Brought to public attention by
Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein in the
book on the fall of Richard Nixon, All The President’s Men, ratfucker was Nixon’s term for a political operative who sows chaos among opponents; an agent provocateur. It is thought to have originated among campus political rivalries at USC, and seems to have some usage in the US military.
Along with Nixon’s other ratfuckers, Roger
Stone caused fights at otherwise peaceful
Democratic Party protests to generate a false narrative that the Democrats were violent and
dangerous.