Trump is posting again
Plus: They moved the VMAs for the debate
Hi, I’m Hunter and welcome to Whig, my new newsletter about politics and pop culture. Subscribe for more:
In his first posts on the platform previously known as Twitter since 2023, former President Donald Trump asked his followers if they were “better off now than you were when I was president?” It’s a callback to Ronald Reagan, which Trump’s campaign is reinforcing with ads showing footage of Reagan using the line. Trump followed it up with more X posts with all-caps links to his campaign website, like it was a product launch for the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, but with multiple polished campaign ads instead of music videos.
The reason for Trump’s return to X was to promote his interview with the platform’s owner Elon Musk on X Spaces, which was delayed some 40 minutes because of technical difficulties (on Truth Social, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign’s KamalaHQ account “ReTruthed” an old Trump post mocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ botched Spaces interview with Musk). In their interview, Trump told Musk he believes Harris is “worse than Bernie Sanders,” “as bad as Biden,” and “incompetent.”
When a social media influencer makes a big deal about coming back after a social media break it’s dramatic. When Trump does it it’s campaigning. Time will tell if Trump treats his X account like it’s Twitter or if he turns it all over to the campaign for marketing purposes only. If he’s following the Reagan playbook now, he’ll leave his account alone. — Hunter
Biden gives first interview since dropping out:
President Joe Biden told CBS Sunday Morning he dropped out because “saving our democracy” was more important than “personal ambition,” and had he stayed in the race, it “would've been down to the wire.” He told CBS News chief election Robert Costa that worried incumbent Democrats in Congress played a role in his decision.
“What happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was gonna hurt them in the races, and I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic,” Biden said.
Harris takes Trump’s no-tax-on-tips idea and adds to it:
In a campaign rally Saturday in Las Vegas, Vice President Kamala Harris one-upped Trump. Harris said not only does she support ending taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers, a policy he first promoted (it’s currently the only issue to show up on merch from either major party’s campaigns), but she said she wants to raise the minimum wage too. “It is my promise to everyone here, when I am president, we will continue to fight for working families,” Harris said during her speech.
Trump, who touted the idea to end taxes on tips in June, commented online about Harris picking up the proposal. “She sounds more like Trump than Trump, copying almost everything,” Trump wrote on his social network. “She is conning the American public, and will flip right back.” Some economists warn that not taxing tips could have unintended consequences, like creating tax loopholes for the rich and adding to the federal deficit.
Trump unfollowed Pence on X:
Asked writer Louis Peitzman, “What happened?”
Vance defends his wife from racist attacks:
During an interview on ABC News’ This Week Sunday, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) was asked his response to racist comments about his wife Usha Vance made by Nick Fuentes, an antisemitic and white supremacist livestreamer who had dinner with Trump and Kanye West, now known as Ye, at Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
“Look, if these guys want to attack me or attack my views, my policy views, my personality, come after me, but don't attack my wife,” Vance said. “She's out of your league.” When asked about Trump’s dinner with Fuentes, Vance said Trump “actually will talk to anybody,” which “doesn't mean you endorse their views.”
Emhoff cheers on Team USA in Paris:
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff watched the U.S. men’s basketball team win its fifth consecutive gold medal Saturday over France seated with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron. While in town, Emhoff also spoke against antisemitism at UNESCO’s Paris office and praised his wife’s pick for running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at a fundraiser that raised $285,000. “She made the right choice,” Emhoff said.
Kris Jenner works hard but Nancy Pelosi works harder:
Promoting her new book The Art of Power, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told The New Yorker she “never called one person,” in the lead up to Biden dropping out, “but people were calling me saying that there was a challenge there, so there had to be a change in the leadership of the campaign, or what would come next.” She said her goal was that “Donald Trump would never set foot in the White House again.”
Calling Biden a “fantastic president,” Pelosi said his political operation never impressed her, and she said with a straight face that her interview on Morning Joe that precipitated Biden’s decision to drop out was merely in support of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the leader of the democratic opposition of Belarus who she wrote a Washington Post editorial with. Pelosi said she hasn’t spoken to Biden since he dropped out, but she hopes their relationship can survive it. “I hope so. I pray so. I cry so,” she said.
It’s true, Obama put Charli XCX on his summer playlist:
Congrats to Charli XCX, whose “365” made former President Barack Obama’s annual summer playlist, along with Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
“With summer winding down, I wanted to share some songs that I’ve been listening to lately — and it wouldn’t be my playlist if it didn’t include an eclectic mix,” Obama wrote on Instagram. You can also see his summer reading list here.
Prosecutors say Hunter Biden accepted money from a Romanian oligarch:
In a court filing last Wednesday, special counsel prosecutors accused first son Hunter Biden of accepting money from Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu who sought to “influence government agencies.”
