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LOADINGERROR LOADING House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was slammed online after he defended President Donald Trump for posting a disturbing AI video that showed Trump wearing a crown and dumping what appeared to be feces on “No Kings” protesters. And the speaker’s defense of Trump says a lot about the state of our current polarized environment, experts in political science say. Advertisement Late on Saturday evening, Trump posted a fake video of himself flying a plane and dumping liquid sewage on protesters — hours after people in cities across the U.S. flooded the streets to protest the Trump administration amid its efforts to deploy National Guard troops to American cities. Organizers estimate that nearly 7 million protesters turned out on Saturday. Trump’s video was widely condemned, including by other elected officials and prominent Democrats. Among the criticisms were charges that the president’s decision to post the video was “un-American.” But Johnson, who has referred to the “No Kings” demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies, didn’t seem too bothered by the AI video when a reporter asked about it on Monday. Instead, he praised Trump’s social media skills. Advertisement “The president uses social media to make the point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that,” he said. “He is using satire to make a point; he is not calling for the murder of his political opponents, and that’s what these people are doing,” Johnson claimed. (The demonstrations were largely peaceful, with several major cities reporting no protest-related arrests.) Advertisement Johnson’s defense of Trump is just the latest example of a Republican kowtowing to the president without questioning his rhetoric or policies — even when they’re at odds with their own positions. Many people on X, formerly Twitter, called out Johnson’s defense of the video. “When the Speaker of the House defends a video of the president literally defecating on Americans as ‘making a point,’ it tells you everything about the moral rot in this cult movement,” one X user wrote. “Leaders with integrity elevate discourse, they don’t normalize humiliation as humor.” “Mike Johnson’s loyalty is to the president, not the American people, not the citizens of [Louisiana], not justice or fairness, & not truth,” wrote another. Advertisement Todd Belt, professor and political management program director at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, said that Johnson’s latest defense of Trump’s AI video was “not surprising at all.” “Speaker Johnson has been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, even going so far as to help Trump attempt to overturn the election in 2020,” he told HuffPost. Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, said he would have likely been more surprised had Johnson denounced the video. Advertisement And why is that? Neiheisel explained that we’re living in a “polarized political environment” in which there’s “little incentive to criticize co-partisans.” “Johnson’s response showcases the extent to which the Republican Party has fallen in behind Trump,” he told HuffPost. “I’m not sure if this is all about loyalty to Trump at this point, though, as there seems to be a non-trivial contingent of the Republican rank-and-file who want, and fully expect, their elected officials to adopt a combative political style.” As for Trump posting the AI video itself, Neiheisel said he wasn’t “terribly surprised” by the video. “To me, anyways, it represents a complete and utter lack of regard for his political opponents,” he said. Advertisement As for critics calling the video “un-American,” Neiheisel said that he believes “what is and is not ‘American’ is a radically contested space, and we often like to see ourselves (and those who we think agree with us) as the arbiters of American-ness.” “To some, projecting power is absolutely American in nature,” he said. “To others, particularly those who see patriotism as necessarily containing a critical component (e.g., to be an American is to express a healthy distrust of those in power), the utter contempt that is on display for political rivals is likely to be seen as unpatriotic.” Advertisement Belt called Trump’s video “juvenile,” but emphasized that “this is what Trump does.” “He likes to post videos and photos of himself looking tough,” he said. But Belt said he believes the video depicting Trump bombing “No Kings” protesters with poop falls under the category of “un-American.”
