Tiffany's expecting
Plus: Harris hits $1 billion
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Former first daughter Tiffany Trump is having a baby. The only female adult Trump child to not be investigated for the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Tiffany’s dad announced the news at a rally. “She's going to have a baby,” former President Donald Trump said. “So that's nice.”
Welcome to today’s issue of Whig. — Hunter
Biden has first call with Netanyahu in seven weeks:
President Joe Biden spoke Wednesday with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on a call with Vice President Kamala Harris. The White House said the leaders discussed issues including Israel’s response to Iran following a missile attack and described the call as “direct” and “productive.” The Biden administration reportedly accepts Israel will launch a strike on Iran. Netanyahu’s office said he also spoke with Trump, who “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah.”
Trump plans rallies outside swings states:
Just seven states are rated as competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, but California, Colorado, New York are not among them. That isn’t stopping Trump from planning rallies in these states in the final month of the campaign. Trump has rallies scheduled for Friday in Aurora, Colo., Saturday in Coachella, Calif., and Oct. 27 in Manhattan.
Trump’s trip to Aurora will come after he said it was one of two cities along with Springfield, Ohio, where he would begin mass deportations if elected. Trump claimed falsely during the debate that migrants had taken over both cities. Local officials and law enforcement in the cities have disputed Trump’s false claims. Of his rally in New York City, Trump said he’ll speak at Madison Square Garden, a part of town he said “migrants have taken over.”
Kremlin confirms Trump sent Putin COVID-19 tests:
Following a report from journalist Bob Woodward in his book War that Trump sent Russian leader Vladimir Putin COVID-19 tests early in the pandemic during a shortage, Russia was like, yeah, that happened. Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Russia received tests in exchange for ventilator units and denied Wooward’s report that Trump and Putin have spoken multiple times since Trump left office.
There will be no more debates:
So much for any time, any place. Trump wrote in a post on his social network that he beat Biden and Harris and it’s too late in the process since early voting has started in some states. “THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH!” he wrote.
Harris hits $1 billion:
The Harris campaign crossed the $1 billion fundraising threshold last month, a figure which includes its joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee and state parties. To put that in context, Harris has raised about as much in just two months as Biden raised in the entire 2020 campaign, including the primaries.
Melania worries for her husband’s safety:
Former First Lady Melania Trump joined Fox News’ The Five Tuesday to promote her memoir Melania, and she said she worried about her husband’s safety because of a “toxic atmosphere” and calls from his political opponents that he’s a threat to democracy.
If she returns as FLOTUS, Trump said she would revive her Be Best initiative as well as continue Fostering the Future, her initiative in support of foster children she founded after leaving the White House. “I will continue with that,” she said. “We need to give back to those children and support them so once they have education they can have a great job and after that they can give back to their communities.”
Reviews are in for Melania. The New York Times called it “a brazen whitewash of a presidency” and “less a confessional than a C. V., most notable for what it leaves out than what it includes.” The Cut said it “is not a memoir that spills the beans. Rather, it is an inventory of some beans, arranged meticulously with little personal commentary.” New York said the “memoir is full of unresolved contradictions” and “one of the most perplexing post–White House memoirs ever produced.”
My copy is being shipped. If you’ve read it, what did you think?
Emhoff rallies for Republicans in Arizona:
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visited Mesa, Ariz., Tuesday for a Republicans for Harris event where he appeared with Mesa Mayor John Giles and touted the Biden-Harris administration’s investments in the state through the bipartisan infrastructure law.
“On all of these issues: our democracy, the rule of law, our standing on the world stage … there is only one choice —and that choice happens to be my wife, Kamala Harris,” Emhoff said.
Walz livestreams on Twitch:
Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is going for the gamer vote. Walz held a rally Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., and it was live-streamed on the Harris campaign’s Twitch account while Preheat, a Twitch streamer, played World of Warcraft and provided commentary. It was the first time the campaign’s Twitch account showed live gameplay.
The rise of Harris and Usha Vance has coincided with rise in online threats:
A new report from the anti-Asian hate group Stop AAPI Hate found online hate against Asian American and Pacific Islanders peaked in August 2024, which it attributed to attention on Harris and Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). Both women are of South Asian descent.
