What does "tribal chops" and "slap around" mean in here?

It is British slang, a, 'slap in the chops' is just being slapped in the face. You wouldn't recognize *something* if it hit you in the face is the idiom it is just a variation on that. The tribal part is referring to blind loyalty to ones preferred political party, treating it like a tribe you were born into, not something you choose with your mind. He is basically saying they are not being objective/fair.

To add to what the others are saying, “chops” are specifically the areas on the side of your face. Google “mutton chops”. This definition of chops on its own is not very commonly used

Chops refers to the face, it’s a colorful yet simple way of saying something like “you are too blinded by loyalty to your group/tribe to notice or admit an obvious reality that makes them look bad”

I give OP credit for attempting to define “chop” for himself, even f he was wildly off.

"Chops" also means skills or credibility, especially in a musician. It comes from the slang for the cheeks because trumpeters often develop puffed-out cheeks. Dizzy Gillespie was a notorious for this. It was extended to other instrumentalists.

There is an idiom: “you wouldn’t recognize an X if one of them hit you in the face.” This is a variation of that using chops for cheeks. And just throwing in tribal to emphasize that you are not recognizing due to party political loyalty

“Slap around the chops” or “smack in the chops” are British phrases that mean “hit in the face.” All three phrases are used as idioms about not seeing obvious things. For example: to a badly dressed person, you might say “you wouldn’t know style if it hit you in the face.” “Tribal” historically refers to tribes, a level of social organization with a shared cultural, ethnic, and often family identity. It is most commonly used (in a somewhat racist way) to refer to “primitive” groups, normally non-Western or pre-Christian groups. Common examples would be American Indian nations, which we call Indian tribes, and the small groups that used to control France prior to Roman conquest, which we now call Gaulish tribes. Modern political commentators say that politics in the United States is defined by “us versus them” thinking. This kind of thinking makes people ignore their own beliefs and interests in order to defend their group. This kind of thinking resembles how we think of tribes behaving: for example, Gaulish tribes, despite being quite culturally similar to one another, would frequently fight and kill each other because of the difference of their “tribal identity.” Thus, some people talk about modern politics in the US as being “tribal,” because it has more to do with anger and “us versus them” than specific issues or reason. I would also add that this phrasing sounds very strange. Specifically, putting “tribal,” an adjective, in the middle of the idiom is strange and honestly confusing. The whole phrase “slaps you around the chops” is an idiom that serves as a metaphor for how you would encounter a true statement, but this sentence modifies “chops” specifically. Your face can’t be literally tribal. Instead, “tribal chops” is a kind of metaphor called a metonym, where a thing associated with something (their face) is used to represent that thing (the person’s identity). So here we have a metaphor inside of another metaphor. It’s messy. It’s normal for it to be confusing.

It is a very idiomatic way of saying, "you are too parisan to recognize the obvious truth (when it hits you in the face)".

Preemptively approving this post so I won’t be bothered by the eventual deluge of reports.

In this case, it's just a colorful way of saying "face", and the metaphor of not being able to recognize something when it "slaps you around the face" suggests that the people he's referring to are blinded by their politics.

Slap/smack in the chops, is to be struck in the face. In this case the truth is slapping them in the face but they're refusing to recognise it due to political affiliation.

As a Brit, it's quite funny seeing American news getting the UK tabloid treatment - especially the ridiculous mish-mash of metaphors.

Why Piers wants to be so retro-hip at a time like this beats me. “Chops” meaning “jaws” is Southern US slang popularized by Black jazz musicians. Relates to “choppers” as used to mean teeth. [https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/chops](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/chops) “Pop ‘im inna chops” is old-timey slang for “hit him in the mouth.” We still use “chops” to refer to technical skill in music and other fields. It’s nothing to do with the 19th century fashion of “mutton-chop”sideburns. Those actually are shaped like the cut of sheep meat they are facetiously named after. Edit: Oh yeah — about “tribal”… Piers used that because it’s a cliché of the English-speaking internet to say that modern humans are divided into tribes within tribes. Like, Conservatives is a tribe and within that there are the Republicans and within that MAGA, etc. etc. (in the USA)…

If I were to simplify Piers Morgan's statement it would read something like, "If you don't consider this to be classified information about eminent war plans, it may be that you have been blinded by your partisan beliefs. If this had happened on Biden's watch, Republicans would have gone rightfully berserk."