House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has come under fire online after he defended President Donald Trump following the release of a disturbing AI video of Trump wearing a crown and throwing feces at No Kings protesters.
And the defense of the speaking D. Trump says a lot about the state of the current polarized environment, according to political science experts.
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Late Saturday night, Trump released a fake video of himself flying a plane and pouring liquid sewage on protesters, hours after people flooded the streets in US cities to protest the Trump administration’s efforts to deploy National Guard troops to American cities. Organizers estimate that nearly 7 million protesters gathered on Saturday.
Trump’s video drew widespread condemnation, including from other elected officials and prominent Democrats. Criticism included accusations that the president’s decision to release the video was “un-American.”
But Johnson, who called the No Kings demonstrations “Hate America” rallies, didn’t seem too moved by the AI video when asked about it by a reporter on Monday. Instead, he praised Trump’s social media skills.
“The president uses social media to make a point. You could argue that he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media,” he said.
“He uses satire to make a point; he doesn’t call for killing his political opponents, and that’s what these people are doing,” Johnson argued. (The demonstrations were largely peaceful, with no protest-related arrests reported in several major cities.)
Speaker Mike Johnson admittedly has “little incentive” to criticize President Donald Trump, one expert told HuffPost. Getty Images
Johnson’s defense of Trump is just the latest example of a Republican lambasting the president without questioning his rhetoric or policies — even when they contradict his own positions.
Many people X, earlier on Twitter, stated that Johnson is defending the video.
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“When the Speaker of the House defends a video of the President literally defecating in front of Americans as ‘making a point’, it tells you everything about the moral rot in this cultish movement,” wrote one user X. “Honest leaders elevate the discourse, they don’t normalize humiliation as humor.
“Mike Johnson’s loyalty is to the president, not to the American people, not to the citizens.” [Louisiana]not justice or fairness, and not the truth,” wrote another.
Todd Belt, a professor and director of the political management program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, said Johnson’s latest defense of Trump’s AI video was “not surprising.”
“Speaker Johnson has been one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, even helping Trump try to overturn the election in 2020,” he told HuffPost.
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Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo’s College of Arts and Sciences, said he likely would have been more surprised Johnson condemned the video.
And why is that? Neiheisel explained that we live in a “polarized political environment” where there is “little incentive to criticize fellow partisans.”
“Johnson’s response shows the extent to which the Republican Party has fallen behind Trump,” he told HuffPost. “I’m not sure it’s all about loyalty to Trump at this point, although there seems to be a sizable contingent of rank-and-file Republicans who want and fully expect their elected officials to adopt a combative political style.”
After Trump released the AI video itself, Neiheisel said he was “not very surprised” by the video. “However, to me it shows a complete and utter lack of respect for my political opponents,” he said.
Protesters are photographed during the No Kings demonstration in New York in 2025. October 18 NurPhoto via Getty Images
As for critics calling the video “un-American,” Neiheisel said he believes “what is and isn’t ‘American’ is a radically contested space, and we often like to see ourselves (and those we think agree) as the arbiters of Americanness.”
“For some, power engineering is all-American,” he said. “Others, especially those who believe that patriotism necessarily has a critical component (e.g., being American means a healthy distrust of those in power), outright contempt for political rivals is likely to be seen as unpatriotic.”
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Belt called Trump’s video “juvenile,” but emphasized that “that’s what Trump does.”
“He likes to post videos and pictures of himself looking cool,” he said.
But Belt said he thinks the video, which depicts Trump bombarding No Kings protesters with poop, falls into the “un-American” category.
“We have to resolve disputes at the ballot box and through debate,” he said. “Framing the rallies as ‘Hate America’ gives Trump supporters an easy way to think about why people are protesting and delegitimize their motivations.”
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