Golden idol
Plus: The story of Xtina’s “Beautiful” recording session is a lesson for us all
The same week the U.S. Secretary of State gave the Pope a crystal football, a golden statue of the president went up in Florida. It’s not a golden calf, a pro-Trump pastor said.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end to find out why concert tours are getting canceled left and right. — Hunter Schwarz
Golden idol:
A 15-foot-tall, golf leaf-covered statue of President Donald Trump has gone up at Trump National Doral golf club in Florida on Wednesday. “Let me say this plainly: this is not a golden calf,” televangelist Mark Burns, who spoke at the unveiling, wrote on X. Oh, I’m sure.
I know Trump probably loves the attention, but it doesn’t seem very politically savvy considering an ABC News-Ipsos poll last week that found 87% of Americans had a negative reaction to the A.I. image Trump posted and deleted on his social network that depicted himself messianically. The idol worship has gone too far, even for some of Trump’s voters.
“I used to make fun of this kind of thing when reporting in North Korea,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on X of the statue.
Trump Media isn’t doing too hot financially:
This man appears to run media companies the same way he runs casinos or airlines: into the ground. The parent company of Trump’s social network, Trump Media and Technology Group, or TMTG, lost nearly $406 million in the first quarter of 2026 and brought in $870,000 in revenue, per financial documents.
FLOTUS’s Mothers Day message:
First Lady Melania Trump wrote an editorial about mothers for The Washington Post. “The love between mother and child has helped shape America’s identity since the nation’s founding 250 years ago,” Trump wrote.
Trump said the country’s strength “is closely tied to the role mothers play in shaping character, education, and moral order within families” and she criticized feminism for often placing career above family. FLOTUS also noted May is National Foster Care Month. “Across America, tens of thousands of foster mothers selflessly provide safety and stability when it is needed most,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, her husband’s Mother’s Day message was an unhinged 232-word rant blaming the Iran war on his predecessors. The war, which is entering its 11th week, has killed more than 3,000 people. Gas prices in the U.S. have risen 52% since before Trump started the war.
Rubio meets with Pope:
In an effort to smooth over tensions between the U.S. and the Holy See, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Thursday with Pope Leo at the Vatican. The first American Pope gave Rubio a pen made of olive wood because it’s “the plant of peace,” Leo said, which is both thoughtful and on message.
Rubio gave Leo a crystal football with the State Department seal on it even though “you’re a baseball guy,” Rubio said, referring to Leo’s White Sox fandom (why not give him a baseball then??).
Then Friday, Leo said in an address to mark the anniversary of becoming Pope that “we cannot resign ourselves to the images of death that the news shows us every day.” He asked God to touch hearts, calm rancor, and enlighten “those who have special responsibilities of government.” Amen.
Obama tension:
Former President Barack Obama admitted politics causes tension at home. A still in-demand surrogate who just last month campaigned for Virginia’s redistricting measure and met with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Obama said his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, wants to spend time together in retirement.
“She wants to see her husband easing up and spending more time with her, enjoying what remains of our lives,” Obama told The New Yorker. The pressure for him to be on the campaign trail still “does create a genuine tension in our household, and it frustrates her,” he said.
Obama noted “no other ex-president was the main surrogate for the party for four election cycles after they left office,” and he’s not wrong. A 2025 Gallup poll found Obama is the most popular living president with a 59% favorable rating ahead of former President George W. Bush at 52% and former President Bill Clinton at 48%.
Press sec welcomes baby:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that she gave birth to her second child with husband Nicholas Riccio on May 1, and with that, she makes history. Leavitt is the first White House press secretary to give birth while serving in the job.
Sean Duffy filmed a reality show:
Former The Real World: Boston star and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he filmed a YouTube reality show with his kids and wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy. It’s called The Great American Road Trip and the trailer was released Friday.
The series is raising ethical concerns because it’s being put on by a nonporfit called the Great American Road Trip that’s sponsored by corporate sponsors that the Department of Transportation has oversight over, including Boeing, Toyota, and Shell.
There are “numerous questions that warrant a thorough investigation including whether this was an appropriate use of government time and what part of the project did industry groups fund,” Donald Sherman, CEO of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, told Bloomberg.
Dr. Biden adopted a cat:
Former First Lady Jill Biden surprised staff at the Richmond Animal League animal shelter in Virginia when she visited and adopted a gray and white cat named Milk, according to WTVR. Dr. Biden, who had a cat named Willow when she lived at the White House as FLOTUS, knew about the shelter because a relative had volunteered there, per the station.
