When You're MAGA, They "Let You" Do It
New York Times
Opinion By Michelle Goldberg
August 08, 2025
In a less depraved time, anyone who followed politics would know about the ugly abuse allegations facing the Florida congressman Cory Mills, and the scandal would be a big problem for the Republican Party.
This week, news broke of a July police report filed against Mills by his ex-girlfriend Lindsey Langston, a beauty queen and Republican Party committee member in Florida. According to the report, Langston, who’d lived with Mills in Florida, broke up with him when she learned that he was under investigation for allegedly assaulting another girlfriend he had in Washington, a pro-Trump activist named Sarah Raviani. Langston claimed that when she tried to end things, Mills threatened to release nude images and videos of her. She also provided the police with text and Instagram messages in which Mills threatened to harm any men she might date in the future.
Mills has denied Langston’s claims, as he denied attacking Raviani. In that case, Raviani had called 911, saying she’d been assaulted in the penthouse where she was living with Mills when he was in town. When the cops arrived, according to The Washington Post, she had “what seemed to be visible injuries.” While Mills was not taken into custody that day, the police did eventually seek a warrant for his arrest. But Raviani changed her story, saying that she hadn’t been physically abused, and the U.S. attorney’s office, then headed by the Trump loyalist Ed Martin, refused to sign off on the cops’ warrant application.
These two incidents are far from the only scandals involving Mills, who was elected in 2022 after boasting about founding a company that sold tear gas used on Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters. An Army veteran, Mills was awarded a Bronze Star for acts of heroism while serving in Iraq in 2003. In May, however, the political news site NOTUS reported that five people who served with him — including two men whose lives he ostensibly saved — “say they have no recollection of Mills being at the incidents” that were listed on the form recommending him for the commendation. (Mills attributed these discrepancies to the fog of war, telling NOTUS, “It was a chaotic day and understandable that others may have different recollections of events.”)
Mills is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over his financial disclosures and his companies’ government contracts. According to the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct, he likely benefited from those contracts even after taking his seat, a potential violation of both House rules and federal law. (He’s called the investigation politically motivated.) Last month, his landlord tried to evict him from his penthouse apartment, claiming he owed $85,000 in back rent, though he’s since reportedly settled up. (He blamed a computer glitch.)
Mills hasn’t been convicted of anything; perhaps he is simply a very unlucky man hounded by baseless calumnies and financial complications. Nevertheless, there was a time when just the pileup of serious accusations against him would have been a problem for Republicans. Many of these allegations, after all, are far uglier than the misdeeds of George Santos, which were a major political story during Joe Biden’s presidency.
That, however, was a more innocent moment, before Trump’s re-election destroyed many of Washington’s remaining norms. Today, even if Mills did in fact threaten a young woman with revenge porn, he wouldn’t stand out amid the climate of swaggering impunity and macho vice-signaling that mark the second Trump term.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, after all, paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of raping her and was confirmed anyway. (He called the rape accusation false and said he made the payment to protect his job and family.) Sean Parnell, a failed Pennsylvania Senate candidate whose ex-wife accused him of choking her and hitting their children hard enough to leave marks, is now the Pentagon’s chief spokesman. (He denies his ex-wife’s claims.)
In 2022, Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s onetime campaign manager, was charged with misdemeanor battery after the wife of a Republican donor said he’d grabbed her inappropriately at a Las Vegas hotel. (In a plea deal, he was ordered to pay a fine, perform community service and undergo impulse-control counseling.) The incident got Lewandowski briefly expelled from Trump’s orbit, but he was eventually brought onto the 2024 campaign and is now a chief adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Given the generally lax attitude about the abuse of women among powerful Republicans, it’s not surprising that the party’s congressional leaders don’t seem to be taking the accusations against Mills very seriously. “So far, the drumbeat of tawdry allegations has raised eyebrows in Washington, but it has not translated into any overt effort to sideline the two-term Florida Republican,” reported Politico. After all, unlike Santos, Mills isn’t in a swing district, so Republicans don’t have to worry about his electability. “Because national party operatives view his seat as safe, there is little incentive for G.O.P. leaders to engage as the accusations swirl,” Politico said.
There’s something more than craven political expediency going on here. After all, precisely because Mills’s seat is safe, Republicans could break with him without worrying that he’d be replaced by a Democrat. That, however, would violate the spirit of Trump’s Washington, which grants near total license to the president’s allies. This administration glories in thuggish transgression; nothing Mills is said to have done puts him crosswise with its fundamental values.
Of course, it’s possible that even amid the tsunamis of sadism and obscenity that constitute the daily political news cycle, the sheer squalor of the Mills story will eventually grab voters’ attention. Maybe it will become, if not an embarrassment to Republicans, at least an irritation to them, forcing them to act.
For now, though, Mills embodies America’s ruling ethos: When you’re MAGA, they let you do it.
