Trump parties like Gatsby

Plus: Nicki Minaj gets invite to the U.S. Embassy to the U.N.

Sometimes President Donald Trump seems smart about optics and sometimes he seems dumb, like when he held a party at Mar-a-Lago themed “A little party never killed nobody” after the song in the 2013 Great Gatsby film right before funding lapsed for SNAP. I’ll admit, though, I loled at the Veep’s Halloween costume.

Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end to find out which man GQ says 2025 is the year of. — Hunter Schwarz

Have yourself a very Washington Halloween:

Hope your Halloween wasn’t too spooky. Trump is still putting candy on kids’ heads in his second term, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid homage to his new girlfriend’s Super Bowl halftime show by dressing as a shark, and Julia Fox faced blowback for dressing as a blood-splattered Jackie Kennedy. Yikes!

And then you have Vice President J.D. Vance, who dressed as the meme of himself. In a video on social media, he wrote “Happy Halloween everyone, remember to say thank you while you trick or treat!”

Shutdown continues:

If the ongoing government shutdown lasts to Wednesday, it will become the longest in U.S. history.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he’s “optimistic” about the shutdown ending this week. “I just think, based on, sort of, my gut of how these things operate, I think we’re getting close to an off-ramp here,” Thune said.

Trump parties like Gatsby, renovates the Lincoln Bathroom:

Tell me you never did the assigned reading in school without telling me you never did the assigned reading in school. Hours before SNAP funding ran out, Trump held a Great Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.

Trump also shared images of the renovated Lincoln Bathroom on Friday, writing that the old art deco style “was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era” (and marble isn’t??).

Trump says he can’t have a third term:

You can still buy “Four More Years” and “Trump 2028” hats on the trump dot com shop, but the man himself finally admitted “I’m not allowed to run.”

“I would say that if you read it [the Constitution], it’s pretty clear I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad,” Trump said aboard Air Force One en route to his second favorite Korea last week. Glad he’s reading. I’m heartened.

Obama, Harris campaign for Dems:

While Trump is taking this year’s off-year election campaign easy (he’s allegedly done tele-rallies, a source told ABC News), former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris are both in demand.

Obama spoke at a rally for in Norfolk, Va., for Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) who’s running for governor, and said Trump’s economy is good for his “billionaire pals and for finance bros,” while “hundreds of thousands of federal employees, including a lot of people here in Virginia, have lost their jobs to pay for those billionaire tax cuts.” Obama also spoke at a rally for Rep. Mike Sherrill (D-N.J.) who’s running for New Jersey governor.

Harris spoke at a rally in her home state of California in favor of Prop. 50 to redistrict California as a response to Trump-backed redistricting in Texas. “It is about reminding folks that we refuse to kneel at the foot of a tyrant,” Harris said.

Michelle Obama covers People:

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is wearing a colorful Jason Wu top on the cover of the latest issue of People to promote her book The Look, and it’s not something she would have worn as FLOTUS.

“I was a famous person, but I wasn’t a starlet,” Obama said. “And so that meant that the clothes could never speak louder than anything I had to say.”

She said she rarely wore white as FLOTUS because “I had to be able to give a hug. I couldn’t worry about whether somebody got makeup on something.” And she said she was conscious about elevating diverse designers. “I wanted to lift up all the designers who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to dress a First Lady. I wanted to break some norms,” Obama said.

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🎬 No. 1 movie: Regretting You with the worst Halloween weekend in 31 years.

💿 No. 1 album: The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift for a fourth week.

🎵 No. 1 song: “The Fate of Ophelia” by Swift for a fourth week. She’s now spent a career total of 40 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

For the first time since 1990 there were no rap songs in the top 40:

When Kendrick Lamar’s former No. 1 hit “Luther” with SZA fell off the Billboard Hot 100 dated Oct. 25, it marked the first time in more than 35 years that there were no rap songs in the chart’s top 40.

The track dropped off the Hot 100 as part of a recent Billboard rule change about when songs become “recurrent” and are taken off the charts (ie. when a song drops below No. 25 after 26 weeks, it’s now taken off).

Megan Thee Stallion ended the dry spell with “Lover Girl,” which debuted this week at No. 38.

Billie Eilish asks billionaires why they’re billionaires:

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal Magazine Innovator Awards last Wednesday where she accepted the Music Innovator Award with Mark Zuckerberg in the audience, Billie Eilish called out the ultra-wealthy.

“I’d say if you have money, it would be great to use it for good things, maybe give it to some people that need it,” Eilish said. “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”

Zuckerberg did not clap, according to People. Elish also announced during her remarks that she’s donating $11.5 million from her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour to charities.

NASA to Kim K: We’ve been to the moon:

After Kim Kardashian said on an episode of The Kardashians that she thinks the moon landing wasn’t real, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who’s also NASA’s acting administrator, responded on X.

“Yes, KimKardashian, we’ve been to the Moon before… 6 times!” Duffy wrote.

Kardashian said “Go to TikTok. See for yourself,” but I’m begging you to read a book instead.

Nicki Minaj gets invite to the U.S. Embassy to the U.N.:

After Nicki Minaj tweeted an image Trump’s social media post about violence against Christians in Nigeria, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz thanked the rapper “for using your platform to speak out” and invited her to visit the U.S. Embassy to the United Nations. “I’d be honored,” Minaj wrote. “Thank you, Ambassador.”

There’s an authorized Britney Spears memorabilia book coming:

Simon & Schuster says a new Britney Spears book is coming. The publisher has a new listing up for a 208-page book by writer Kara Nesvig called Britney Spears: A Visual Celebration, Official and Authorized, The Incredible Story of the Princess of Pop As Told through Memorabilia and Treasures, and it’s set to be published in August 2026.

According to the listing, the book will include “images that capture Britney Jean at work and play, featuring shots from recording sessions, provocative performances, and backstage moments” and it calls Britney fans “Spearitualists,” which I’ve never heard before (I’m partial to “Spearleader,” personally), but am warming up to.

Colbert covers GQ:

Stephen Colbert is on the cover of GQ’s Men of the Year issue where he talks about the end of The Late Show. He said it’s “reasonable” if people associate his firing with CBS’s $16 million settlement with Trump.

“I have had a great relationship with CBS. It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this,” Colbert said. He said a friend told him, “No one’s ever been the number one show for nine years in a row and then been canceled.”

As for what comes after The Late Show, Colbert says that although he thinks about getting in a catamaran and sailing off, “I love creating things and I still want to work with the people I work with.”

Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