🎬 No. 1 movie: The Devil Wears Prada 2, which has now out-grossed the original film
💿 No. 1 album: Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide for a second week
🎵 No. 1 song: Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” as her own “Be Her” rises to No. 2
ABC says the Trump administration is violating its free speech rights:
In a filing Thursday with the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, Disney-owned ABC said the FCC’s regulatory actions against their talk show The View “threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.”
The FCC said earlier this year it was investigating whether The View broke the equal-time rule after inviting Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) on the show. In the filing, attorneys for ABC said the show broadcast “under a bona fide news exception” it received more than 20 years ago.
BTS met with Mexico’s president:
After unsuccessfully lobbying the South Korean government to convince BTS to hold more shows in Mexico, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum got to meet the boyband Thursday at the National Palace in Mexico City. She said the group is coming back next year.
Sheinbaum sent a letter to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in January asking BTS to hold more shows in the country during their world tour after their three dates in Mexico City all sold out. That wasn’t possible, but in a social media post after meeting the group, Sheinbaum wrote that BTS thought “Mexico has a special energy and that's why they're coming back next year.” That’s leadership.
Charli made her “rock” song:
Charli XCX’s new song is called “Rock Music,” it has guitars and a stuttering vocal effect, and it’s just two minutes long and ends abruptly. What do we think? Personally, I think it’s perfect and exactly what she should be making right now.
Dua Lipa to Samsung: Don’t start now:
Dua Lipa filed a lawsuit against Samsung Friday seeking at least $15 million in damages for using her image on the packaging for some of its televisions without her knowledge or consent, according to Pitchfork. The singer learned about it after fans on social media referred to it as the “Dua Lipa TV Box,” per court documents.
Shakira is doing the song for the World Cup:
It’s called “Dai Dai” and Shakira shared a clip of the song Thursday. It’s the singer’s most recent World Cup song, following “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” for the 2010 World Cup and “La La La (Brazil 2014)."
The PinkPantheress “Girl Like Me” music video is perfect:
For “Girl Like Me,” the fifth (?!!) single off her EP Fancy That, PinkPantheress made the most British music video I’ve seen this decade. Directed by Lauzza, the video shows the musician in a syncopated London dreamscape with sliding buildings and strorefronts that move with the beat. “i hope everyone loves it as much as i do❣️” PinkPanthress wrote on Instagram. We do.
Mick Jagger is an O.G. Zara Larsson fan:
I love hearing about Mick Jagger’s favorite pop music. The Rolling Stones frontman revealed to Today he’s been a fan of Zara Larsson since at least her 2018 song “Ruin My Life.”
Jagger said his son told him the singer was having a big comeback. “She never went away for me,” Jagger responded. Larsson, who’s on the new cover of Paper shot by Julia and Vincent, said of Jagger’s fandom, “I can’t believe it.”
The story of Xtina’s “Beautiful” recording session is a lesson for us all:
Songwriter Linda Perry said on the Zach Sang Show that she was initially hesitant to give her song “Beautiful” to Christina Aguilera because the singer is a “hot chick.” After letting Xtina sing a demo, though, “it just made sense.”
“Oh, beautiful people are actually insecure and are just as damaged as I am,” Perry said of Aguilera after hearing her first raw take on the song. “Her vocal on there is the demo because that’s the version that sold me, that made me believe that she had emotions, that she was insecure, that she was lacking confidence in certain places, that she needed acceptance and approval.”
Perry said all she changed from the first rough demo to the final version was the bridge and one word Aguilera flubbed, despite the singer’s protests to re-record it with a more polished take. “So many people are going to relate to this imperfect vocal. That’s what this song is about, not being perfect. You’ll see,” Perry told her. She was right.
Artists are canceling tours left and right:
Artists like the Pussycat Dolls, Post Malone, Jelly Roll, Meghan Trainor, and Zayn have cancelled upcoming tours or shows in what’s being called “blue dot fever” for the blue dots that appear on venue maps for empty seats when you buy tickets online.
Touring revenue fell 6.1% year-over-year in 2025 following a post-pandemic surge, according to Pollstar, a music industry trade publication. That drop comes following a rise in average concert ticket prices, from $82 in 2020 to $144 this year, per Pollstar.
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐
Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter misstated Shakira’s most recent World Cup song. I regret the error.