RINO of the Year 2025

Nominees

• Scott Bessent, for piling on more debt and keeping Keynesian economic policy alive. And also for his reckless China trade policies, which are rooted in neoconservative hysteria rather than a genuine desire for fair trade.
• Dan Crenshaw, for threatening Tucker Carlson's life on a hot mic.
• Ted Cruz, for focusing on Israel more than America.
• Randy Fine, for his extreme deference to Israel.
• Sen. Lindsey Graham, for his incessant warmongering.
• Pete Hegseth, for not fighting back as neoconservatives engaged in a hostile takeover of his department in the aftermath of Signalgate, having looked the other way as non-interventionist staffers were removed after being falsely accused of leaking.
• Mark Levin, for calling for individuals such as Marjorie Taylor Greene to be imprisoned just for speaking out against Israel.
• Laura Loomer, for attempting to get Tulsi Gabbard fired during the Iran crisis. And also for calling for pro-Israel voters to boycott elections in which the Republican candidate doesn't toe the party line on that issue.
• Cory Mills, for visiting the al-Qaeda regime in Syria. And also for other acts for which he is now under investigation and could potentially be expelled from Congress.
• Kash Patel, for not investigating possible involvement in the Charlie Kirk assassination. And also for not firing the staffer who threatened lawfare against Thomas Massie and his staffers over the Epstein list.
• John Ratcliffe, for not releasing the most damning Epstein files, which are almost certainly in the possession of the CIA as opposed to the FBI.
• Marco Rubio, for hijacking the second Trump administration's foreign policy to make it even more neoconservative than that of his first administration. And also for not firing Gavin Wax after he leaked private texts between private individuals to liberal Politico, despite the texts being of a nature which if revealed would likely result in violence being incited against the people who sent them, and after the Charlie Kirk assassination of all times.
• Donald Trump, for allowing neoconservatives to hijack his second administration to an even greater degree than his first. And also for attempting to assert a non-existent authority on what it means to be America First. And also for attacking his own base and saying he no longer wants their support for daring to question the official story behind Jeffrey Epstein.
• Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), for his advocacy of anti-Trump foreign policy.
• Michael Waltz, for Signalgate. Which likely was an intentional leak designed to turn public opinion against Pete Hegseth because he wasn't interventionist enough for neoconervatives like Waltz.
• Susie Wiles, for going to liberal Vanity Fair to falsely accuse JD Vance of being a RINO opportunist, while simultaneously promoting unrepentant neoconservative Marco Rubio as a sincere convert to America First conservatism, likely as part of a wider neoconservative plot to replace Vance as the presumptive Republican nominee in 2028.
• The entire Republican delegation of the Florida state legislature, for the absolutely absurd compromises which came out of the internal debate between themselves over the so-called "Trump Act".
• The Republicans in the Indiana state legislature who were willing to change their votes on congressional redistricting over something as petty as remarks President Trump made toward the Democratic governor of another state.

Dishonorable Mentions

• Marjorie Taylor Greene, retroactively, if she goes through with resigning from Congress on January 5, 2026. Because she could still change her mind between the new year and then, we can reserve judgment on that for now.
• JD Vance, retroactively, if he ultimately does not fight back against the neoconservative plots against his presidential chances. If he doesn't fight back, then he's not who we thought he was. Of course, we are still a long way from the 2028 presidential election, so we can reserve judgment on that for now.