When did Gavin Wax resign as the president of the New York Young Republican Club? The strategist increased club's budget from $5K to seven figures

On Monday, October 15, more than 2,900 pages of text messages on a Telegram group chat consisting of several members of the Young Republican Club were leaked exclusively by Politico. 

In the messages from the chat, members were seen praising Hitler, theorizing the use of his infamous gas chambers, referring to the Black people as "watermelon people" or monkeys, praising Republicans who supported slavery, and r*ping their enemies, among other things. 

New York Young Republicans Club President Gavin Wax, who identifies as Jewish, allegedly extorted Mike Bartels to obtain the Telegram messages, which he then leaked to Politico. pic.twitter.com/hRAyUyqUEo

— therealstateofamerica (@stateofamerica1) October 14, 2025

According to The Independent UK, the text messages were exchanged between January and August 2025, and sources are claiming that Gavin Wax was behind the leak. Wax is a conservative political strategist who was appointed as the president of the New York Young Republican Club in April 2019.

Six years later, in April 2025, Wax formally handed in his resignation for the role of President, after which he assumed the role of the club's chairman. In his resignation letter, Wax wrote:

"It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve this Club. We built something bold, unapologetic, and historic—right here in the belly of the beast. I’m proud of what we accomplished together, and I look forward to continuing to serve in my new role as Chairman as the Club enters its next great chapter."

A press release published by the New York Young Republican Club, when Gavin Wax joined the club as President, it had a cash reserve of $5K and 30 members. However, during his time in the club, Wax elevated it to a seven-figure operating budget annually, with more than 1,800 dues-paying members.

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Peter Giunta from the Young Republican Club took "complete responsibility" for the leaked text messages 

While Gavin Wax has made no comments about the allegations he is facing over the Young Republican Club's message leak, Peter Giunta has addressed the controversy. 

Giunta, who was the former President of the club, was the creator behind the group chat whose messages were leaked to Politico. Issuing an apologetic statement to Politico about the leak - especially his own "inexcusable language" in the messages, Giunto wrote: 

"I am so sorry to those offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language found within the more than 28,000 messages of a private group chat that I created during my campaign to lead the Young Republicans."

He also questioned the authenticity of the messages, further adding:

"While I take complete responsibility, I have had no way of verifying their accuracy and am deeply concerned that the message logs in question may have been deceptively doctored. These logs were sourced by way of extortion and provided to Politico by the very same people conspiring against me."

Peter Giunta is a strong supporter of Trump and serves as the chief of staff to Mike Reilly, the New York state Assemblyman. However, reports of his firing after the Politico leak have been going around. 

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