Opinion By Michelle Goldberg
August 08, 2025
In a less depraved time, anyone who followed politics would know about the ugly abuse allegations facing the Florida congressman Cory Mills, and the scandal would be a big problem for the Republican Party.
This week, news broke of a July police report filed against Mills by his ex-girlfriend Lindsey Langston, a beauty queen and Republican Party committee member in Florida. According to the report, Langston, who’d lived with Mills in Florida, broke up with him when she learned that he was under investigation for allegedly assaulting another girlfriend he had in Washington, a pro-Trump activist named Sarah Raviani. Langston claimed that when she tried to end things, Mills threatened to release nude images and videos of her. She also provided the police with text and Instagram messages in which Mills threatened to harm any men she might date in the future.
Mills has denied Langston’s claims, as he denied attacking Raviani. In that case, Raviani had called 911, saying she’d been assaulted in the penthouse where she was living with Mills when he was in town. When the cops arrived, according to The Washington Post, she had “what seemed to be visible injuries.” While Mills was not taken into custody that day, the police did eventually seek a warrant for his arrest. But Raviani changed her story, saying that she hadn’t been physically abused, and the U.S. attorney’s office, then headed by the Trump loyalist Ed Martin, refused to sign off on the cops’ warrant application.
These two incidents are far from the only scandals involving Mills, who was elected in 2022 after boasting about founding a company that sold tear gas used on Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters. An Army veteran, Mills was awarded a Bronze Star for acts of heroism while serving in Iraq in 2003. In May, however, the political news site NOTUS reported that five people who served with him — including two men whose lives he ostensibly saved — “say they have no recollection of Mills being at the incidents” that were listed on the form recommending him for the commendation. (Mills attributed these discrepancies to the fog of war, telling NOTUS, “It was a chaotic day and understandable that others may have different recollections of events.”)
Mills is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over his financial disclosures and his companies’ government contracts. According to the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct, he likely benefited from those contracts even after taking his seat, a potential violation of both House rules and federal law. (He’s called the investigation politically motivated.) Last month, his landlord tried to evict him from his penthouse apartment, claiming he owed $85,000 in back rent, though he’s since reportedly settled up. (He blamed a computer glitch.)
Mills hasn’t been convicted of anything; perhaps he is simply a very unlucky man hounded by baseless calumnies and financial complications. Nevertheless, there was a time when just the pileup of serious accusations against him would have been a problem for Republicans. Many of these allegations, after all, are far uglier than the misdeeds of George Santos, which were a major political story during Joe Biden’s presidency.
That, however, was a more innocent moment, before Trump’s re-election destroyed many of Washington’s remaining norms. Today, even if Mills did in fact threaten a young woman with revenge porn, he wouldn’t stand out amid the climate of swaggering impunity and macho vice-signaling that mark the second Trump term.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, after all, paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of raping her and was confirmed anyway. (He called the rape accusation false and said he made the payment to protect his job and family.) Sean Parnell, a failed Pennsylvania Senate candidate whose ex-wife accused him of choking her and hitting their children hard enough to leave marks, is now the Pentagon’s chief spokesman. (He denies his ex-wife’s claims.)
In 2022, Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s onetime campaign manager, was charged with misdemeanor battery after the wife of a Republican donor said he’d grabbed her inappropriately at a Las Vegas hotel. (In a plea deal, he was ordered to pay a fine, perform community service and undergo impulse-control counseling.) The incident got Lewandowski briefly expelled from Trump’s orbit, but he was eventually brought onto the 2024 campaign and is now a chief adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Given the generally lax attitude about the abuse of women among powerful Republicans, it’s not surprising that the party’s congressional leaders don’t seem to be taking the accusations against Mills very seriously. “So far, the drumbeat of tawdry allegations has raised eyebrows in Washington, but it has not translated into any overt effort to sideline the two-term Florida Republican,” reported Politico. After all, unlike Santos, Mills isn’t in a swing district, so Republicans don’t have to worry about his electability. “Because national party operatives view his seat as safe, there is little incentive for G.O.P. leaders to engage as the accusations swirl,” Politico said.
There’s something more than craven political expediency going on here. After all, precisely because Mills’s seat is safe, Republicans could break with him without worrying that he’d be replaced by a Democrat. That, however, would violate the spirit of Trump’s Washington, which grants near total license to the president’s allies. This administration glories in thuggish transgression; nothing Mills is said to have done puts him crosswise with its fundamental values.
Of course, it’s possible that even amid the tsunamis of sadism and obscenity that constitute the daily political news cycle, the sheer squalor of the Mills story will eventually grab voters’ attention. Maybe it will become, if not an embarrassment to Republicans, at least an irritation to them, forcing them to act.
For now, though, Mills embodies America’s ruling ethos: When you’re MAGA, they let you do it.
