I was going to point out when I was writing that how unlikely you were to even know what kind of cigarette they were smoking unless this writer literally stalked and watched them for a creepy long amount of time to notice it was a Marlboro they were pulling from, but it felt superfluous to do so.

However, smoking Marlboros has a purpose in the lie, in that its meant to evoke a specific type of person in your mind because we all know who smokes Marlboros.

Problem being, that person is completely at odds with every other detail about these two guys. No one at a fancy Trump party in a nice suit using terms like "Hitlerian" is a guy who smokes Marlboros.

So, like the rest of the story, this author is trying to pepper (now I can't stop using it) every single stereotype they can of the Right to make you hate the people at this party without coming out directly and saying it.