥淚, General James F, Peyton, do hereby submit this letter of resignation to General Terry Kelley of the Patriots of The Constitution,鈥� Peyton posted on Facebook. 鈥淚 will still retain the rank of General that was given to me by former Commander, prior to General Kelley, and will be willing to assist any Patriot group in need of assistance.鈥�

Like these other groups, Three Percent Security Force has a history of abrasive leadership and self-starting militants splitting off to take the offensive.

In 2016, three Kansas Three Percent Security Force members splintered from the parent organization to create 鈥淭he Crusaders.鈥� The men thought neither the government nor apparently the militias were doing enough to combat the 聽in the United States.

础蝉听reported by Hatewatch, group members plotted an attack 鈥� brainstorming ideas such as arson, kidnapping听补苍诲 rape 鈥� before deciding on using improvised explosive devices to demolish a mosque and an apartment complex housing more than 100 Somali immigrants and Muslims. An undercover FBI operation foiled their plans, and a judge sentenced聽the three men聽to 30, 25 and 26 years behind bars.

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