Trump jets to Middle East
Plus: I’m obsessed with Rihanna’s baguette bag
President Donald Trump is headed to the Middle East for the first foreign trip of his second term, and it’s overshadowed by a jumbo ethics problem: a $400 million jet to be gifted by the Qatari royal family. Meanwhile, this morning and every morning, a bipartisan workout group hits cardio and weights together in the House gym.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end to find the inspirational celebrity commencement address message you need to hear to get through the week. — Hunter
Trump jets to Middle East:
Trump departed for the first foreign trip of his second term today. He’ll travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates over four days.
Trump is going to accept a luxury jumbo jet from the Qatari royal family:
While in Qatar, the Gulf nation’s royal family is planning to gift Trump with a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet that he intends to accept, use as president, and transfer to his presidential library foundation before leaving office. The jet is expected to be worth about $400 million, which would make it what’s believed to be the most valuable foreign gift ever given to the U.S. government, according to ABC News, which first reported the jet.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, a government watchdog group, has taken issue against the gift. “It’s hard to see it as a coincidence when Trump’s company just announced a new golf resort in Qatar, reportedly partnered with a company owned by the country’s government, and will soon be meeting with senior Qatari officials in Middle East trip that also features meetings with heads of state of two other countries he has property developments in,” CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz told The New York Times.
“At this point, it’s impossible to tell the difference between decisions being made by the White House for the good of the country and for the good of the Trump Organization,” Libowitz said. “Flying around on a $400 million gift from a country he’s doing business in just raises further questions about where his priorities lie.”
FLOTUS got foster care funding in the budget:
First Lady Melania Trump announced she secured $25 million for the FY26 budget for housing for individuals aging out of foster care.
The funds will come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, and “will provide thousands of youth transitioning out of the foster care system with dedicated rental assistance and other supportive services to promote stability and self-sufficiency,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump’s crypto empire is making him and his family incredibly wealthy:
Later next week, Trump is hosting a reception at the Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., for 25 people with the highest balance of his meme coin in their wallets. Regulators, watchdog groups, and ethicists are not pleased.
New data from Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, found just 58 crypto wallets have made more than $10 million each from Trump’s cryptocurrency while 764,000 wallets have lost money. Trump’s various crypto enterprises, which includes meme coins, NFTs, and the crypto exchange World Liberty Financial, have increased his family’s net worth by $2.9 billion, and crypto now represents nearly nearly 40% of Trump’s net worth, according to a report from the group State Democracy Defenders Action.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who cosponsored the End Crypto Corruption Act to ban the president and top officials from profiting off crypto, said, “Trump is cashing in on his presidency and making millions from his own crypto coins — this is corruption in broad daylight.”
Hamas released their last American-Israeli hostage:
Hamas on Monday released Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli soldier believed to be the last living U.S. citizen in Hamas captivity. “I am grateful to all those involved in making this monumental news happen,” Trump said in a post on his social network.
There’s only one House Republican willing to vote against the “Gulf of America”:
A bill to mandate federal agencies update their maps and documents within six months to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” passed the House last Thursday on a 211-206 vote, and just one member of the House Republican Conference, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), voted against it. “Americans see this as a junior high type of move and I think America’s better than this,” he said.
“There's bigger things for us to be working on, and voting on, too,” Bacon told Omaha’s KETV. “The president campaigned on it, but I didn’t campaign on it.” He said he doesn’t expect the measure to pass in the Senate.
There’s a bipartisan morning workout group at the House gym and talking politics isn’t allowed:
Working across the aisle might seem out of style in Washington these days, but for at least one bipartisan group of lawmakers, working out across the aisle isn’t. A group of elected officials work out together every morning for an hour at 6:30 a.m. in the House gym, and if you talk politics, you have to do burpees.
“That’s the standing rule. Everybody knows that,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who's led the workouts for more than 12 years, told The Wall Street Journal. The workouts are a mix of cardio and weights, and they’re not for the faint of heart. “We get a lot of people who join for a day and never come back,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said.
Biden’s back:
Former President Joe Biden took responsibility for Trump’s win during his interview on The View. “I was in charge and he won so I take responsibility,” he said last week. Biden said he talks to former Vice President Kamala Harris “frequently” and that though he was disappointed in the election results, he was surprised.
“I think we underestimate the phenomenal negative impact that COVID had and the pandemic had on people, on attitudes, on optimism, on a whole range of things,” Biden said.
Biden’s return to the public eye has some Democrats wishing he’d just go enjoy his retirement.
