Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) drew a wave of conservative backlash Tuesday after telling Americans struggling with food costs to "stop whining, get a job, eat Ramen."
The Texas congressman wrote on X late Tuesday that he wanted to "make the losers on social media angry before going to bed."
The post landed in the middle of a viral conservative fight over food prices that had already consumed social media for much of the day.
It started when a college student involved with Turning Point USA complained that a burrito costs $20, NJ.com reported. Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet shared the complaint online, saying the "lived experience is the same: it just feels like basic things cost too much."
Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen dismissed the gripe. "Cry me a river," Thiessen wrote. "The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan."
That drew a sharp response from Vice President JD Vance, who wrote that Thiessen had "never missed a burrito," according to NJ.com.
Crenshaw weighed in later on Thursday with an attack on food insecurity.
"Stop whining, get a job, eat Ramen like the rest of us did in college, on a budget with 4 roommates," Crenshaw sneered on X, wading into the fight.
He went further, asking whether critics of rising food prices were "a communist" or "an American adult male capable of handling his own s—."
The backlash from the right was swift.
"The Republican Party is still dominated by traitors who got rich off of insider trading but mock you for thinking that you should be able to eat meat in a first world country," conservative commentator Auron MacIntyre wrote on X.
MacIntyre's reference to insider trading echoed a NOTUS report from last month that found Crenshaw had violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act — a federal disclosure law for lawmakers — by failing to report stock trades on time.
"You are so unbelievably tone deaf and oblivious to public sentiment that it's no wonder your own constituents fired you," conservative pundit Christian Heiens fired back on X.
Montana Libertarian Party Vice Chair Liam McCollum wrote simply: "I'm against whatever this is."
Blaze TV commentator John Doyle wrote on X that Crenshaw's posture was a strategy "so their boomer cash cows identify with them even more strongly."
Crenshaw lost his congressional seat in a Republican primary in March, becoming the first House member to lose renomination in the 2026 midterm cycle, CBS News projected. He was also the only Republican House member running for re-election in Texas who did not receive President Donald Trump's endorsement.