Trump’s actually spending more than Biden
Plus: Xtina produced Burlesque the Musical
Don’t let the DOGE distract you, President Donald Trump’s administration is actually on track to spend more money than the last guy, according to a new report. Meanwhile, economic indicators are looking pessimistic ahead of Trump’s planned new tariffs later this week.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end for what a Midwest Princess has to say about pop stars speaking out about politics. — Hunter
Trump’s actually spending more than Biden:
So much for spending cuts. Despite making a big show of cutting the federal government, federal spending this year is actually up 7.4% compared to the same time period last year when former President Joe Biden was in office, according to spending data from the Hamilton Project, a think tank.
“You would expect, given the rhetoric, to see big decreases relative to last year,” Hamilton Project director and former Congressional Budget Office chief economist Wendy Edelberg told MarketWatch. “It’s less surprising when you consider that most of the cuts they have talked about are pretty small bore, and I think that’s the major takeaway.”
Trump’s tariffs stoke “stagflation conditions,” survey says:
A CNBC survey of 14 economists about GDP and inflation estimated the U.S. saw just .3% growth in the first quarter of 2024. The economy is growingly, but slowly, and Trump’s actions — raising tariffs on foreign goods and firing or pressuring an untold number of federal workers to accept buyouts — have been met with consumer’s holding back and stocks in retreat.
“While our baseline doesn’t show a decline in real GDP, given the mounting global trade war and DOGE cuts to jobs and funding, there is a good chance GDP will decline in the first and even the second quarters of this year,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of the economist research firm Moody’s Analytics, told CNBC. He warned that if Trump doesn’t backtrack on tariffs by the third quarter, a recession “will be likely.” Barclays, a bank, said, “Signs of slowing in hard activity data are becoming more convincing, following an earlier worsening in sentiment.”
The Vance’s Greenland trip went about as well as you expected:
Since Second Lady Usha Vance announced last week that she was heading to Greenland on a multi-day trip to see the Avannaata Qimussersua, their national dog sledding race, a lot has happened. For one, her husband Vice President J.D. Vance ended up going with her and the rest of an uninvited U.S. delegation, and they didn’t end up going to the race and they only stayed one day.
The Vances weren’t welcomed by locals, and according to TV 2, a Danish state-owned news outlet, U.S. officials went door-to-door ahead of the Vance’s visit to look for people who wanted to be visited by SLOTUS, and they found none. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Sunday, “We do not belong to others. We decide our own future.”
In a speech at the Pituffik Space Base, a U.S. Space Force base about 930 miles north of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, VP accused Denmark of underinvesting in Greenland’s security and said he was confident the island would become part of the U.S. “I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States,” he said. “We could make them much more secure. We could do a lot more protection. And I think they’d fare a lot better economically as well.”
The old U.S.-Canada relationship “is over,” Canadian PM says:
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney isn’t playing. In remarks last Thursday, Carney said the longtime relationship between the U.S. and Canada has ended.
“It is clear that the United States is no longer a reliable partner,” Carney said, adding “there will be no turning back.” “We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States. We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere.”
Trump and Carney had their first call Friday. Trump said it was “extremely productive,” and he reportedly didn’t call Carney a “governor” as he did to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “We had a very good conversation,” Trump said. “Mark called me.”
Last time a U.S. official accidentally added a journalist to a group chat, they were fired:
Trump said he won’t fire anyone over last week’s leak of a Signal group chat about a U.S. airstrike in Yemen, but not everyone in government has been so lucky before.
A Department of Homeland Security employee accidentally sent unclassified information about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in January and was put on administration leave and told DHS would revoke her security clearance, according to NBC News.
Rubio backs revoking visas of student activists:
At least 300 student visas have been revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last Thursday, including many of students who’ve been to pro-Palestinian protests. Rubio’s comments came a day after Remeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student and Turkish national who attended a protest, was detained and arrested by plainclothes officers
“It might be more than 300 at this point,” Rubio said at a news conference in Guyana. “We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.” The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a rights group, filed a lawsuit in mid-March arguing deportations of protesters are unconstitutional.
RFK is gutting our Nation’s public health agencies:
Anti-vaccine superspreader and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said last Thursday that HHS is “going to do more with less” in a video announcing the department will lay off 10,000 workers.
Dr. Peter Marks, the top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, wrote in a letter Friday that he was resigning from his role as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research because of RFK Jr.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote.
The watch Noem wore during her El Salvador prison photo op costs about $50,000:
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted a video on social media last week filmed at the Terrorist Confinement Center, a prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, wearing a very pricey timepiece. Noem wore a gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch in the video, which retails for about $50,000, according to The Washington Post.
A federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from deporting immigrants to the prison last Wednesday, but in her video, Noem warned people in the U.S. illegally they could end up there.
“If you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem said in front of a backdrop of shirtless, tattooed men behind bars.
