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Flanked by portraits of Richard Nixon and the Pope, New York Young Republican Club campaign chairman Mario Nicoletto cracked a joke worthy of the U.S. president even as Tuesday’s blue wave gained strength.
“Your Republican Party leaders have failed you,” Nicoletto told a crowd of baby-faced conservatives gathered on the top floor of a Manhattan home. “But we are the future of the party, which is a bit of a two-way street because we are the future of the party and we also throw big parties.”
Around 10:30 p.m., the party was pretty much over.
With Democrats poised to gain a majority in the U.S. Senate and move closer to the House, several NYYRC members still standing Tuesday night seemed to have no doubt about who was to blame.
“I was excited when Trump was elected a second time. It felt like a historic moment to reverse a lot of the inefficiencies and evils and excesses that I and many others had noticed,” said Nathan Shepherd, a 21-year-old classical musician from the Midwest who joined the NYYRC last year.
“Once this effect wears off, there is less to keep because promises are not kept. People feel a deep sense of deception,” he added.
Even the NYYRC top brass seemed exhausted by Trump’s unpredictability.
“People were so excited (when Trump threatened to run for a third term), but we have to let this guy go,” said Alexis Winters, NYYRC corresponding secretary. “Trump was very, very helpful and necessary in the moment he arrived. I’m still happy with his presidency, but I’m also ready to welcome someone new.”
The NYYRC now has nearly 2,000 members and describes itself as “the vital heart of unapologetic conservatism in New York.” Republican Party member Steve Bannon and British Reform Party leader Nigel Farage attended the club’s annual black-tie gala in 2024. Donald Trump was a keynote speaker the previous year.
In July, the club gained attention after New York magazine claimed that NYYRC had become a hotbed of racism and misogyny. The NYYRC has denied the allegations.
Like the Grand Old Party it supports, the NYYRC also appears increasingly divided by the kind of infighting usually associated with left-wing politics.
The party’s relationship with the Israeli government and the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files “are at the heart of the divide,” according to an article in the September NYYRC periodical.
The same article then pointed the finger at the “Third World hordes invited by the Democrats (who) do not allow their poor financial situation to prevent them from having as many children as possible.”
Nearly every NYYRC member who spoke with the FT said their older ideological compatriots had lost the notion of what it meant to be truly conservative. Many added that the war in Iran, in particular, had proven to be a colossal mistake.
NYYRC President Stefano Forte – who traveled to Hungary this year to support Viktor Orbán ahead of the country’s elections – took to
“I have always supported the administration, but this Israel First policy that has been used has absolutely made a fool of us domestically,” Forte wrote. “I’ve lost major opportunities and been ostracized for saying that. I feel very vindicated now.”
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