Trump’s State of the Union Reminds Us The Republican Party Is Truly Lost

Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech offered little in the way of new talking points. He railed against illegal immigrants, falsely touted a booming economy, praised his precious tariffs, and repeatedly castigated his Democratic opponents. What struck me and more than one other observer as noteworthy was the response of Republicans in the chamber. Yes, they broke out into tacky chants of “USA!” and applauded Trump’s ridiculous boasts about his policy achievements. But more importantly, they joined in Trump’s dangerous singling out of their Democratic colleagues, jeering as the president labeled them enemies of the people and booing repeatedly at their unwillingness to stand for Trump’s applause lines. 

It’s a hallmark of fascist politics that the ruling party becomes less an organ of government and more a kind of institutionalized gang. The party serves the big man, which, for our case, is obviously Trump. But its members are also pulled into the organizational logic of the gang, with cruelty and brutality as the organizing principles and violent bravado as the main form of political expression. 

In this sense, ICE and congressional Republicans are two wings of the same force—the street enforcers and the legislative soldiers of a fascist party. Yes, ICE is currently conceived as the personal paramilitary of Donald Trump, but, as Greg Sargent has laid out in detail this week, it will stand ready to serve his successors. 

The elected officials are nothing more than the same gangsters dressed up in suit jackets. Any doubt that this is true should have been removed when they booed and heckled their Democratic colleagues as President Trump attacked them over and over again. 

Tuesday night was a stark reminder that the Republican Party has wholly given over to fascism and that its transformation into an anti-liberal and anti-democratic institution is going to outlive Trump. 

Gangster politics 

It’s worth contextualizing Tuesday night with the fact that more than one hundred Republican election deniers currently sit in Congress—one-fifth of the Senate and over one-fourth of the House. Put simply, many of the officials who joined Trump in menacing the Democrats in attendance are committed on record to the overthrow of our democracy. 

Speaker Johnson is foremost on this disreputable list. He owes his current position to his energetic efforts in support of Trump’s coup attempt. And he has consistently supported the current administration’s attempts to demolish America’s rule of law and constitutional order. 

Even as a grand jury refused to indict Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin for reminding American service members that they are not obligated to follow illegal orders, Johnson continued to support their arrest and prosecution. Asked about the grand jury decision, Johnson expressed disappointment, telling reporters 

I think that anytime you’re obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it’s a very serious thing, and it probably is a crime. And, yeah, they probably should be indicted.

Despite Johnson’s bespectacled look and measured tone, this is little more than a call for brute tyranny. What Johnson is really saying is that opposition to Trump ought to be an arrestable offense. There’s really no reason to pretend any other interpretation makes sense. 

But if Johnson dresses his gangsterism in a three-piece suit, other elected Republicans have been less composed. In the chamber Tuesday night, Representative Al Green (D-TX) carried a sign that read “Black People Aren’t Apes,” a direct response to the video Trump posted to his Truth Social account that featured a clip of Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces photoshopped onto the bodies of apes. Representative Troy Nehls (R-TX), dressed in a tie featuring Donald Trump’s face, attempted to rip the sign from Rep. Green’s hands. Rep. Malliotakis (R-NY) looked on, appearing to jeer Green and making a “get out of here” gesture with her thumb. Nehls also took time Tuesday night to ask Donald Trump to initial his tie. 

During the speech itself, Trump repeatedly abused Democrats. He chafed at their refusal to stand at key moments and hurled epithets at them. All the while, Republicans hooted for their president and showered vitriol on their colleagues across the aisle. 

At one point, Trump pointed angrily at the Democrats in attendance and declared “These people are crazy. I’m telling you. They’re crazy.” It was delivered with real venom. Congressional Republicans and Trump’s cabinet shot to their feet, cheering the president and heckling the Democrats. 

The whole event was a display worthy of Mussolini’s Blackshirts. What one finds in the partisan braying of Tuesday night is the same sentiment articulated when Jonathan Ross called Renee Good a “fucking bitch” after putting a bullet in her head. There is no acceptable resistance to MAGA. There is no form of dissent that can be tolerated, no matter how politely expressed. The Republican Party does not exist in a liberal democratic arena of electoral and ideological competition. It exists to cow and dominate its opponents, inside the Capitol and on the streets of America’s cities. 

No going back

One of the most memorable moments of the night came when Donald Trump announced that Vice President JD Vance will be heading up a new anti-fraud initiative. Vance stood for applause and was met with chants of “JD! JD! JD!”

I have felt for some time that my compatriots in the Never Trump coalition are underestimating the threat Vance poses in 2028 and beyond. That moment Tuesday night stood out to me as a reminder that, for all the justified talk of Trump cultism, Vance is well-positioned to carry the Republican project forward. 

That some of history’s most famous fascists have smashed themselves against the rocks of world war and domestic ruin colors our ability to see this moment clearly. Without a world historical catastrophe, Trump will pass without any mechanism having ripped the Republican Party from its new commitments to authoritarianism and violence. 

It’s a fool’s errand to try and predict either presidential primaries or general elections. But Vance will come into future contests with the kind of legitimation we saw during the State of the Union. And he will have the chance to wield a more finely sharpened ideological mind in the context of a party conditioned to fascist behaviors by over a decade of MAGA. And, based on the weird and cryptic reports we have about Trump’s health, it’s not at all unreasonable to worry Vance could ascend to the presidency before 2029.  

Whatever the next few years hold, Tuesday night offered something historians will almost certainly highlight as a key scene in America’s struggle against tyranny. And on that night, we were not winning. 

Featured image is a fascist rally in Naples in 1922