What the White House now has in common with the Kardashian's house
Plus: My favorite moments from Gaga’s “Hot Ones” interview all showed her personal growth
If the latest revelation about White House decor has you baffled, just remember before he was a politician, President Donald Trump was a McBling era reality TV star. Meanwhile, a pair of unlikely allies in Congress have teamed up for a bipartisan bill to save Americans money.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end for the legislation celebrities are calling for to protect against A.I. and change the way radio pays out performers. — Hunter
What the White House now has in common with the Kardashian's house:
After Khloé Kardashian was arrested for driving under the influence, momager Kris Jenner had it framed because she thought it was “really cute.” Whoever’s decorating at the White House must have thought the same thing about Trump. Yes, it’s true, a framed copy of the New York Post front page showing Trump’s mugshot taken in 2023 for election racketeering and other charges is now hanging near the entrance to the Oval Office.
Trump reportedly has other plans to make the White House feel more like home. According to the New York Times, he talks almost daily about ripping up the grass in the Rose Garden and replacing it with “a hard surface to resemble a patio like the one he has at Mar-a-Lago.”
FLOTUS is trying to sell “sponsorships” on her Amazon doc:
First Lady Melania Trump received more than 70% of the $40 million Amazon paid to license her upcoming documentary, according to a new Wall Street Journal expose about how much the Trump family is profiting off their patriarch returning to the White House, and that’s not all. Her agent has also reportedly been seeking “sponsorships” from prominent CEOs and billionaires who attended her husband’s Inauguration. These sponsorships are independent of the Amazon deal, start at $10 million, and would get donors an invite to the doc’s premiere and a shoutout in the credits.
Companies have so far given about $80 million in total to Trump family members or to the future Trump presidential library since Trump won the 2024 election, per the Journal, not including money made from their cryptocurrencies.
Here’s some of Elon’s businesses that stand to benefit from the Trump administration:
Officials at at least 11 government agencies that have oversight over — and in some cases are investigating — Elon Musk’s businesses have been fired or resigned since Trump took office, according to a New York Times review. Yikes!
Leave our kid out of this, Grimes says:
After Musk took his and Grimes’ son X Æ A-Xii with him into the Oval Office last Tuesday for a wide-ranging Q&A session with the press where the unelected bureaucrat railed against unelected bureaucrats and admitted “some of the things that I say will be incorrect,” Grimes called for some privacy for her kid.
“He should not be in public like this,” Grimes wrote on X after a user mentioned her son. “I did not see this, thank u for alerting me. But I'm glad he was polite. Sigh.”
Rubio in talks with Russia:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. So far, they’ve agreed to reestablish embassies and have high-level talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine and other European countries have expressed concern over not being invited to negotiations. Trump doesn’t seem to care and criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today, saying should have ended the war three years ago. Trump falsely claimed “you should have never started it. You should have made a deal,” regarding Zelenskyy, completely disregarding the fact that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine.
McConnell comes out against Trump tariffs:
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.), welcome to the resistance. The former Senate majority leader is saying what he really feels after stepping down from leadership last year. In an editorial for his hometown newspaper The Courier Journal, McConnell wrote “no matter our best intentions, tariffs are bad policy.”
Warning “Republicans ought to be clear-eyed about the full, unadulterated impact of tariffs as we work to restore sound fiscal policy to our government,” McConnell said tariffs could cost the average Kentuckian $1,200 a year and “hurt working people most.”
A childhood polio survivor, McConnell was also the only Republican to vote against anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary, saying in a statement, “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures.”
Bernie and Hawley team up for bipartisan bill to combat high credit card interest:
Americans now have $1.21 trillion in credit card debt collectively, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report out last week. That’s a record high, and with financial institutions charging the average consumer an eye-popping 28.6% interest on credit card debt, two lawmakers are crossing party lines to fight back.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) teamed up for a bipartisan bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for the next five years. In a joint editorial for Fox News, the lawmakers said the bill would offer “real relief for working people,” adding, “Visa, MasterCard, and American Express will no doubt be actively lobbying Congress against this legislation. That should come as no surprise.”
Harris to receive NAACP Chairman’s Award:
Former Vice President Kamala Harris will be on hand Saturday for the NAACP Image Awards where she’ll receive the Chairman’s Award which honors people who “leverage their unique platforms to ignite and drive meaningful change.”
