You’ll never guess what Pence said at the JFK awards
Plus: A last-minute change at the Met Gala
Former Vice President Mike Pence went all gave-proof-through-the-night-that-our-flag-was-still-there Sunday during his acceptance speech for the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Meanwhile back in Washington, his former boss is still figuring out basics of U.S. civics, but he’s at least internalized the 22nd Amendment about presidential term limits.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end for what Britney Spears said to Beyoncé’s mom one time backstage. — Hunter
Trump’s reportedly planning a military parade on his b-day…:
President Donald Trump is planning for a parade with more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, and 50 helicopters in Washington, D.C., for his 79th birthday on June 14, according to planning documents obtained by the Associated Press. It’s actually to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which happens to be the same day as Trump’s big day, but nothing’s been finalized. Plans for a military parade during Trump’s first term never came to fruition due to concerns over costs and the damage that tanks rolling through the streets might take on local roads.
…but at least he’s committed to just two terms:
“Trump 2028” hats aside, Trump tamped down on speculation he’ll try running for a third, unconstitutional term during his interview with NBC News’s “Meet The Press” which aired Sunday.
“I’ll be an eight-year president. I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important,” Trump said. “There are many people selling the 2028 hat, but this is not something I’m looking to do. I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward.”
Trump named Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential successors but added, “There’s a lot of them that are great.”
Guys, I’m starting to have doubts Trump could pass a grade school civics test:
In the same interview last Tuesday with ABC News correspondent Terry Moran where Trump mistook an edited image showing “MS-13” Photoshopped onto tattooed knuckles for being real, Trump had some trouble explaining the Declaration of Independence.
After Moran asked Trump what the document hanging in his office meant to him, Trump apparently had no idea what it’s actually about. “Well, it means exactly what it says, it's a declaration,” Trump said. “A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it's something very special to our country.”
That non-answer from our POTUS who perpetually seems like he didn’t do the high school social studies reading assignment wouldn’t be good enough to pass the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Test. The correct response to “What did the Declaration of Independence do?,” according to the test, is “declared our independence from Great Britain,” and the three rights it outlines are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
FLOTUS celebrates passage of the Take It Down Act:
The Take It Down Act, the bipartisan anti-revenge porn bill backed by First Lady Melania Trump, passed the House last week on a 409–2 vote and now heads to the president’s desk. The bill bans sharing real or A.I.-generated “intimate visual depictions” of someone without their consent, and in a statement, FLOTUS said its passage sends “a powerful statement that we stand united in protecting the dignity, privacy, and safety of our children.”
You’ll never guess what Pence said at the JFK awards:
In his acceptance speech for this year’s John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Sunday, Pence said Jan. 6, 2021 was “a triumph of freedom” because the system held. The former Veep was honored with the award by John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline Kennedy and his grandson Jack Schlossberg for standing up to Trump’s scheme to attempt to overturn the election in 2021.
Pence called Jan. 6 “a tragic day” but said “history will record that our institutions held when, after law enforcement secured the Capitol, leaders in both chambers in both political parties reconvened the very same day and finished democracy's work under the Constitution.” He also had a message about unity and what all Americans share in common.
For the U.S. to “forge a future, we have to find common ground,” Pence said, and he said he hoped “in some small way my presence here tonight is a reminder that whatever differences we may have as Americans, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand. It’s what binds us across time and generations.” Schlossberg said on social media that he and Pence “disagree on a lot” and “that’s the point.” “Vice President Pence did not flinch on January 6th — he risked his life and political career instead,” Schlossberg said.
The House is getting new food options:
The Cannon House Office Building will soon have a Starbucks. House staffers received an email last week notifying them that a new vendor was taking over food services in the Cannon and Rayburn buildings and that changes are coming.
Au Bon Pain is being replaced by a Panera Bread, Subway is being replaced by a Jimmy John’s, and Dunkin’ is being replaced by a Starbucks, which upset some Massachusetts staffers. “This is a hostile and political attack,” Francis Grubar, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) joked on X.
Here’s what Kamala said about Trump’s first 100 days:
Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Trump’s administration as the antithesis of America’s ideals in her most extensive public remarks since leaving office last Wednesday as the keynote speaker of the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco.
“Instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals,” Harris said. She said Trump’s tariffs and economic policies created the “greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history” and that he was seeking to divide Americans.
“We know those who try to incite fear are most effective when they divide and conquer, when they separate the herd, when they try to make everyone think they are alone,” she said. “But in the face of crisis, the lesson is: Don't scatter. The instinct has to be to immediately find each other and to know that the circle will be strong.”
Biden’s first post-presidency interview will be Thursday on The View:
Former President Joe Biden will be joined by former First Lady Jill Biden Thursday on ABC’s The View for his first interview since leaving office. Host Whoopi Goldberg said the interview will touch on “his legacy, accomplishments, regrets and of course, the current political landscape.”
