On October 14, Politico published a report exposing a months-long fascist Telegram chat among Young Republican leaders from New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. The chat was published the same day the Trump administration and Republican Party leadership venerated racist Republican propagandist Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The Young Republicans are the youth faction of the Republican Party, which holds the American presidency and both chambers of Congress. The organization’s stated mission is to “train future leaders of the United States, and elect Republican candidates.”
In the leaked messages, the Republican operatives expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, their hatred of minorities, and joked about rape, slavery and mass murder.
Politico obtained more than 2,900 pages of chats, exchanged between January and August 2025. Participants in the chat include:
Peter Giunta, former chair of New York State Young Republicans and chief of staff to New York State Assembly member Michael Reilly. Giunta joked about sending political opponents to “the gas chamber.”
Giunta, head of the “Restore Young Republican” faction, was previously endorsed by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Trump-crony Roger Stone to lead the Young Republican National Federation, an election he lost earlier this year.
In his endorsement of Giunta and the “Restore YR” slate he led, Stone explained to Politico it was “simply because they are most closely aligned with President Trump and the America First Movement within the Republican Party.”
In the chat, Giunta said he was “going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers” in the Young Republicans.
Joe Maligno, who previously identified as general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans on LinkedIn, replied to Guinta’s above message, “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic.”
Annie Kaykaty, national committee member for the New York Young Republicans, replied to Maligno, “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”
In a different thread, Giunta used genocidal and racist language, while venting against Young Republicans that were supporting a rival faction to lead the Young Republican National Federation: “Maryland—fat stinky Jew … Rhode Island—traitorous c---s who I will eradicate from the face of this planet.”
Luke Mosiman, chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, suggested “RAPE HAYDEN” about rival Young Republican National Federation chair Hayden Padgett, and floated tying an opponent to white supremacist groups.
Bobby Walker, former staffer for New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, replied to one message, “Stay in the closet f*ggot.” In another thread, Walker replied enthusiastically to colonial sexual violence. When one member of the group said it was not sex but “rape,” Walker replied, “Epic.”
The messages shared on the chat are not those of fringe internet trolls. They are political operatives and aspiring leaders of the Republican Party, including state chairs, national committee members, legislative aides, one state senator and a current Trump administration official.
Current Vermont State Senator and Young Republican Samuel Douglass, 27, was also active in the chat. Politico reported that he described in a message that a rival faction’s “Jewish colleagues” may have made a procedural error during the convention.
Brianna Douglass, wife of Samuel and a member of the Vermont Young Republicans national committee replied, “I was about to say you’re giving nationals to [sic] much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest.”
The current chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, Alex Dwyer, and his vice chair, William Hendrix, were active participants in the chat. Following the publication of the article, the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, Danedri Herbert, who is black, announced the Kansas Young Republicans organization was inactive.
In one chat, Dwyer informed Giunta that a member of Michigan’s Young Republicans and his delegates told him they will vote “for the most right wing person.”
“Great. I love Hitler,” Giunta replied. Dwyer reacted with a smiley face emoji.
In another chat, a member of the group asked participants to guess which hotel room they were staying in. Dwyer replied, “1488,” a reference to white supremacy and Adolf Hitler.
Until Tuesday, Hendrix held a communications job in the office of Attorney General Kris Kobach. In a message to Politico, Kobach said, “As soon as the office learned of those messages, Will Hendrix’s employment was terminated.” It is unclear if both will remain members of the organization once it is “reactivated.”
Michael Bartels is the only person in the chat, so far, to have been revealed to be currently working in the Trump administration. Politico reported that Bartels, a senior adviser in the office of general counsel in the US Small Business Administration (SBA), “did not have much to say in the chat, but he didn’t offer any pushback against the offensive rhetoric in it either.”
The glorification of Hitler and fascism in organizations such as the Young Republicans, an organization that exists to groom the next generation of bourgeois politicians to run congressional campaigns, staff committees, and eventually hold public office, underscores the deep integration of these far-right elements into the official Republican Party apparatus and the US government. It is also proof that fascism in America is not bubbling up spontaneously from below, but is being consciously cultivated from above.
The day after Politico’s report, a second fascist revelation emerged: US Capitol Police launched an investigation after an American flag altered to include a swastika was discovered inside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio). A photo of the altered USA/Nazi flag was first posted on X by left-leaning political blogger D.J. Byrnes, who posts under the handle @rooster_ohio.
Byrnes wrote on X, “A friend in DC had a Zoom Call with Congressman Dave Taylor’s office today… Taylor’s legislative correspondent, Angelo Elia, had what can only be described as an American swastika flag prominently displayed in his background.”
Taylor issued a perfunctory statement claiming the incident did not “reflect the values” of his office and suggesting it may have been an act of vandalism.
In a post on X the night the chats were exposed, Vice President JD Vance leapt to the defense of the Hitler-lovers and racists in the chats. Vance dismissed the content as “kids making jokes” and denounced calls for accountability as an attack on free speech. He doubled down the following day in an appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, referring to the Republican operatives—many in their late twenties—as “kids” and insisting that he would not “cancel” them for “telling a stupid joke.”
The hypocrisy is staggering. Vance’s defense of fascists who joked about gas chambers and rape came less than 24 hours after the administration he serves in boasted of cancelling visas of foreign nationals who had mocked Kirk’s death on social media. It is the same administration that has imprisoned visa holders such as Mahmoud Khalil for posting speech critical of the genocide in Gaza.
The jailing and threatened deportation of Khalil is instructive. The cultivation and promotion of fascist elements within the US government is only possible due to the complicity of the Democratic Party. The Democrats, which to this day refer to the Republicans as their “colleagues,” joined Rep. Stefanik and other fascists in denouncing protests against the Gaza genocide as “antisemitic,” paving the way for Trump’s attacks on universities, immigrants and the democratic rights of everyone.
The simultaneous glorification of Kirk and exposure of the Nazi chats reveal that fascism is not an organic product of the working class or a case of “extremists on both sides.” Fascism is cultivated by the capitalist class from above, financed by billionaires, platformed by the state and integrated into the official political apparatus.
Faced with growing opposition to the genocide in Gaza, inequality and immigration gestapo raids, the US ruling class is turning to dictatorial forms of rule. The US economy is deteriorating, with back-to-back private sector job losses, historic federal resignations and mass layoffs across virtually every industry.
The capitalist class is responding to rising discontent across the world with attacks on democratic rights and military buildups. It is preparing the most extreme measures to defend its wealth and power. The glorification of Kirk and the grooming of fascist cadres within the Republican Party are part of this process.