Barbara Bush has a stamp now:
Barbara Bush, who died in 2018 at the age of 92, became the seventh former first lady to be pictured on a postage stamp at the U.S. Post Office’s unveiling last Thursday in the East Room of White House with the current FLOTUS herself. Melania Trump praised Bush for “her respect for tradition while also breaking with convention.”
The stamp is based on artist Charles Fagan’s 2005 painting of Bush for the official White House collection. Former President George W. Bush was notably not there, but his sister was. Doro Bush Koch said her mom “told her staff she wanted to do something every day to help others, so that’s what she did.”
Yes, the pope has thoughts on J.D. Vance:
Pope Leo, the first American pope, had thoughts about Vice President J.D. Vance back in February when he wrote on X, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.” Vance told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday, “I try not to play the politicization of the pope game.”
“I’m sure he’s going to say a lot of things that I love,” Vance said. “I’m sure he’ll say some things that I disagree with, but I’ll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all.”
Here’s what Trump’s Hollywood coalition asked him:
Actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, who Trump named “special ambassadors” to Hollywood in January, asked Trump to include tax incentives for the film industry in a reconciliation package. The letter was signed by the actors and entertainment industry groups including SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America West and East.
“With your endorsement, these policy initiatives will help preserve and create American jobs, bolster local economies across the country, and ensure America remains the global leader in entertainment production,” the letter reads.
You’ll never guess the biggest star at the Met Gala:
The Hollywood Reporter partnered with Launchmetrics, a data firm, to calculate its annual Red Carpet Power Rankings. The ratings, which track earned engagement of celebs and fashion brands at events and assign a dollar value, found K-pop star Lisa brought in an estimated media impact value of $21.3 million for Louis Vuitton for wearing their viral lace bodysuit to the Met Gala. Zendaya in Louis Vuitton had an estimated media impact value of $14.3 million and Rihanna in Marc Jacobs was $13.5 million.
Harry Styles was in Rome the day the new pope was named:
Former One Direction member Harry Styles was spotted in Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City last Thursday and he wore sunglasses and a hat that said “Techno is My Boyfriend” from the U.K. brand Idea.
Megan and Harry went to the Cowboy Carter Tour:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, were at the last night of Beyoncé’s five-night run at SoFi Stadium last Friday, and the singer posted a photo of the couple in a photoblog on beyonce dot com. Megan and Harry last saw Beyoncé on tour in 2023 for the Renaissance World Tour.
There’s going to be a limited series about Madonna on Netflix:
Finally, the Queen of Pop is getting her own bingeable streaming series about her life. The rise and reign of Madonna will be detailed in a series in early development with Netflix, the singer, and filmmaker Shawn Levy, according to Deadline.
Ben Affleck says he “had a lot of empathy” for Britney:
In a podcast interview on “This Past Weekend” with host Theo Von late last month, Ben Affleck talked about his experience with paparazzi and said understanding “the cycle of having people harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you” helped him have some compassion for Britney Spears being followed by paparazzi during the 2000s.
“Having had my own experiences myself, I knew these are people who are following her around at a time where she may or may not have been having difficulty,” he said. Comparing how paparazzi harass celebrities to poking someone with a stick, he said celebrities’ reactions are “not really news, it’s not even real. It’s not what would be happening if this effect wasn’t taking place.”
“The image that you see are the people around waving the stick at the tiger or poking on it or whatever and all you see is the growling animal or whatever it is,” he said. “A long time ago, years and years ago, I really had a lot of empathy for Britney Spears.”
What T Swift said about being subpoenaed in the in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni case:
After being subpoenaed as a witness in the This Ends With Us legal case between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, a spokesperson for Taylor Swift was basically like she would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.
“Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history,” a spokesperson for Swift told People. “The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, 'My Tears Ricochet.' Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
I’m obsessed with Rihanna’s baguette bag:
Rihanna, whose partner A$AP Rocky confirmed at last Monday’s Met Gala that they’re expecting their third child together, showed off her baby bump in a cropped polo shirt in New York City last Thursday and paired with Fendi’s beige sheepskin Baguette Bag. A bun in the oven and a baguette on the hip, as Harpers Bazaar put it. The playful bag was released as part of the Italian luxury fashion house’s autumn/winter 2023 menswear collection, and though it’s now sold out, the brand still sells a mini version for $1,350.
Jennifer Coolidge tells grads to “friggin’ go for it’:
Jennifer Coolidge gave the commencement address at her alma mater Emerson College on Sunday and told members of the Class of 2025 to believe in themselves.
“When you find the thing that you want to do, I really want to highly recommend, just friggin' go for it,” Coolidge said. “When it comes to the obstacle course of your life, you have to find your own path. And you can't perfectly plan it out from the beginning. Part of directing your life is just letting it unfold. So let it.”
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