“From January 2023 to August 2024, anti-South Asian slurs in violent, extremist online spaces in the U.S. doubled, and research has shown that what is happening online is indicative of what is happening on the ground,” the report’s authors wrote. “This increase in online hate against South Asian communities today appears to align with the political ascendance of Harris and Vance.”
Stop APPI Hate co-founder Cynthia Cho attributed the pre-election surge in anti-South Asian hate to “a toxic political climate in which a growing number of leaders and far-right extremist voices continue to spew bigoted political rhetoric and disinformation,” she said in a statement.
Tiffany is having a baby:
The former first daughter is expecting her first child with husband Michael Boulos, who she met at Lindsay Lohan's club in Mykonos, Greece, and later married in 2022. Her dad dropped the news at the Detroit Economic Club where he was speaking and called out Boulous’ father, Massad Boulos, who was in the audience.
“He happens to be the father of Tiffany's husband, Michael, who's a very exceptional young guy,” Trump said. “And she's an exceptional young woman. And she's going to have a baby. So that's nice.” A spokesperson for Tiffany Trump confirmed the news to People, but she hasn’t shared the news herself on social media.
⛈️ Florida picking up the pieces after Milton: 11 dead, 3 million in dark. "The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario," Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a briefing Thursday. [USA Today]
💻 DOJ indicates it’s considering Google breakup following monopoly ruling. The DOJ said it was “considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search.” [CNBC]
🥤 The new Mountain Dew logo spells out “Mountain” again. In some ways, the new Mountain Dew logo and brand system looks more like an advertisement for the National Parks than a soft drink. [Fast Company]
🦝 A woman called 911 after 100 raccoons surrounded her home. A Washington State woman who started feeding local raccoons 35 years ago called deputies last Thursday after around 100 were preventing her from entering her own home. Officers “were shocked.” [NBC News]
Diddy gets trial date:
A judge said Thursday that Diddy’s sex trafficking trial will begin on May 5, 2025. Prosecutor Emily Johnson said the investigation into the musician “is very much ongoing.”
Charli XCX kicks off Brat fall:
Charli XCX fans gathered at the Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, N.Y., about an hour north of New York City Thursday for a listening party for Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat. Tracks from remix album leaked, something the singer addressed at the listening party. “I know that no one here listened to the leak,” she said. 👀
Mariah Carey is releasing a 30th anniversary edition of her Christmas album:
It’s not even Halloween yet, but Mariah Carey is out with some news for Christmas. To mark the 30th anniversary of her album Merry Christmas, she’s releasing a special-edition of the original album and her 1994 St. John of the Divine concert. Carey also shot new art for a physical rerelease of her No. 1 hit “All I Want for Christmas is You,” which could give the song a boost on the charts.
Cher’s going back on tour. Book tour.:
Ahead of the Nov. 19 release of Cher: The Memoir, Part One, Cher announced she’s going on a mini-memoir book tour called “Cher: In-conversation” with stops in New York City; Englewood, N.J.; London; Beverly Hills, Calif.; and San Francisco in November and December.
According to publisher HarperCollins, the first installment of Cher’s memoir “follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono—and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart.”
T Swift donates to hurricane relief efforts:
Feeding America, a nonprofit, said Wednesday that Taylor Swift donated $5 million to relief efforts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton. “Thank you, Taylor, for standing with us in the movement to end hunger and for helping communities in need,” the group’s CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said in a statement. Feeding America said Thursday Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds had also donated $1 million to the group’s hurricane disaster relief efforts.
Olivia Rodrigo just had her biggest show ever:
More than 50,000 fans were at the Bocaue, Philippines, stop of Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour over the weekend, making it the largest headlining show of her career, according to Rolling Stone. Rodrigo donated all the net proceeds from the show to Jhpiego, a Filipino women’s health charity.
“I got to visit the organization while I was in Manila and was so impressed by the work they are doing providing healthcare to women and girls in the Philippines,” Rodrigo wrote on social media about the charity. “It was the most special show and the most meaningful trip.”
The Hollywood Reporter says these are the 50 most influential influencers:
The Hollywood Reporter is out with its list of what it says are the most influential influencers working today, including Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg, comedian Benito Skinner, Vogue correspondent Jack Schlossberg, Hot Ones host Sean Evans, and more. What do you think of the list?
Thanks for reading! See you next time. ⭐