A meeting of the mothers:
New York Times bestselling author Tina Knowles kicked off her Matriarch book tour outside Washington, D.C., last Wednesday (read on to today’s Culture Matters section for more) in conversation with noted Beyoncé fan, former First Lady Michelle Obama. Obama wore a double-breasted tuxedo jacket and trousers from McQueen and French braid to the event, according to WWD.
“I never thought I'd publish a book,” Knowles said. “You don't have to publish a book but leave it for your great-grandchildren, so they can know your story.” She said the best thing to come out of the book was being able to talk about her mammogram that led to a cancer diagnosis and how it’s inspired other women to book mammograms.
The Obama’s former summer home is on the market for $39 million:
The seven-bedroom, eight-and-a-half-bathroom Martha’s Vineyard home that the Obama family vacationed at from 2009 to 2011 is for sale. Named Blue Heron Farm, the home is now owned by the family of architect Norman Foster, who said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal that the property gives a “feeling of space, freedom and isolation — although located conveniently in the heart of the island.”
A last-minute change at the Met Gala:
Honorary Met Gala chair LeBron James was set to make his Met Gala debut tonight, but he said today he couldn’t make it because of a knee injury. “Hate to miss an historical event,” he wrote on social media.
This year’s Met Gala theme is “Tailored for You” to accompany the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute’s exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. See the best looks here.
Trump rattles Hollywood with movie tariff threat:
Trump said in a social media post Sunday that he would put a 100% tariff on “any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands,” which producers told Deadline was “insane” and “will kill the U.S. industry.”
Whether or not tariffs actually hit Hollywood’s foreign-filmed movies remains to be seen; the White House appeared to walk back Trump’s post Monday, saying, “no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made.”
Authorities foiled a bombing Gaga’s record-breaking concert in Rio:
Brazilian authorities said they thwarted a bombing at Lady Gaga’s Saturday concert in Rio de Janeiro and that one suspect is in custody. About 2.1 million people attended Gaga’s free show at the city’s Copacabana Beach, a record for the biggest concert ever for a female artist that surpasses the 1.6 million people who attended Madonna’s show at the same venue last year.
“I wish I could share this feeling with the whole world — I know I can’t, but I can say this — if you lose your way, you can find your way back if you believe in yourself and work hard,” Gaga wrote on social media about her record-breaking show. “You can give yourself dignity by rehearsing your passion and your craft, pushing yourself to new heights — you can lift yourself up even if it takes some time.”
Chappell, Ari, and more will guest judge on the next season of Drag Race:
Paramount is out with a trailer for season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and it’s packed with celebrity guest judges including Ice Spice, Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, and Chappell Roan, who dressed as a blow-up sex doll.
Green Day got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said at the ceremony Thursday that getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was “kind of like being at your own funeral.” Everyone had something nice to say.
Producer Rob Cavallo recalled hearing a demo of the band’s song “Longview” in 1993 and saying “this is the greatest band I have ever heard” and actor Ryan Reynolds, who also spoke at the ceremony, said of their 1997 “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” “you could set my colonoscopy to that song and people will weep.”
Sphere hits Beyoncé with cease-and-desist:
Beyoncé opened her Cowboy Carter Tour last week in L.A. (the star-spangled merch is fantastic and yes, she sang The National Anthem in between “Blackbiird” and “Freedom”) and Sphere Entertainment Group, or SEG, the owner of the Las Vegas Sphere, has taken an issue with a video interlude showing the singer picking up the Sphere like it was a basketball.
In a letter sent to Beyoncé’s production company Parkwood Entertainment, attorneys for SEG said the clip “contains the unauthorized use of SEG’s intellectual property” and asked “the tour cease and desist from using the Sphere venue in the video immediately.” The visuals have now replaced Sphere with Allegiant Stadium.
What Britney said to Beyoncé’s mom:
In Matriarch, Knowles writes that executives at Sony, Destiny’s Child’s label, thought the clothes and coordinated outfits she made for the girl group were “holding them back” and looked “too Texas” and “Motown,” and they would “never be as popular” as stars like Spears and Jessica Simpson.
“Mathew [Knowles, Beyoncé’s father,] and I both knew what this was code for. They were too Black,” she wrote, but Spears, who she met backstage in Germany soon thereafter, was a fan of her outfits. “Britney talked about loving the girls’ outfits. ‘One day, Miss Tina, you’ve please got to do something for me,’” Knowles recalled Spears saying. I personally would love to see Britney dressed in a Miss Tina original.
Amber Ruffin won’t tell the jokes she had planned for WHCD:
Comedian Amber Ruffin, who was scheduled to perform at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner before her set was cancelled, declined to share the jokes she had planned for the event when asked by Stephen Colbert during an interview on The Late Show. She didn’t think they would have landed because they were so one-sided.
“After they fired me I looked back at my Google Doc and was like, this would have been bad. They would not have liked it,” Ruffin said. “I had said that it would be impossible to make jokes about both sides because we’re at a point now where one side is snatching people up off the street and putting them on a plane and the other side is not doing that, so I just thought it would be impossible to make jokes about both sides and also a little dangerous.”
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