Ex-POTUSes gather
Plus: Live Nation reaches DOJ settlement
Three Democratic former U.S. presidents spoke at Jesse Jackson’s funeral services in Chicago on Friday, and it won’t be the last time ex-POTUSes gather in the city this year knowing W. was invited to the just-announced Obama library opening later this summer. Meanwhile, the cost of the current President Donald Trump’s pardons are piling up.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end for how lawmakers are reacting to details of the Live Nation concert ticket settlement. — Hunter Schwarz
The Iran war isn’t helping Trump’s approval:
U.S. presidents since World War II have “enjoyed public support at the start of wars” like former President George H.W. Bush gaining nine points after the 1989 invasion of Panama and former President Barack Obama gaining 11 points after the 2011 raid to kill Osama bin Laden. Trump starts the war in Iran polling underwater, though, notes New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker.
“Given that wars tend to grow less popular over time, the initial negative response portends political challenges for Mr. Trump and his fellow Republicans the longer the fighting continues,” Baker wrote. A 56% majority of Americans oppose U.S. military action in Iran, according to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released Friday.
Trump, who wore a baseball hat Sunday to the dignified transfer of the first U.S. troops killed in the Iran war, says death and high gas prices are to be expected after U.S. strikes on Iran. “Like I said, some people will die,” Trump told Time. “When you go to war, some people will die.” Of gas prices he told Reuters, “if they rise, they rise.”
Who’s trying to hire away Massie’s staff?:
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) says he felt a “360-pressure campaign” to stop his bipartisan bill with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files last year. That includes members of his staff who received job offers from the Trump administration or the private sector.
Massie told The Atlantic he asked one of his staffers who turned down a job offer that would have doubled his salary, “Did it ever occur to you that they might be offering you this job to basically make me less effective?” and the staffer said, “That’s what my mom said.”
The cost of Trump’s pardons is piling up:
Trump has issued 166 pardons in his second term as of last month, plus a mass pardon of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, and cumulatively, those pardons have eliminated more than $1.5 billion in criminal debts and financial penalties like fines, restitution, and forfeitures, according to a review by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
For comparison’s sake, former President Joe Biden issued 80 pardons in his term that eliminated about $680,000 in criminal debts and financial penalties.
Obama announces library opening:
Obama announced Saturday that the Obama Presidential Center will open June 19 with a dedication ceremony on June 18 with “legendary performances by global icons and powerful remarks from today’s most prominent voices,” according to People. Former President George W. Bush is expected to be there, but Trump was not invited.
In a video, Obama spoke about the speech that inspired the text on the outside the building’s main tower, taken from his speech on the anniversary of the march across Edmund Pettus Bridge. “When visitors look up at the Obama Presidential Center’s museum building, they’ll see three simple, powerful words: “You are America,” Obama said.
Ex-POTUSes gather to honor Jackson:
Three former presidents, a pair of former first ladies (former First Lady Michelle Obama wasn’t there), and a former vice president were all on hand last Friday in Chicago for the late Jackson’s funeral service. Obama said Jackson “paved the road for so many others to follow,” Biden praised Jackson’s “abiding message of unity,” and former President Bill Clinton said Jackson “lived a big life” and “was always trying to lift people up.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke and said Jackson built a "coalition of seemingly different people who could be brought together around shared values, ideals, and experience.” She showed two campaign buttons she saved from his presidential runs. One used Jackson’s 1988 campaign logo and another said, “Damn Straight! It’s Time for a Black Presidential Candidate,” which Harris read aloud after saying, “pastors please forgive me.”
🎬 No. 1 movie: Pixar’s Hoppers
💿 No. 1 album: Bruno Mars’s The Romantic
🎵 No. 1 song: Mars’s “I Just Might”
Ben Stiller asks White House to remove Tropic Thunder clip:
After the White House X account posted a pro-war video that included clips from Hollywood movies like Top Gun, Transformers, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, actor Ben Stiller asked that they remove a clip from 2008’s Tropic Thunder, which he directed, produced, and starred in.
“Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip. We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine,” Stiller wrote on X. “War is not a movie.”
If this isn’t a sign Pink should takeover Kelly Clarkson’s hosting duties, I don’t know what is:
Pink is guest hosting The Kelly Clarkson Show while outgoing host Kelly Clarkson is off, and I think maybe they should make it permanent. Snowboarder Chloe Kim was on last Tuesday’s episode where she mistakenly thought Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” was a Pink song.
Kim said she was “so embarrassed,” but I just think it’s a sign that both Clarkson and Pink make beloved (if interchangeable) pop music and they likely also share the kind of appeal needed to host a daytime talk show. I’d like to hope if Pink was offered the job and took it that she’d keep doing cover songs. 🤞
Grateful Rihanna wasn’t hurt:
A 35-year-old woman fired on Rihanna’s Southern California home early Monday with an AR-15-style rifle, and though the singer was home, she was not hit, LAPD says. A woman has been booked in connection with the shooting. Scary.
Grateful Britney wasn’t hurt:
Britney Spears was arrested for DUI last Wednesday in Ventura County, California, and she has a May 4 court date at the Ventura County Superior Court.
Britney’s Cade Hudson said in part in a statement, “This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable. Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”
Britney’s been lying low at home, a source tells Us Weekly. “She knows it’ll be a spectacle the next time she steps out, so she’s trying to avoid that as long as humanly possible,” the source said. Hope she knows everyone’s pulling for her. 💕
Sam Ashgari says “everybody deserves privacy”:
When asked about Britney on Friday on Fox News, Sam Asghari said, “My full attention has gone to Iran at the moment,” but said of his ex-wife that everyone deserves privacy.
“When it comes to people making mistakes, I understand that, but I think everybody deserves privacy,” he said. “And I hope the press has learned from the past, that they give her the privacy that she needs.”
Asghari spoke about growing up in Iran moving to the U.S. when he was 12, which he called “golden opportunity for someone like me.” He called Iran’s government a “totalitarian regime” and said, “the most patriotic Americans are immigrants that come from countries that are oppressed because they understand what it’s like to live under tyranny.”
Live Nation reaches DOJ settlement:
Live Nation, the parent company of ticketing giant Ticketmaster, could beat the monopoly allegations after reaching a settlement with the Department of Justice that was announced Monday.
The DOJ accused the company of monopoly in a 2024 suit filed following ticketing issues on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but under the settlement, the company will allow third-party competitors like StubHub to sell tickets through its system, divest as many as 13 of its amphitheaters, and reserve half of all tickets for nonexclusive venues, according to NBC News.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the Trump DOJ’s decision was “a slap on the wrist” to the company and “a betrayal of every music lover and concertgoer exploited by Live Nation-Ticketmaster.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told Variety it was “a weak settlement” and that “all signs to a monopoly.” Some states plan to fight the settlement.
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