With Donald Trump at the helm and Republicans in total control in Washington, we knew that the GOP's congressional performance artists would pull some outrageous stunts. They did not disappoint. But even a Democrat made our list this month.
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With Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, it was inevitable that some influencers lawmakers would use the opportunity to make fools of themselves endear themselves to the president and the MAGA base.
As promised, we will periodically compile a list of elected officials who believe that it is their job to be in the headlines with outrageous stunts or over-the-top rhetoric or anything else that garners attention. With no further ado and in no particular order*, here are five lawmakers who caught our eye in all of the worst ways.
First of all, while we just said “in no particular order,” that’s not entirely true. Because to start the year, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is #holdingtheline at number 1.
One of Congress’s most prolific tweeters, Mace, who is expected to run for governor of the Palmetto State, is the queen bee of manufacturing drama (that is usually centered around her).
She ended the year on a strong note by conjuring up a crisis over which bathrooms Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the country’s first trans member of Congress, could use that culminated in an assault allegation against an activist and Mace’s use of props for a couple of days.
Not to be outdone by her 2024 performance, she began the new year by challenging Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is quite the performer in her own right and may very well may make this list another month, to a fight.
Mace doesn’t mind breaking House decorum rules if it means getting a little bit of attention, for example when calling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) a “groomer.” Of course, being called out for her antics would be a boon to Nancy because it means that she can play her favorite role: that of a victim.
This year, she also added plain nastiness to her repertoire… which isn’t a good look for the congresswoman.
She is a he. And he appears to be grooming young children. https://t.co/YHZvUqAkUl
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) January 15, 2025
Still, she tries harder than anybody else to attract headlines, and serve red meat to the MAGA faithful, so she is our congressional performer of the month.
The competition was tough, however.
The runners-up all tried to ingratiate themselves with Donald Trump, which isn’t overly difficult since he is a world-class narcissist.
That gives Republicans without shame (or knowledge of the Constitution) ample opportunities to make names for themselves.
That means GOP lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), who will do anything to please Trump. At the start of the new Congress, she did so by introducing legislation that would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
Sadly for Marge, Trump signed an executive order doing the same thing, so she’ll have to come up with some other way to suck up to him.
But she’ll have to hurry, because her colleagues are snagging up all of the good ones… like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who introduced legislation this week to add Trump to Mount Rushmore.
I've officially introduced legislation to put President Trump's face on Mount Rushmore.
His remarkable accomplishments for our country and the success he will continue to deliver deserve the highest recognition and honor on this iconic national monument. Let's get carving! pic.twitter.com/vfFuebuS7F
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) January 28, 2025
Let’s get carving, indeed, Anna Paulina. Let’s just hope there is enough orange marble for Trump’s face.
While the president loves adulation, he likes power even more. That is why Rep. Andy Ogles’s (R-TN) proposal takes the cake. One week into the president’s second term in office, the lawmaker thought it would be the right time to amend the Constitution and allow Trump to run for president again in 2028.
For Ogles, his stunt may already have paid off. The lawmaker had been under criminal investigation but, in what is surely just a curious, entirely unrelated, and fortunate (for Ogles) development, news broke on Friday that the federal prosecutors probing him are withdrawing from the case.
However, the performance artist caucus is not purely partisan thanks to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). With Democrats generally relegated to playing second fiddle as the opposition party, Fetterman has figured out how to stay in the headlines/on Fox News.
So far this year, he has done so by making the trip to Mar-a-Lago prior to Trump’s inauguration, by holding out before signing a resolution condemning the pardons of January 6 insurrectionists who attacked Capitol Police officers, and by saying Trump deserves a pardon for his conviction in the New York hush money case because it was “politically motivated.”
We don’t know yet what the rest of the year will bring, but the first few weeks are likely just a prelude of much crazier things to come, so stay tuned.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
