Trump has the hots for Sydney's ad
Plus: Dua Lipa has triple citizenship now
President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, but he’d rather talk about Sydney Sweeney after BuzzFeed reported she’s Republican. Trump’s also preparing for his next White House renovation project, and yes, there are artist renderings.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end to find out what thee Han Solo thinks about the state of America today. — Hunter Schwarz
Trump fires the messenger:
It’s not uncommon for official government data from the BLS to be retroactively revised as more information comes in, but last week’s revisions were a doozy, showing just 33,000 jobs were created in the U.S. in May and June, instead of previous estimates of nearly 300,000 jobs created in the same time period.
It’s the weakest job growth since the pandemic started in 2020, and Trump responded by firing BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and suggesting on his social network the agency’s data was “manipulated for political purposes.” Trump’s move could have a negative impact on trust in government data.
Trump has the hots for Sydney’s ad:
No one is happier for Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle jeans ad than Trump, who’s finally getting asked questions that aren’t about Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking to reporters Sunday in Pennsylvania, Trump commented on Sweeney being a registered Republican, which BuzzFeed reported.
“She’s a registered Republican?” Trump asked. “Oh, now I love her ad.”
“You’d be surprised how many people are Republicans,” Trump said. He later shared the below post on his social network that is now part of the presidential record, weighing in on American Eagle, Jaguar, Bud Lite, and Taylor Swift and calling Sweeney’s ad the “HOTTEST.” In another life, this man would be teaching a (mostly bad but occasionally brilliant) marketing class and working on his post-presidential memoir right now.
Trump wants to add a $200 million expansion to the White House:
The White House announced Thursday plans to build a roughly 90,000-square-foot state ballroom beginning next month on the White House East’s Wing that it estimated to cost $200 million. Clark Construction, which designed projects including the New Capital One Arena and the Cannon House Office Building renewal, is designing the building with a project team from AECOM and McCrery Architects. The renderings are giving Mar-a-Lago. See them here.
“President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail,” White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said in a statement. “The President and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future Administrations and generations of Americans to come.”
Trump’s happy with his press secretary’s performance:
It looks like Trump plans to keep White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt around. In an interview Friday with NewsMax, Trump said of Leavitt, “she’s become a star.”
“It’s that face,” Trump said. “It’s that brain. It’s those lips, the way they move. They move like she’s a machine gun.”
Sarah McBride just passed her first bill out of the House, and it was co-sponsored by an anti-trans Republican:
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who became the first openly transgender member of Congress this year, just saw her first-ever co-sponsored bill pass the House. The Equal Opportunity for All Investors Act, which would lower barriers to investing in private equity, was sponsored with Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), who’s voted in favor of trans athlete legislation, and it now heads to the Senate.
“Our bill will unlock capital for entrepreneurs and small business owners who’ve been left out for far too long,” McBride said about the bill, which has been criticized by some industry experts because it could make high-risk investments more easy to make.
Meanwhile in Texas…:
After Trump asked lawmakers in Texas to gerrymander their state to give Republicans more seats in the House next year, Democratic lawmakers left the state to prevent a quorum needed for the chamber to conduct business. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened the lawmakers who fled the state with arrest.
The West is recognizing Palestine more and more:
Within a span of days, the U.K., France, and Canada said they would recognize Palestinian statehood. In a statement last Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada intends to recognize Palestine at the U.N. General Assembly next month predicated on reforms, demilitarization, and banning Hamas from government.
The Smithsonian is putting Trump’s impeachments back in its exhibition:
After The Washington Post reported the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History had pulled references to Trump’s two impeachments in its exhibition The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, the museum is reversing course, saying the administration never asked them to remove it.
In a statement, Smithsonian said it’s updated the exhibition to “reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation's history” and that the previously removed placard about Trump’s impeachments “was meant to be a temporary addition to a 25-year-old exhibition” and it “did not meet the museum's standards in appearance, location, timeline and overall presentation.”
Start doing your pull-ups, the Presidential Fitness Test is back:
The Presidential Fitness Test is back. Trump, who I could beat in a pushup contest, signed an executive order last Thursday reestablishing the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and the council is ordered to create a “school-based programs that reward excellence in physical education and develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award.”
“I was always a person that loved playing sports. I was good at sports,” Trump said convincingly at a press conference making the announcement.
Pelosi had floor seats at Gaga:
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was spotted last week at Lady Gaga’s San Francisco stop of her Mayhem Ball Tour. “It was a fabulous show in San Francisco! The most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Pelosi said.
Fantastic Four stays at No. 1 for second week:
Last week’s No. 1 film at the box office, Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, stays in pole position for a second weekend despite a 66% decline in box office receipts, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Don’t expect a new Chappell Roan album until like 2030:
Chappell Roan’s new single “The Subway” is out, but when it comes to a follow-up to her 2023 debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, the singer told Vogue, “the second project doesn’t exist yet.”
“There is no album. There is no collection of songs,” she said. “It took me five years to write the first one, and it’s probably going to take at least five to write the next. I’m not that type of writer that can pump it out.”
Is Beyoncé’s new Levi’s ad a teaser for Act III?:
Some people think so. Beyoncé dropped her new ad for Levi’s, and some fans think the fact that the singer rides in on a horse and out on a motorcycle means her next album is rock themed. We can hope. 🤞
Dua Lipa has triple citizenship now:
Dua Lipa is collecting passports. Kosovan President Vjosa Osmani granted the singer Kosovan citizenship in a ceremony Friday. Lipa, who is of Kosovan-Albanian heritage, also has citizenship in the U.K. and Albania.
“It completes the duality I have always had within. I love this country and this means so much to me and my family,” Lipa said in a statement.
What we know about Katy Perry going out with Trudeau:
Katy Perry and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had an “instant connection” after sharing dinner at Le Violon, a Montreal restaurant, ahead of Perry’s Lifetimes World Tour show there last week. They’re “interested in each other,” a source told People, but taking things slow. “She is traveling around the world, and he is figuring out his life now that he is no longer prime minister of Canada, but there is an attraction. They have a lot in common.”
Trudeau was spotted in the crowd at Perry’s show singing “Firework,” and on Instagram, Perry’s ex Orlando Bloom liked a satirical post from The Onion joking Bloom went out to dinner with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Jess Glynne calls out White House for using her song from the Jet2 meme:
Jess Glynne’s 2015 song “Hold My Hand” has found new life thanks to its use in the now viral Jet2holiday ad on social media, but Glynne isn’t happy with how the White House used it.
After the official White House account posted a video of people being deported over the sound, the British singer wrote on social media that her music “is about love, unity and spreading positivity - never about division or hate.” Voice actress Zoe Lister, who voiced the ad, called Trump and his policies “abhorrent.”
Here’s what Harrison Ford thinks about the state of the country:
Harrison Ford was photographed by Peggy Sirota for the cover of Variety where he talked about his first Emmy nomination and was asked what he thought about where the country is six months into Trump’s second term.
“The pendulum doth swing in both directions, and it’s on a healthy swing to the right at the moment. And, as nature dictates, it will swing back,” Ford said. “But currently the issue is not who we are, but that we’re not who we used to be because we’ve been purposefully disaggregated into serviceable political units. And that has caused the middle to become frayed and tenuous, and the middle is where we belong. Not because it’s banal and safe, but because it’s fair. Compromise is fair and honest.”
He said he believes the commonality between people is economic and, “where it always was: Rich get richer, and poor get poorer. And that ain’t exactly right.”
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