Trump is now targeting our Nation’s museums:
In an executive order signed last Thursday, Trump tasked Vance with the job of “seeking to remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, which operates 21 museums primarily in Washington, D.C., including the National Museum of American History and the National Postal Museum. Trump claimed there was a widespread effort to replace “objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” which is rich, coming from him.
They cancelled the comedian for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner:
So much for comedy being legal again. White House Correspondents’ Association president Eugene Daniels said Saturday that the WHCA board has “unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year” after announcing in February that comedian Amber Ruffin would do the honors.
White House staff have been critical of the decision to have Ruffin as the evening’s entertainment because of her criticism of Trump, and some in the White House have even reportedly mulled holding their own counter programming the night of the WHCD in the form of an alternative dinner for Trump administration staff and allies. First Lady Melania Trump’s birthday is the same day as the dinner on April 26, giving it an ostensible purpose.
A literal child got through the White House fence, but the don’t worry, the kid is safe:
Tourists, watch your kids! The Secret Service said that just after 6:30 p.m. last Wednesday, agents saw a toddler make it onto the North Lawn of the White House after squeezing through the fence.
“Officers quickly reunited the child with their parents without incident,” Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi wrote in a post on X.
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show received 125 complaints:
Apparently it wasn’t that controversial. There were 125 viewers who sent in complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, over Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show performance, according to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Hill.
“It would be a nice change to have entertainment that truly shows what America should be; family, country, decency and respect. It is tiresome to have to send children out of the room during what should be a family event due to possible vulgarity and inappropriate language/gestures,” one viewer wrote in their complaint.
Morgan Wallen, who walked off SNL without telling the cast goodbye, has week’s highest debut:
Morgan Wallen walked off the set at Saturday Night Live in the middle of the credits rolling and people have a lot of thoughts about it. Wallen’s “Just In Case” debuted on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 at No. 4, the week’s highest debut and his 14th top 10 hit. Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” is No. 1 for a sixth week.
I’m listening to Ari’s Brighter Days Ahead and I’m not crying, there’s just something in my eye:
Ariana Grande brought back Peaches, her character from the “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” music video who destroyed old, painful memories, for a 26-minute short film accompanying the deluxe edition of her album Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead. It’s basically a whole bunch of music videos chucked into a single video.
Playing an old version of herself, Peaches wistfully watches some surviving memories in a room that like like Professor X’s Cerebro. “Someone has said that we should live each day as if it was the last day of our life,” a young Ari said in the short film’s final scene.
Katy Perry’s A&R blames himself for her working with Dr. Luke:
Katy Perry was slammed last year for working again with producer Dr. Luke, who Kesha accused of drugging and raping her in a case that was settled in 2023 (Luke denied the allegations), but now Perry’s A&R manager Chris Anokute says he was the one who suggested the pop star reunite with the producer.
“I thought it was a good time to reunite them after 10 years of not working together,” Anokute told The Manager’s Playbook podcast, calling Luke “a dear friend.” “Every single he’s ever done with her has gone No. 1. The press just didn’t react favorably and they tried to assassinate him and her.”
Xtina produced Burlesque the Musical:
Wagon Wheel Watusi! Christina Aguilera, who starred alongside Cher in the 2010 film Burlesque, announced she’s executive producer for a musical version of the movie heading to London’s West End for a limited run beginning July 22.
“Our journey of making this film to bringing this show to the stage has been so special and exciting,” Aguilera said in a statement. “Following our successful previews, having the show land in the West End later this year is a dream come true!”
Kelly Clarkson said she watched her season of Idol once and it made her sweat:
In an interview with Not Gonna Lie host Kylie Kelce, the inaugural American Idol talked about the pressures of singing contest reality shows. “It’s a grueling thing and it’s unforgiving in a lot of ways and a lot of pressure right off the bat for these artists that I don't think a lot of artists that sell tons of records would be able to handle,” Kelly Clarkson said. And it’s a hustle.
“After I won Idol people were like ‘oh, she’s a millionaire.’ No I wasn’t,” she said. “They say million-dollar contract. No I didn’t. They said I’d get a car. No I didn’t. Like, I didn’t get any of that. We were playing festivals in the middle of cow shit, plugging in all of our gear. It’s still a hustle, every bit of it. At 42, it’s still a hustle.”
Clarkson said her background on the show helped her as well as fellow Idol alum Jennifer Hudson when they were coaches on The Voice to relate to contestants in a way other judges might not have been able to. Still, she said, she had no idea what she was getting into when trying out for Idol, or what the show would go onto to become. “I’ve seen it once and I was like how did I win? It makes me sweat thinking about it,” she said of season one.
Chappell Roan wishes the president was a pop star:
Yeah, me too. In an interview with the Call Her Daddy podcast, Chappell Roan spoke with host Alex Cooper about fans’ expectations that she speak out about politics. “Are you looking to me for some political answer?” Roan asked. “I'm a pop star. I wish I had the answers, I wish the president was a pop star, but she's not.”
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