"Eat their young"

In "Trump Short-Circuits in New Video as Concerns Grow Over Cognitive Decline", Meidas Touch 10/14/2023, Brett Meiselas presents the apparent mis-use of an idiom as evidence of neurodegeneration:

A new video posted by Donald Trump to his social media account is the latest in a series of clips of the former president that have raised concerns about his rapidly deteriorating cognitive abilities.

In the video, Trump launches into a deranged rant accusing his former Attorney General Bill Barr, Senator Mitt Romney and former Republican Congressman Paul Ryan of conspiring with big donors and two GOP candidates running against him.

Trump says they are disloyal losers with no talent and that they “eat their young” by opposing him and that “Republican Nation” must not listen to them.

"But remember, Republicans eat their young. They really do. They eat their young. Terrible statement. But it's true," Trump said in a dark room where he records his videos. […]

It's possible that Trump's teleprompter said that Republicans "eat their own" and that Trump misread the phrase twice in just a couple seconds […]

But what is extra sad is that Trump's handlers seem to have completely lost control of the criminally indicted, disgraced GOP candidate. They had an opportunity to reshoot this prerecorded video prior to posting it, yet they didn't even bother.

The coverage by Caleb Howe at MEDIAite, "Trump Rages About Republicans Going After Other Republicans in Video Absolutely Trashing Other Republicans", discusses Trump's diatribe without noticing any problem with the idiom, and provides this transcript of the Truth Social post in question:

"I understand candidates that are losing by 57 to 70 points are getting together with RINO Paul Ryan, Mitt the loser Romney, Bill no guts or no talent Barr, and some broken political investors that will soon come to me, as most others already have. These failed candidates should have started by campaigning effectively, which they didn’t because they really don’t have the skill or the talent to do so. Romney, who today couldn’t get elected dogcatcher in the great state of Utah, should have beaten an absolutely failed first term Obama. Should have beaten him very easily. If he and RINO Paul fought as hard against Obama as they do against President Donald J. Trump, they would never have lost. They would have beaten Obama. But remember, Republicans eat their young. They really do. They eat their young. Terrible statement, but it’s true. And that’s the problem with so many in our party. They just don’t have the loyalty and the strength to stick together. They go after people who are on their side rather than the radical left Democrats that are destroying our country. These people are losers, and the Republican nation must stop following their failed ideas and policies. They only help the worst president in the history of the United States. The most corrupt president. The most incompetent president. Crooked Joe Biden. We don’t want to help him. We have to get him out of office. The Republican Party should unify and they should unify fast. We need Joe Biden out of there. He’s destroying America. Thank you very much."

The corresponding audio: Your browser does not support the audio element.

The "eat their young" phrase originated in factual descriptions of practices among animals, recently picked up on the internet as a source of click-bait, as in this 2023 page that attributes the practice to polar bears, sand tiger sharks, chickens, prairie dogs, lions, chimpanzees, and blenny fish.

But there are plenty of metaphorical extensions to humans, such as teachers and FBI agents. By far the most common current metaphorical extension to humans seems to involve nurses, where the phrase has been used for decades to describe bullying and hazing among nurses internationally.

As the metaphor's origin would suggest, the human victims in all of these extended uses are new teachers, new agents, new nurses, etc., bullied or hazed by older, more established members of their profession.

There are a few past examples in politics, e.g. Jim Zirin, "Is this fair treatment for Cuomo?", NY Daily News 8/10/2021:

Cuomo is said by The New York Times to have no friends, and perhaps this is true. So true that Democrats I know repeat this as though it were a mantra. Certainly, Cuomo has no friends in the mainstream media. He has insulted them too much for too long. He has no friends in the Democratic Party. No surprise there; Democrats like to eat their young, and their old, when the political winds turn. Just ask Al Franken.

But note that Zirin feels the need to add "and their old", to reflect the fact that Al Franken was not exactly a novice when he was metaphorically cannibalized.

So to refer to criticisms of an older candidate by younger candidates as examples of how "Republicans eat their young", the metaphor has to be bleached one step further, losing the whole olds-eat-youngs thing.  Trump plausibly feels that Romney and Ryan represent a Republican political establishment that he is challenging, but he's apparently reacting to criticisms from  currently-active rivals for the presidential nomination, who are all younger than he is — and perhaps also to recent stories about those rivals appealing to big donors.

It's not clear to me whetherTrump's use of the phrase is effective political communication, but it's probably not a sign of dementia.