“Vice President Harris embodies the power, grace and unyielding courage that Black women have long brought to the heart of the United States,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “With bold determination, Vice President Harris fights for justice, amplifies the voices of the marginalized and stands as a beacon of hope.”
Obama’s the most popular living president:
A Gallup survey of the favorability ratings of the five living U.S. presidents found former President Barack Obama leads with a 59% approval rating. That’s up slightly from the 55% approval Obama had when he left office in 2017. Obama is followed by former President George W. Bush at 52%, former President Bill Clinton and Trump tied at 48%, and former President Joe Biden in last place with 39% approval.
“Presidential image trends tend to follow a similar pattern — generally positive ratings around the time of their inauguration, subdued ratings while in office, usually poor ratings when their presidency ends, and improved favorability after having been out of office for some time,” Gallup wrote. “Obama’s trend has been an exception, with him having positive ratings near the end of his presidency that have held during his post-presidency years. If the typical historical pattern holds, Trump’s favorability rating could be expected to drop over the next four years, while Biden’s may improve.”
“Not Like Us” is No. 1 again seven months later:
Kendrick Lamar went No. 1 with “Not Like Us” last year for two non-consecutive weeks, and after his Super Bowl halftime show, it’s rocketed back to No. 1. It’s the first time in chart history a non-holiday song has been No. 1 three separate times with more than two months between being No. 1, according to Billboard.
The new Captain America rules at the box office:
Captain America: Brave New World brought in $100 million domestically over the four-day weekend. Starring Anthony Mackie as Captain America with Harrison Ford playing a U.S. president who turns into the Red Hulk, the film racked up the fourth-biggest Presidents Day opening ever.
My favorite moments from Gaga’s “Hot Ones” interview all showed her personal growth:
Lady Gaga kept her poker face on during her appearance on “Hot Ones,” and she expressed some regrets, like, “lighting hairspray on fire I should not have done.” When host Sean Evans asked her about once comparing the writing process for “Born This Way” to immaculate conception, she actually seemed a bit self conscious about her self esteem at the time. “I said that?” she asked. I laughed, but at the same time, I also find Gaga’s early career confidence really inspiring.
At another point, Gaga also explained how she’s become more prudent with her staging decisions. “One set piece that we built, which was like really cool, actually 3-D sculpture that Nick Knight built, he put me inside a grand piano and made this huge statue,” she said. “It was so early in my career, I didn’t plan how it would get on and off the stage. It was so heavy and the crew guys were like, ‘This thing is as big as the arena, we can’t put it on the stage.’ That was pretty expensive and a bad decision. I definitely now try to be a lot more resourceful, just making less and not over producing things. I just want to be more resourceful. I’m growing up.”
Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center prompts resignations:
Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named Trump its board chair last week, and it’s prompted resignations from producer Shonda Rhimes, who resigned from her seat on the board, and musician Ben Folds, who resigned as an artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra.
Others are cancelling their performances at the venue, including Issa Rae, who cancelled her March 16 “An Evening With Issa Rae” show scheduled to play there. “Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I've decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,” the actress wrote on social media.
Scarlett Johansson calls for A.I. laws:
After seeing her A.I.-generated likeness used for a video criticizing the rapper previously known as Kanye West’s flagrant antisemitism, Scarlett Johansson is speaking out against “the misuse of A.I., no matter what its messaging” and calling for legislation.
“I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind,” she told People. “But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by A.I. is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it.”
Johansson compared A.I. to “a 1000-foot wave coming” and said, “I urge the U.S. government to make the passing of legislation limiting A.I. use a top priority; it is a bipartisan issue that enormously affects the immediate future of humanity at large.”
These musicians are lobbying Congress to change how radio pays out for songs it plays:
Currently, terrestrial radio stations pay royalties to music publishers and songwriters when they play music, and now more than 300 artists including Barbra Streisand, Céline Dion, Lil Jon, and Mariah Carey are looking for a change. The musicians signed on to a letter in support of the American Music Fairness Act, which would add performers to the list of people who get payouts from radio airplay.
Boyz II Men was on Capitol Hill last week to lobby for the bill and posed for a photo with House Majority Leader Mike Johnson while they were there.
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