Madison Cawthorn: the Republican building himself in Trump’s image | Republicans

The way he told it, Madison Cawthorn was set to go to the prestigious US Naval Academy before a car crash left him partially paralysed.

According to Cawthorn, he had also been accepted into Harvard and Princeton, and worked full-time for a congressman, before being elected to the House of Representatives.

Like Cawthorn’s repeated allegations of election fraud, none of those things were wholly true. Yet that hasn’t stopped the North Carolinian, who at 26 is the youngest member of Congress, from becoming one of the fastest-rising stars in the Republican party.

The pro-Trump Republican was among speakers at the Save America rally which prefaced the violent insurrection at the US Capitol. His combination of fiery if often inaccurate political rhetoric and big-chinned, all-American looks have wooed Maga Republicans and inflamed Democrats in equal measure.

In the past couple of weeks, however, Cawthorn has found himself condemned ​​by some on his own side.

First, he verbally attacked Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president who has been widely praised for his response to Russia’s military onslaught.

“Remember that Zelenskiy is a thug,” Cawthorn told an audience in a video obtained by WRAL News. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”

The response was swift. For Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican, it was “not a defensible comment”. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House minority leader, declared: “Madison is wrong.”

The furore forced a spokesperson for Cawthorn to claim the congressman was “expressing his displeasure” at how Zelenskiy had “used false propaganda”. The spokesman added: “[Cawthorn] supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian president’s efforts to defend their country against Russian aggression, but does not want America drawn into another conflict through emotional manipulation.”

Cawthorn has also courted trouble by telling a podcast he had been invited to orgies in Washington and had seen senior figures using cocaine. Amid complaints from Republicans in Congress, McCarthy and the party whip, Steve Scalise, gave Cawthorn a dressing down – but did not immediately take disciplinary action.

With such bombastic remarks and seemingly unquenchable thirst for media coverage, Cawthorn appears to be building himself in Donald Trump’s image. And in some ways, his career to date mirrors that of the twice-impeached former president.

Both have been accused of misrepresenting their ties to the military. Both have been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. Both continue to lie about election fraud. They also share a passion for the spotlight and a generally tenuous relationship with the truth.

“He planned on serving his country in the navy, with a nomination to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis,” boomed a Cawthorn advert during his 2020 primary. “But all that changed when tragedy struck.”

The tragedy was the car crash that paralyzed Cawthorn. But in fact, Cawthorn had been rejected from the Naval Academy before then, as revealed by AVL Watchdog.

Cawthorn was…