Prosecutors said they would show evidence during Biden’s tax trial that he was paid “from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion” into investigating a corruption investigation into Popoviciu in Romania.
Attorneys for Biden said in court filings Sunday that the special counsel was repeating “baseless and false allegations of foreign wrongdoing which have been touted by House Republicans to use Mr. Biden’s proper business activities in Romania and elsewhere to attack him and his father.”
The FBI’s investigating hack attempts against the campaigns:
The FBI said it’s investigating an alleged hack on Trump’s campaign and an attempted hack on Biden’s former campaign. Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center said last week that hackers associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor” in June. Microsoft said the Iranian group also targeted a former presidential campaign this past June as well as targeted presidential campaigns in May and June 2020.
🥇 United States earns 126 total medals, the most medals in 40 years, and ties China with 40 gold medals each. With the U.S. women’s basketball win over France on Sunday, Team USA secured its 40th gold medal. [Yahoo Sports]
📺 Olympics close with huge ratings gains for NBCUniversal. The company says 30.6 million people watched its daily coverage from Paris. [The Hollywood Reporter]
🇦🇺 Olympic breakdancer Raygun, who went viral for her controversial style, claps back at critics: “I do my thing.” “I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best — their power moves," Gunn said. "What I bring is creativity.” [ESPN]
▶️ Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has died at age 56. Wojcicki, who led YouTube for nearly ten years and was one of the only women to hold the CEO role at a big tech company in Silicon Valley, died following a battle with lung cancer. [CNBC]
🥣 This giant Pop-Tart is part of Kellanova’s plan to grow snack sales. The snack food company is rolling out more stunts to “delight customers” and drive sales. [Fast Company]
Reynolds and Lively take top two box office spots:
How’s this for a power couple: Ryan Reynolds and wife Blake Lively have the top two movies in the country. Reynolds’ Marvel Studios film Deadpool & Wolverine is No. 1 at box offices in North America for the third consecutive week while Lively’s It Ends With Us landed at No. 2.
Lively pays homage to Britney Spears:
As a nod to Britney Spears, whose ballad “Everytime” is featured in It Ends With Us, Lively showed up to the film’s premiere last Tuesday in New York City wearing the exact same Versace Spring 2003 dress Spears wore to a Versace fashion show in Milan in Oct. 2002. Side note: Britney has always looked good in Versace.
“[Britney] was just somebody who represented love and beauty and youth and hard work and determination and strength and she was in touch with her sexuality and her delicacy and she just sort of represented it all,” Lively told Extra. “Britney has just meant so much to me forever. I’m a forever Britney stan.” Same.
Celine Dion says she didn’t authorize Trump to use her music:
Ahead of Trump’s remarks at rally in Bozeman, Mont., on Friday, his campaign played a video of Celine Dion performing the song she contributed to the soundtrack for a film about a sinking ship. Now Dion would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.
Dion, her management team, and record label Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc. said in a statement Saturday that the Trump campaign’s use of the recording of “My Heart Will Go On” was unauthorized. “In no way is this use authorized and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use,” the statement read. “…And really, that song?”
Charlamagne tha God doesn’t think this is the Harris honeymoon phase:
The Harris bump is no sugar high, says radio host Charlamagne tha God. “I think that there’s a lot of energy. People keep calling this the ‘honeymoon phase.’ I don’t think it’s a honeymoon phase. I just think people haven’t been energized in the Democratic Party in a long time,” he told ABC News’ This Week, comparing the energy around Harris to the energy around Obama in 2008. “This feels like, whoa.”
Three arrested in planned Taylor Swift concert attack:
Austrian law enforcement say three teenagers are in custody in connection to a foiled attack planned for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Vienna. Officials said one of the suspects confessed to the plot, and bomb-making materials and materials related to the Islamic State and Al Qaeda were found at the suspects’ homes.
They moved the VMAs for the debate:
Good news for lovers of politics and pop music: Sept. 10 is no longer double booked. Trump agreed to the pre-scheduled ABC debate, which was scheduled the same night as MTV’s Video Music Awards, and MTV announced today it’s moving its annual awards show from Tuesday to Wednesday, Sept. 11.
This year’s performers will include Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Camila Cabello, and Swift leads the nominations with 10 nods. The nominees for Video of the Year nominees are Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends,” Billie Eilish’s “Lunch,” Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Read,” Eminem’s “Houdini,” and SZA’s “Snooze.”
There’s a KAWS X Andy Warhol collection at UNIQLO:
To coincide with the KAWS + Warhol at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pa., UNIQLO produced a collection in collaboration with Warhol Foundation. The collection include tees showing KAWS’ Companion character posing with Warhol’s banana, as well as other items that mash up the artists’ work on sweatshirts, sweatpants, jackets, socks, totes, and a book about the exhibition. Love.
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