Young US Republicans caught praising Hitler and rape

An exposé in Politico has drawn attention to young Republicans making some incredibly unseemly comments:

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇 https://t.co/yvz8Jwbrmf

— POLITICO (@politico) October 14, 2025

Running the gambit from gross to genocidal, the leaked messages show that young Republicans aren’t much different to the Republicans of 1925.

Young Americans

Although they refer to themselves as ‘young’, these people range from 18 to 40. This is probably fair enough, however, given that the sitting Republican president is 79.

As you can see below, a lot of the messages are seemingly ironic, using a similar tone to message boards like 4chan or 8chan:

While ‘irony’ has long been used to excuse this sort of talk, it’s beyond apparent that these people want a world which matches their rhetoric.

It’s not for nothing that these youngsters support a president who is black bagging citizens and banishing them to an El Salvadorian torture facility; a president who is clamping down on free speech and freedom of expression; a president who let Israel conduct a genocide for months before growing tired of the blowback and bringing Netanyahu to heel.

Speaking on this same point, Politico interviewed Joe Feagin, a sociology professor who’s studied racism for the past 60 years. This is what he had to say:

The more the political atmosphere is open and liberating — like it has been with the emergence of Trump and a more right wing GOP even before him — it opens up young people and older people to telling racist jokes, making racist commentaries in private and public.

He added:

It’s chilling, of course, because they will act on these views.

Others have commented on the story too:

This is William Hendrix, Vice Chair of the Kansas Young Republicans and former staffer to Attorney General Kris Kobach. A new Politico report reveals that he used the N-word and homophobic slurs in a Republican group chat.

RETWEET to let Kansas know what @WilliamJHendrix said! pic.twitter.com/QJhlQxvS6h

— Protect Kamala Harris ✊ (@DisavowTrump20) October 14, 2025

Here is @MikeJohnson taking selfies with Bobby Walker….the one that texted “rape is epic” in the Young Republicans group chat pic.twitter.com/c3k5a5Crw6

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) October 15, 2025

🚨 The “bad apples” defense just got incinerated.

New York Gov. Hochul SLAMS the young Republicans behind the leaked group chat fantasizing about gas chambers and rape:

“These are the future of the Republican Party… Kick them out. This bullshit has to stop.” pic.twitter.com/bSVyuvqMiw

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) October 15, 2025

Peter Giunta, Chairman of the New York State Young Republicans.

Just putting it out there. pic.twitter.com/OB6Z2LV7ax

— Rogue POTUS Staff (@RoguePOTUSStaff) October 15, 2025

A fish rots from the head

It’s not surprising that Young Republicans would have opinions from the 1930s when this is their leader:

A Politico analysis of more than 20 of Trump’s rallies and campaign events shows Trump has demonized minority groups in all of them. A shocking supercut of a racist bigot running for President: pic.twitter.com/tytlscU1Xb

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 12, 2024

Trump ignores a question from a female reporter but says, “I just like to watch her talk. Good job. Thank you, darling.”pic.twitter.com/OjXO7spkeg

— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) October 14, 2025

While America gagged at the content of these chat logs, vice president JD Vance engaged in a bit of ‘whataboutism’:

According to JD Vance, it’s not REALLY “political violence” when your party’s Young Republican base fantasizes about building gas chambers, praises Hitler, and calls for the mass murder and mass rape of your political opponents. https://t.co/2ZpqTtbOcV pic.twitter.com/N1YTWZwDJc

— Benjamin Ze’ev 📚🎻🏺 (@ArchaeoBenjamin) October 15, 2025

While the message Vance highlights is pretty bad, it’s hard to argue it’s worse than ‘I love Hitler’.

You know – unless you also feel some sort of way about Hitler.

This would make sense, I guess, given that Vance once compared Trump to Hitler, and now he’s the president’s yappiest lapdog.

Vance has gone from calling Trump “Hitler” to defending people who say they “love Hitler”.

Shameful stuff – and so dangerous to those of us who aren’t white, including his own kids. https://t.co/Uk7psuxlmD

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 15, 2025

Although Vance has struggled to diminish the repulsiveness of these messages, he has made one thing clear; it’s not just the young Republicans who are comfortable with this sort of thing.

Featured image via Politico