Op-ed: Nvidia’s CEO joins the parade of Trump allies brought down by scandal

Russell Brand is going to prison. The British comedian and actor reinvented himself as a MAGA-friendly Christian influencer while retaining, well, his talent for making a spectacle of himself. He was sentenced to 10½ years after being convicted of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.

Weeks before his conviction, Brand moderated a panel at the Make America Healthy Again summit, appearing onstage with Mehmet Oz. He also posed for photographs with Oz and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

What a loathsome trio.

Brand had become part of the MAGA universe, embraced by people who have made a political career out of lecturing the rest of us about morality, family values, protecting women and supposedly heathen queers.

The image of Brand smiling alongside the Trump administration’s health care leadership now looks like an ugly metaphor for a Republican Party that has spent years excusing, minimizing, and even celebrating the behavior of men who should have been political liabilities.

And that’s without even getting into Kennedy’s notoriously lurid libido.

Then there is Brand’s Trump-adjacent counterpart in scandal, Jensen Huang. The former Nvidia CEO resigned after reports of extramarital affairs, including a relationship with a woman U.S. intelligence suspects is a Chinese spy. China denies the espionage allegation.

Brand and Huang are fittingly slimy symbols of the seamy Trumpworld culture on display as a roster of scandal-plagued GOP candidates went down in the midterms.

Consider the Republican candidates whose personal conduct and sex-related scandals hung over their campaigns. Florida Rep. Cory Mills, who denied allegations of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse, lost his Republican primary to Ryan Elijah. A House Ethics Committee investigation added to the controversies surrounding Mills.

Related: A Republican’s sex scandal exposes the media’s evolving shrug toward congressional disgrace

His defeat reminded voters that even in a reliably ruby red Republican district, a scandal-plagued incumbent is not guaranteed another term.

In Texas, Ken Paxton’s Senate defeat to Democrat James Talarico came amid years of highly publicized allegations of infidelity and ethical controversy. Could there possibly be a bigger miscreant in modern politics than Paxton? Aside from Donald Trump, of course.

His now-former wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce in July 2025 on “biblical grounds,” citing adultery. Their divorce was finalized Thursday. An alleged affair with a former Senate aide had been central to his 2023 impeachment trial, which ended in acquittal. Paxton also faced scrutiny over trips with a girlfriend, including travel to Iceland, London and Dubai.

Yes, it’s hard to beat Paxton, but Ohio Republican Max Miller certainly gave him a run for his money this year. Miller lost his congressional race after facing domestic abuse allegations from his former wife, which he denied. The allegations included claims that he threw hot water at her and held a gun to her head during a diaper change.

The public unraveling of his campaign also exposed a bitter custody dispute that pitted him against his former father-in-law and fellow “family values” Republican, Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno. As for Moreno, an adult website account associated with an email address accessible to him sought “Men for 1-on-1 sex.” His lawyer said an intern created the profile as a prank without Moreno’s knowledge or involvement.

In Florida, state Rep. Fabian Basabe lost his reelection bid after a jury found him liable for sexually harassing two male staffers, as well as for battery and defamation. Basabe disputed the verdict and maintained his innocence.

Earlier in the election cycle, North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards abandoned his reelection campaign after the House Ethics Committee concluded there was “substantial reason to believe” he violated House rules related to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces. Edwards disagreed with the findings but withdrew. He, of course, cited “prayer and reflection” in announcing his decision.

And who can forget Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert’s infamous 2023 rendezvous in a darkened Denver theater during Beetlejuice? Her behavior looked more suited to an adult theater than a musical. Security footage showed her vaping and engaging in intimate conduct with her date. Now, Colorado voters have sent her to the metaphorical exits, electing Democrat Eileen Laubacher.

Boebert had famously urged women struggling in their marriages to chase Jesus, only to file for her own marital split the following year. She subsequently cited her difficult divorce as part of the explanation for her behavior at the theater.

Republicans have made sexual propriety, traditional marriage and the supposed defense of women central to their political identity. They have legislated morality and policed other people’s relationships. Our community knows that better than most. They portray themselves as guardians of decency. Yet when their own candidates face affairs, harassment findings, abuse allegations, or public displays of sexual misconduct, the response is too often to pray and look the other way.

The question now is whether MAGA voters are finally delivering a verdict on the sexual hypocrisy of their preferred candidates, or whether the midterm defeats will prove to be a temporary interruption in a movement that continues to excuse the behavior it condemns in everyone else.

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