Bigotry in GOP ranks is getting harder for party leaders to ignore共和党内部的偏见问题越来越难以被党内领导人忽视。
For a brief period last year, portions of the Republican Party seemed to recognize that their party had racism and antisemitism problems in their midst that needed to be reckoned with.
Callaghan O'Hare/Reuters/File
For a brief period last year, portions of the Republican Party seemed to recognize that their party had racism and antisemitism problems in their midst that needed to be reckoned with.
Then, prompted by Vice President JD Vance , they largely dropped the subject.
But now those concerns have come roaring pack, thanks to public comments from influential figures and disclosures about more private activities of staffers.
A number of prominent Republicans , including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, have denounced racist social media posts this weekend from the GOP nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, Bo French.
French posted an image of brown-skinned students at Saturday night’s University of Texas football game and said the replacement of Americans by foreigners is “ everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine .” French suggested those responsible “ hate white Americans .”
On Monday, French cast the criticism of his weekend posts as “the establishment” coming for him. “It’s no surprise that the less-conservative people in Texas are the ones attacking me,” he said on “the Mark Davis Show,” according to the Texas Tribune .
(French also posted on social media last year asking whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat. Since then, he won the GOP nomination in May.)
Meanwhile, the campaign of Ohio Sen. Jon Husted in recent days parted ways with a top staffer who once used a photo of a Nazi SS soldier as his Facebook profile photo, among other questionable pursuits.
But that’s just the latest staffer to be the subject of such a report. And these are merely the latest in a long line of episodes since President Donald Trump returned to office that suggest the party has a real problem on its hands.
That problem should be getting harder for the GOP to ignore. But the party has struggled to deal with it, in part, because some of the racism and xenophobia has come directly from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — and Trump has in many ways spurred his party on, including with his comments about Muslims and his campaign’s false claims during the 2024 campaign about Haitian immigrants.
“Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized,” Cornyn wrote on X in response to French’s post. “This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”
Below is a recap of the problematic episodes since Trump returned to office.
Early 2025: Trump’s State Department hires a former White House aide who was fired during Trump’s first term after CNN revealed he appeared at a conference alongside White nationalists .
May 2025: Rep. Randy Fine of Florida calls Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan a “Muslim terrorist” on X.
June 2025 : French, then a local county GOP chairman, asks in a social media poll whether Jews or Muslims are the bigger threat to America . He later deletes the post and apologizes.
June 2025 : Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas responds to video of then-New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani eating rice with this hands by telling him to “ go back to the Third World .”
July 2025 : Fine calls Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota a “terrorist.”
September 2025 : Trump posts an AI-generated fake video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero , supposedly because he supported health care coverage for undocumented migrants.
October 2025 : Politico reports on leaked chats showing prominent Young Republicans referring to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people,” using variations on a racial slur for Black people, saying “I Love Hitler,” and talking about putting their opponents in gas chambers. (The national Young Republicans group denounces the language.)
October 2025 : Politico reports that Trump’s nominee to lead a whistleblower agency allegedly texted a group chat that he has a “Nazi streak,” used an Italian slur for Black people, and wrote, “Never trust a chinaman or Indian.” (His lawyer questions the authenticity of the messages, but his nomination is withdrawn — although he later picks up a new job in the administration.)
November 2025 : Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee says on a podcast that Muslims are trying to “ breed their way through our society .”
December 2025: Trump calls Somali immigrants in Minnesota “garbage” who should “go back to where they came from.”
December 2025 : Trump admits that he once referred to heavily Black countries like Haiti as “ sh*thole countries .”
February : Trump posts a video on social media that depicts the Obamas as apes , later saying it was a mistake and blaming a staffer but refusing to apologize.
February : Fine, the Florida congressman, posts: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one .”
February : Trump says of Tlaib and Omar that “we should send them back from where they came. ” (Tlaib was born in the United States; Omar in Somalia.)
March : Ogles posts on social media: “ Muslims don’t belong in American society .” The Tennessee congressman adds: “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back .”
May : Slate reports that the chief of staff to Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia participated in a group chat with Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer , both who have been prominent antisemites and White nationalists, where they talked about how to assist a far-right activist who has questioned the Holocaust. (The chief of staff says in a statement that he was acting in his “personal capacity” and not at the direction of Collins.)
