The Democrats' newest media darling—a foul-mouthed, botoxed face of the 2025 “resistance”—is a 52-year-old Oklahoma woman some call a “wine mom.” Jennifer Welch, of the Bernie Sanders/AOC wing of the Democratic Party, has offered a novel punishment for Trump supporters. “I’ve had it with white people that triple-Trumped that have the nerve and the audacity to walk into a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, go to a gay hairdresser,” Welch raged against those who’ve voted for Trump three times. “If you want to browbeat DEI, if you want to browbeat gay people, you want to browbeat black people as you have been doing for hundreds of years, [you] should be banned from enjoying the best thing that America has to offer, which is multiculturalism. Get your fat asses over at a Cracker Barrel because nobody wants to see your fucking smug ass, teeny weeny pink arm, big gut around.”
Welch lacks the self-awareness to grasp the irony of calling other people “smug” while suggesting the GOP alternative to ethnic restaurants is Cracker Barrel. And there's no point in trying to make any sense to the rest of this inarticulate, bitter torrent of abuse. It's not clear what insult Welch, who’s white, is trying to convey with “teeny weeny pink arm” (fat people who have big arms), and confusing when she suggests Trumpers have been browbeating blacks for “hundreds of years.”
In the 1860s, it was the Democrats who supported slavery. And does MAGA really browbeat (definition: “to intimidate someone into doing something with stern or abusive words”) gays? What have they done to the Chinese and Indians to get illegally banned from their restaurants? Welch’s fans aren't concerned with such quibbles. They want their red meat. Some are convinced that they've found their own Joe Rogan—someone who will fight hard for them and make them feel better, which Rogan, in fact, doesn't do for Trumpers.
If “fighting hard” means such things as calling conservative Riley Gaines, who opposes biological males participating in women's sports, a “dumb bitch” and an “insufferable twat,” then Welch’s the right person for the job. And, once again, Rogan doesn't behave like this. Plenty of political people crave the kind of satisfaction such rhetoric gives them, especially after lost elections. Democrats claim moral superiority over their opponents, but it's somehow okay when one of them dehumanizes a woman whose politics they dislike by calling her a “twat” or “dumb bitch.”
And while progressives lecture us about fat shaming, Welch claims an exemption when speaking of “fat white people.” The Democrats’ double standard is in full effect. But Republicans can dish it out too. They've called Welch a “butt ugly horse-faced bitch," a “border collie face,” someone who "looks like James Carville had sex with Hillary Clinton," and a "failed drag queen.”
Welch has an emaciated, plastic-surgery-created face. Joyless and pinched, it's the perfect vehicle for the misery messaging she offers. Her 2024 book (co-written with Angie “Pumps” Sullivan) is called Life Is a Lazy Susan of Sh*t Sandwiches, is an onslaught of condescension towards anyone not like the authors, progressive Democrat atheists.
In an era of strange paths to prominence, Welch made it into the limelight via the same route Donald Trump, whom she's called “a whining titty baby,” did—reality TV. She starred in Bravo’s dud, Sweet Home, about her luxury interior design business, from 2017 to 2018. That gave her enough exposure to launch her podcast, I've Had It, with her best friend Angie Sullivan. Soon enough, the podcast was able to attract big names like Barack Obama and AOC as guests, propelling Welch into a major media presence. She's everywhere now, doing guest spots on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, and other outlets.
The Left’s desperate for their own Joe Rogan, but it's not going to be Jennifer Welch. Her focus is too narrow and negative. While Rogan, whose own political views are mixed, interviews guests, usually politely, from all walks of life and all political persuasions, it's impossible to imagine Welch having a decent conversation with anyone who’s even MAGA-adjacent. She's a flamethrower with no capacity, unlike Rogan, to deal with good-faith disagreement. Welch has no crossover appeal.
Welch’s core message and grassroots populism echoes the GOP’s now-defunct Tea Party movement. “Listen up Democratic establishment,” she's said. “You can either jump on board with this shit or we're coming after you in the same way we come after MAGA.” Obama’s election, the financial bailouts, and the Affordable Care Act left a cohort of Republicans feeling that GOP leaders were weak, corporate, out-of-touch “RINOs.” That’s how the Democrats’ humiliation in 2024 has left many of its party members feeling about its establishment, and Jennifer Welch has become their strident, unnuanced voice.
Welch is effective because there's a level of dissatisfaction among her party with its establishment, but she’s an intellectual featherweight with a big mouth who lacks the discipline to rein in her hatred of her fellow Oklahomans, MAGA, and even those within her own party. Welch has an ugly way of thinking about her fellow Americans. She doesn't talk about building anything, doesn't offer any new policies. As a media-savvy provocateur, she can succeed. But “fuck you” politics can only take one so far.