Former NYYRC treasurer Nicolas T. Rafael Jr. making what appears to be a Nazi salute while wearing German military garb.
Photo: Contributed
On May 19, an X user with the handle @basedredford wrote, “It’s literally a historic FACT that your society will thrive when you kick the Jews out of town.” The user was fond of the phrases “Shut up, Jew” and “Jewish run account,” common troll responses by accounts associated with the antisemitic far right, and reposted images of Hitler and antisemitic caricatures. In one post, it accused Texas senator Ted Cruz of being an “Israel first goy slave.” The @basedredford account, which was public, also made numerous posts filled with slurs about gay people and Black Americans. It warned of “Muslim gang rapes” and directed a barb toward California governor Gavin Newsom that contained the N-word.
The account appears to have belonged to Nicholas T. Rafael Jr., the now-former treasurer of the New York Young Republican Club. The club, based in Manhattan, boasts a membership of nearly 2,000 that includes elected officials in Congress and New York power players. Three former members of the club confirmed Rafael’s connection to the account, which years ago posted to a Vine account tied to his name and appeared to be followed by nearly a dozen current members of the club as well as the club’s official X account and its Queens caucus account.
I obtained an undated photograph of Rafael making what appears to be a Nazi salute while wearing German military garb. Two former members of the club confirmed that it was Rafael in the photograph. When reached by phone, Rafael denied that the social-media account was his. He also suggested over email that the picture of him in Nazi regalia was “obviously doctored.”
Mark Luccarelli, a lawyer representing the NYYRC, denied that the club had any association with the account but noted that it was “investigating” the photograph. Rafael, he added, had been placed on leave. As of mid-July, the X account appeared to have been deactivated.
This episode comes after October’s shocking revelations, first reported by Politico, about a group chat that included racist messages and whose members were young conservatives from around the country, along with leaders of New York State Young Republicans, which is distinct from the city club Rafael helped lead. The Telegram chat spanned 2,990 pages of messages filled with macabre jokes celebrating the Holocaust and glib approval of Hitler in addition to a trove of racial slurs and jokes. In October, Republican leaders in New York voted to disband the New York State Young Republicans amid concerns that young right-wingers were becoming ever more racially radicalized.
An influential outpost in the world of conservative politics, the NYYRC was traditionally known for fundraising for city- and statewide Republican races. Its annual black-tie gala pulled some of the biggest names in the conservative movement, including Donald Trump, who was a keynote speaker at the club’s 2023 event.
In recent years, however, the club’s choices in leadership, programming, and endorsements appear to show a shift toward a strident nativist political position and a hard-line free-speech agenda focused on issues of immigration, nationalism, and Christian faith — ideological positions in line with the America First agenda associated with both Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance. The club has endorsed far-right figures, like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and honored Markus Frohnmaier, a leader of Alternative for Germany, which has been labeled an “extremist” organization by that country’s intelligence services.
According to former members of the club, the driving force behind its shift toward far-right politics has been Stefano Forte, a Queens native elected president of the NYYRC in 2025. A former candidate for State Assembly with a taste for tailored suits, Forte has led a delegation of club members on a trip to Pretoria, South Africa, to meet with Afrikaner farmers who claim to be the subjects of discrimination by the country’s Black majority. And he’s been a speaker at extreme anti-immigration events, such as the Remigration Summit held this spring in Portugal to promote western civilizational values.
One former NYYRC board member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that Forte had cultivated an edgelord atmosphere within the club, where members freely voiced aggressive Groyper-style political views — a reference to the followers of the influential antisemitic podcaster Nick Fuentes. Another former member of the club who served in its leadership said Forte was responsible for turning it into a “den of incels” who mistakenly believed their brand of racist, misogynist politics has a sizable constituency.
“Forte,” said the former member, “doesn’t live in the real world. He thinks Nazi politics are effective in New York City.”
Former members told me that Forte had fostered a hostile atmosphere against the club’s Jewish membership. One member noted that under Forte’s leadership, the mezuzah, located on the entrance of its clubhouse in midtown Manhattan, went missing. They added that during Forte’s tenure, many of the club’s Jewish board members had left leadership. This isn’t the club’s first brush with antisemitic behavior. In November, Vish Burra, the club’s former executive secretary, was fired from the One America News network for posting an AI-generated video that depicted Jews as cockroaches. (Forte declined to comment for this article.)
Some of the NYYRC’s most prominent donors have grown concerned, among them Joshua Eisen, a New York–based investment manager and former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. In response to the allegations against Rafael, Eisen texted: “Obviously, the language and the imagery are antisemitic. There’s no reason to believe this is satire. It’s moronic.” Eisen said that he planned to “watch how things play out” before making a decision about his continued financial support of the club.
In a statement responding to Rafael’s posts, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said, “If authentic, these screenshots would be the latest example of how antisemitism and Hitler imagery continue to surface on social media and in public discourse, including within parts of some young Republican circles.”
This isn’t the only scandal plaguing the NYYRC at the moment. In January, the club filed a $5 million lawsuit against Lucian Wintrich, its former press committee chairman. The suit alleges that he breached a non-disparagement provision and defamed the club after he made comments to a reporter in response to a controversy over the white-nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes, who was turned away from the club’s winter gala in December, inflaming Wintrich. “This is the worst event they’ve ever thrown,” Wintrich told a Politico reporter following the soirée. He was swiftly kicked out of the club and soon after appeared on Gavin McInnes’s podcast, where he claimed, among other things, that the club was funneling money to influential conservative Ryan Girdusky and his 1776 PAC, a charge the club alleges was defamatory. (“This suit would be entirely unnecessary if not for the false allegations of extremely serious criminal conduct,” wrote Luccarelli in a statement.)
Wintrich, who is running for Congress as a Republican in New York’s heavily Democratic 12th District, told me, “Its seriousness has collapsed, and a lot of people know it but are afraid to say it because they watched what happened to me.”
Other former members lamented all the in-fighting and controversy generated by the club. “It’s such a waste of time,” said Lucas Federico, 23, a former chair of the club’s libertarian caucus. “Republicans are projected to lose the Senate and the House, and the New York Young Republican Club is busy harassing a former member when they could be putting that money toward getting people elected.”
The October scandal involving the state Young Republican club attracted national attention, becoming a political liability for New York’s conservative politicians. During her short-lived bid for governor, Representative Elise Stefanik faced criticisms from Governor Kathy Hochul’s campaign, which condemned her for “palling around with hateful antisemites.” Stefanik’s campaign denied that she was ever a member of the club, a claim that was contradicted by the club’s own records.
For today’s young conservatives, there are worse accusations. More worrisome for them is that the club’s brand now appears compromised even in the circle that matters most: Trump’s White House. As one former senior member of the club put it: “If you’re a young conservative trying to land a job with the current administration and you’re associated with this iteration of the club, ” the person said, “it’ll probably hurt you getting that job.”