He was born in Poolesville, Maryland, in 1991. As a child, he was precocious and fond of reading, a hobby that he says made high school rough. His dad was a history teacher, and Heimbach became engrossed in history. On his 13th birthday, his parents gave him $100, and he spent it all on books about the two world wars.  âI was a huge nerd,â he says. As he got older, he got into Pat Buchanan and started thinking about the decline of Western culture. He read two Buchanan books,âSuicide of a Superpowerâ and âDeath of the West,â and became interested in demographics and how it informed the culture wars.  âI was a paleocon,â he says. âWhen I moved to Baltimore, I began reading Samuel Huntington and suddenly understood how white flight affected America and how our culture is dying. I started discussing these things with people and found that most people who disagreed with me used emotions and not facts. The facts I had were irrefutable, and I realized that if people get this angry, I just might be onto something. If something enrages people, it is probably worth saying.â  He and his friends at Towson founded a chapter of the now defunct nonprofit Youths for Western Civilization and went to work persuading their fellow students about the end of white culture. They picketed speakers and organizations that they disagreed with and once held an affirmative action bake sale, in which cookies were $2 for whites, $1.50 for Hispanics and $1 for blacks. When they went around campus chalking âwhite prideâ on the sidewalks, the school had enough and disbanded the chapter, and Heimbach formed the White Student Union instead.  âWhat is America?â Heimbach says as he pulls into a Waffle House on the outskirts of Cincinnati to pick up Tony and Scott, friends of his who are also party members. The members of the Traditional Workers Party often meet at the Waffle House, he explains, because of their love of brinner, or breakfast food for dinner.  âFascists love brinner,â says Heimbach, who then goes on to detail the answer to his question. âIn America the Constitution allows us to kill unborn children. Gays can get married. The government can spy on its citizens. That is what America is now. The American system is the enemy. Why shouldnât the South be allowed so secede? It doesnât have to be antagonistic. We would be better off, and so would the North. If San Francisco wants to have gay, transgender weddings, thatâs fine. Just leave my family and my community out of it. All Iâm talking about is self-determination. We have different views from the North, and I donât understand why that is a bad thing.â He believes that self-determination among ethnic and cultural lines would solve many of the countryâs ills, as much that has gone wrong in the U.S. can be traced to ethnic tension.  âWhy is Teach for America sending white, liberal teachers to educate kids in Detroit? Itâs the white savior complex. Black kids in Detroit should have strong black role models from Detroit that understand them. Black communities should be policed by a black police force and have black judges. Most of the people who attack me and call me names are white saviors. The black community doesnât need us to speak for them and stand up for them. They can stand up for themselves.â
On the evening of June 17th, Matt Heimbach got a phone call from the FBI asking if he knew a Dylann Roof. They probably called Heimbach since he's the next generation of white nationalism.