July : CNN’s KFile reports that Collins’ son-in-law, with whom the congressman has openly associated, is “ a pro-White nationalist and social media influencer with a track record of sharing antisemitic material and Nazi imagery.”
August : Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama calls Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “TERRORIST,” while other Republicans suggestively use El-Sayed’s full first name, Abdulrahman.
August : The Washington Post reports that a young former Collins intern recently shared images on social media of a swastika and one that depicts himself in Ku Klux Klan robes , as well as repeatedly posting a racial slur for Black people and the phrase “White Power.” (The staffer says Collins wasn’t aware of his posts because they were private; Collins’ campaign doesn’t answer the Post’s questions about him.)
August : Laura Loomer, a prominent influencer in Trump’s orbit, calls Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon a “ ghetto black communist b*tch ,” repeatedly re-posting the first three words about her.
September : The Washington Post reports that a 25-year-old top campaign aide to Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio formerly used a photo of a Nazi SS soldier as his Facebook profile photo. (Husted’s campaign tells the Post they decided to “part ways.”)
September : French, now the GOP nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, posts the image of brown-skinned fans at a University of Texas football game and criticizes the school for admitting so many of them.
卡拉汉·奥黑尔/路透社/档案照片
去年曾有一段时间，共和党内部部分人士似乎意识到，他们的党内存在种族主义和反犹太主义问题，需要正视这些问题。
然后，在副总裁 JD Vance 的推动下，他们基本上放弃了这个话题。
但现在，由于有影响力的人物发表公开评论以及披露员工的更多私人活动，这些担忧已经愈演愈烈。
包括德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁在内的多位知名共和党人，本周末谴责了共和党德克萨斯州铁路专员候选人博·弗伦奇在社交媒体上发布的种族主义言论。
弗伦奇在社交媒体上发布了一张周六晚德克萨斯大学橄榄球赛现场棕色皮肤学生的照片，并表示用外国人取代美国人的现象“无处不在，而且比我们任何人想象的都要糟糕得多”。弗伦奇暗示，那些始作俑者“仇恨白人美国人”。
周一，弗伦奇将针对他周末帖子的批评归咎于“当权派”对他的打压。据《德克萨斯论坛报》报道，他在“马克·戴维斯秀”节目中表示：“德克萨斯州那些不那么保守的人攻击我，这并不奇怪。”
（弗兰奇去年还在社交媒体上发帖询问犹太人和穆斯林哪个威胁更大。此后，他在五月份赢得了共和党总统候选人提名。）
与此同时，俄亥俄州参议员乔恩·赫斯特的竞选团队近日与一名高级工作人员分道扬镳，该工作人员曾使用纳粹党卫军士兵的照片作为其 Facebook 个人资料照片，此外还有其他一些可疑行为。
