Racist group chatters are exactly the Young Republicans Trump created | Opinion

A Politico investigation this week exposed 2,900 pages of leaked group chats from Young Republican leaders across Kansas, New York, Arizona and Vermont. In the messages, the GOP’s rising stars joked about gas chambers, called rape “epic,” praised Adolf Hitler and casually dropped racial slurs, all while coordinating their takeover of the Young Republican National Federation. The Kansas group’s chair Alex Dwyer and vice chair William Hendrix were active in the messages, with Dwyer replying with a smiley face to a comment, “I love Hitler.” Hendrix, who has now been fired from his communications job in GOP Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office, made crude remarks in the chain about Black and gay people.

But as I was reading through the messages, it wasn’t the offensive language that struck me the most. It was an absence I felt. Among these young people, there were no Mitt Romneys. There were no John McCains. There were no Liz Cheneys. Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party is not complete at every level — there are still boomer old guard Republicans, trust me — but our not-the-most-youthful leader might have the most coverage among the newest members of the GOP. Perhaps it’s because they don’t know another Republican Party. Perhaps it’s because young people are always more brazen.

But most likely, it’s because Trump asked for this.

One of the biggest stories of 2024 was Trump’s gains among young voters, especially young men (who dominate the Politico story, though women are present in the chat). This was no accident. Trump spent the campaign courting young men with his frequent appearances on the podcasts that comprise the “manosphere” — Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Andrew Schulz and others. But Trump’s tactic was broader than any single podcast host, nor are all these podcast hosts traditionally right-wing.

But throughout his campaign, and his entire political career, Trump has worked to validate young men’s resentment. MAGA has effectively told this audience that political correctness is tyranny, that the country once belonged to them and will again, that they deserve subservient so-called “tradwives” and that the real victims in America are men who can’t say whatever they want anymore. So why is it now that anyone is genuinely surprised to see a group chat full of young Republicans referring to Black Americans as “the watermelon people” and discussing whether gas chambers fit “the Hitler aesthetic?”

And let’s not forget Trump himself has ventured into this kind of language with Young Republicans. Speaking to the New York chapter in 2023, he talked about “crooked Joe Biden’s banana republic.”

Romney, Cheney knew civility matters

Trump’s takeover of young people extends beyond this group chat. In a Politico profile of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Adam Wren writes: “Trumpism came naturally to her. She grew up, she has said, with Fox News playing in her working-class house. But she had no loyalty to the pre-Trump Republican Party.” He appealed to young people because they were, well, available.

I don’t want to offer excessive praise to the Romneys and Cheneys of the world. I vote for Democrats because — despite their many shortcomings — I’ve always believed the Democratic Party does a better job helping the most vulnerable members of society. I could never get behind Romney and his 47% outlook. But still, this heinous group chat made me miss the Republicans who at least understood that civility matters, sometimes. That hatred fuels hatred, and turning down the temperature works.

And it’s not the first time this week I missed the old Republican Party. When Trump gutted funds for the department that oversees special education, I found myself nostalgic for the McCain-era Republicans who made special ed a priority. Yes, it connected to their beliefs about restricting reproductive access. But it was better than this!

I also don’t want to be too hard on the Young Republicans themselves. I can’t defend this group chat — they’re adults, responsible for their actions. But I am a creature of the internet, and I understand how much propaganda we’re all ingesting. And the blame lies beyond just the members of the text thread. The Young Republicans in these chats are exactly what the party ordered when it decided that “owning the libs” was a viable political philosophy, and that the best way to reach young men was to validate their worst impulses.

GOP leaders were quick to condemn the chats as “vile” and “inexcusable” (except Vice President JD Vance, of course), as if they didn’t spend years building an entire brand around the idea that being offensive is brave. That anyone asking you to moderate your language is the real authoritarian.

You can’t spend a decade assuring young men that their anger is righteous and anyone who disagrees is censoring them, then act surprised when this happens. These are the Young Republicans Trump asked for.

Ginny Hogan is a Baltimore-based stand-up comic and writer.

This story was originally published October 15, 2025 at 12:10 PM.