但这只是最新一位成为此类报道对象的员工。而自唐纳德·特朗普总统重返白宫以来，一系列事件层出不穷，这些事件表明共和党确实面临着严峻的问题。
共和党应该越来越难以忽视这个问题。但该党一直难以应对，部分原因是某些种族主义和仇外情绪直接来自宾夕法尼亚大道1600号——特朗普在很多方面都助长了共和党的这种风气，包括他对穆斯林的言论以及他在2024年竞选期间关于海地移民的虚假指控。
科宁在X网站上回应弗伦奇的帖子时写道：“其他共和党民选官员会谴责这种不宽容和种族主义吗？还是会视而不见，任由它正常化？这就是伟大的政党自我毁灭的方式。可悲。”
以下是对特朗普重返总统职位以来出现的问题事件的回顾。
2025 年初：特朗普的国务院聘用了一位前白宫助理，该助理在特朗普第一任期内被解雇，此前 CNN 披露他曾与白人民族主义者一起出现在一个会议上。
2025 年 5 月：佛罗里达州众议员兰迪·芬恩在 X 上称密歇根州众议员拉希达·特莱布为“穆斯林恐怖分子”。
2025年6月：时任当地共和党县主席的弗伦奇在社交媒体上发起投票，询问犹太人和穆斯林哪个对美国构成更大的威胁。他随后删除了该帖子并道歉。
2025 年 6 月：德克萨斯州众议员布兰登·吉尔 (Brandon Gill) 回应了当时纽约市长候选人佐兰·马姆达尼 (Zohran Mamdani) 用这双手吃米饭的视频，并告诉他“滚回第三世界去”。
2025 年 7 月：费恩称明尼苏达州众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔为“恐怖分子”。
2025 年 9 月：特朗普发布了一段人工智能生成的虚假视频，视频中众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯戴着墨西哥帽，据称是因为他支持为无证移民提供医疗保健。
2025年10月：《政客》杂志报道，泄露的聊天记录显示，一些知名的共和党青年将黑人称为猴子和“西瓜人”，使用了各种形式的种族歧视性词语，还说了“我爱希特勒”，并讨论将反对者送进毒气室。（共和党青年组织全国分部谴责了这些言论。）
2025年10月：据Politico报道，特朗普提名的举报人机构负责人据称在群聊中发短信称自己有“纳粹倾向”，使用了对黑人的意大利式侮辱性词语，并写道：“永远不要相信中国人或印度人。”（他的律师质疑这些信息的真实性，但他的提名被撤回——尽管他后来在政府部门获得了新的职位。）
2025 年 11 月：田纳西州众议员安迪·奥格尔斯在播客节目中表示，穆斯林正试图“通过繁衍后代来融入我们的社会”。
2025 年 12 月：特朗普称明尼苏达州的索马里移民是“垃圾”，应该“回到他们来的地方”。
2025 年 12 月：特朗普承认他曾将海地等黑人人口众多的国家称为“粪坑国家”。
二月：特朗普在社交媒体上发布了一段视频，将奥巴马夫妇描绘成猿猴，后来称这是一个错误，并将责任归咎于一名工作人员，但拒绝道歉。
二月：佛罗里达州国会议员费恩发帖称：“如果他们强迫我们做出选择，那么在狗和穆斯林之间做出选择并不难。”
二月：特朗普谈到特莱布和奥马尔时说，“我们应该把她们送回她们来的地方。”（特莱布出生于美国；奥马尔出生于索马里。）
三月：奥格尔斯在社交媒体上发帖称：“穆斯林不属于美国社会。”这位田纳西州国会议员还补充道：“穆斯林无法融入美国社会；他们都应该回去。”
五月：据Slate报道，佐治亚州众议员、参议员候选人迈克·柯林斯的幕僚长参与了一个与尼克·富恩特斯和理查德·斯宾塞的群聊，富恩特斯和斯宾塞都是知名的反犹主义者和白人民族主义者。在群聊中，他们讨论了如何帮助一位质疑纳粹大屠杀的极右翼活动人士。（幕僚长在一份声明中表示，他的行为是“个人行为”，并非受柯林斯指示。）
7 月：据 CNN 的 KFile 报道，科林斯的女婿（这位国会议员曾公开与他交往）是“一位亲白人民族主义者和社交媒体影响者，有分享反犹太主义材料和纳粹图像的记录”。
八月：阿拉巴马州参议员汤米·图伯维尔称密歇根州民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德为“恐怖分子”，而其他共和党人则暗示性地使用埃尔-赛义德的全名阿卜杜勒拉赫曼。
八月：《华盛顿邮报》报道，一位年轻的前科林斯实习生最近在社交媒体上分享了纳粹标志和一张他身穿三K党长袍的照片，并多次发布针对黑人的种族歧视性言论和“白人至上”的口号。（该工作人员称科林斯并不知情，因为这些帖子是私密的；科林斯的竞选团队没有回应《华盛顿邮报》关于此事的询问。）
八月：特朗普圈子里一位颇具影响力的人物劳拉·卢默称佛罗里达州民主党参议员候选人安吉·尼克松为“贫民窟黑人共产主义婊子”，并反复转发了关于她的前三个字。
9月：《华盛顿邮报》报道，俄亥俄州参议员乔恩·赫斯特的一名25岁高级竞选助手曾使用纳粹党卫军士兵的照片作为其Facebook头像。（赫斯特的竞选团队告诉《华盛顿邮报》，他们已决定“分道扬镳”。）
九月：弗伦奇（现为德克萨斯州铁路专员共和党候选人）发布了一张德克萨斯大学橄榄球比赛现场棕色皮肤球迷的照片，并批评该校招收了这么多棕色皮肤的球迷。