The Social World

Author: Neal Pollack

  • The Trump-Kennedy Center?

    The Trump-Kennedy Center?

    “I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate,” a tuxedo-clad President Trump said on the red carpet before hosting the Kennedy Center Honors. “But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself.”

    To open the show, Trump stood behind the presidential lectern and invoked the name of Johnny Carson, who, he said, was a master improviser like him. Trump hadn’t prepared much. He didn’t need to. “This is the first time a president of the United States has ever hosted the event. I don’t know why.”

    It’s actually kind of an interesting question. Ronald Reagan, of course, would have made an excellent Kennedy Center honors host. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama enjoyed a stage and an audience in their primetime years, and George W. Bush could have smirked his way through some one-liners and artist introductions. Other presidents would have been awful: imagine Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush trying to host an awards show. We all know Joe Biden couldn’t have done the job. “They tried to get Biden to do this four years in a row,” Trump said on Sunday night. “I would have watched.”

    But for Trump, who, more than anyone ever, loves being president, hosting a show like this is his final form. He appeared on stage three times: at the beginning, at the end and before the intermission. The show also included segments, taped from the White House, where Trump introduced the individual honorees. “This is fantastic, isn’t it?” Trump said after the intermission. “It is just so incredible… This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center. Not even a contest. There has never been anything like it. The show is already getting rave reviews. I guarantee you the fake news will say he was horrible as an emcee.”

    The fake news has said no such thing yet, but that’s partly because only a handful of fake news reporters were present on Sunday night. The actual ceremony will air on CBS and Paramount+ on December 23. This broadcast will ruin the Christmases of the types of people who like to warn us on social media that democracy is in danger.

    Trump referred to the building as the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” and, after an awkward response to that comment, said, “I’m sorry. This is terribly embarrassing.”

    “Well, we’re really having a good time tonight,” he continued. “So many people I know in this audience. Some good. Some bad. Some I truly love and respect. Some I just hate.”

    By now, we all know the somewhat odd list of honorees by heart: Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor and KISS. Anyone who had “President Donald Trump honors KISS at the Kennedy Center” on their bingo card 40 years ago would have gotten a one-way ticket to Bellevue. But here we are.

    America is back, Trump said, invoking the name of a disco queen whose biggest hit came 45 years ago. “Stallone said it strongly in the movie. It’s all about winning, if you move forward that’s how winning is done. The winners are exactly what these great legends are about. They also know how to go through hell.” The honorees, he said, are “giants” in their genres. “Many of you are horrible, miserable people but you never give up.”

    The show closed with Cheap Trick performing a cover of KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Nite” that had the audience on its feet, and Trump, presumably, doing the Trump Dance. “They probably don’t like me very much,” Trump said. “But we don’t care. We want bigness. We don’t care if they like Trump or not.”

  • Halle Berry vs. Erika Kirk

    Halle Berry vs. Erika Kirk

    Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s DealBook summit, sponsored by the New York Times, made a lot of news yesterday, though it felt more like 1975 than 2025, particularly when it came to “women’s issues”. We were one degree of separation from participants arguing over galleys of Ms. Magazine or getting into shouting matches with Norman Mailer.

    In the role of Phyllis Schlafly, the beautiful right-wing career woman leading a charge for a return to traditional values, was Erika Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA and recent widow of Charlie Kirk. She claimed it was “ironic” that women in New York City had voted for Zohran Mamdani, given that many of them are childless but voiced support for his promise to provide free childcare for children under six years old. Kirk said that women were using government as a “replacement” for marriage and family.

    This was somewhat ironic in itself because Erika Kirk didn’t marry Charlie until she was 32, with an already successful career and a full life – and is now a major public figure, studying for a PhD. Also, there’s the fact that women might have voted for Mamdani because their other choices were Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, neither of whom have a lot of curb appeal to young female voters. Regardless, the right looked at the comments and continued to consider Erika Kirk a hero of the revolution, and the left looked at them and continued to consider her some sort of sinister she-devil, so the needle didn’t actually move.

    More surprising was the appearance of actress Halle Berry, in a new role as some sort of hybrid version of Gloria Steinem and Shirley Chisholm. Berry ripped into California Governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom for not supporting a Menopause Care Equity Act in California. “With the way he’s overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us in midlife, he probably should not be the next president,” Berry said. She said that menopause and perimenopause are staggering health problems that affect the entire national economy, causing one of six women to leave the workforce. If men “had a medical condition that disrupted their sleep, brain function and sex life, we’d be calling that a health crisis on par with Covid, and the whole world would shut down.”

    “I need every woman in this country to fight with me,” Berry said. “But the truth is, the fight isn’t just for us women. We need men too. We need all of the leaders, every single one of you in this room – this fight needs you.”

    Newsom himself appeared at the DealBook summit, but spent his headline-making moment by claiming that if Hakeem Jeffries somehow doesn’t become Speaker of the House just over a year from now, the United States will descend into permanent autocracy – with show elections like the ones in Russia. Newsom urged the people in the crowd, most of whom were Democrats, to wake up from their stupor and elect Democrats, the only way to save America. This seemed like a bit of an exaggeration, a reach, and a fear tactic, Gavin Newsom specialties, given that he has his own authoritarian tendencies.

    Halle Berry couldn’t have been too pleased, as Newsom didn’t once mention menopause, though he did decry the bill earlier this year as too expensive. Governor Newsom, Bella Abzug and Germaine Greer would like to have a word with you. Even Erika Kirk might like to have a word. And Halle Berry isn’t going to cede ground. She said, “At this stage of my life, I have zero fucks left to give.”

  • The desperation of the ‘Seditious Six’

    The desperation of the ‘Seditious Six’

    Two weeks ago, six US lawmakers, all military or intelligence veterans, released a cryptic YouTube video where they spoke directly to American service members. They were Senators Mark Kelly (Arizona) and Elissa Slotkin (Michigan), and Representatives Jason Crow (Colorado), Chris Deluzio (Pennsylvania), Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania) and Maggie Goodlander (New Hampshire) “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home,” one of them said. “Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders,” said another. “You must refuse illegal orders,” said a third. “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

    The video seemed to come out of nowhere and took anyone who was paying attention by surprise. What “illegal orders” were they talking about? Regardless, President Trump didn’t like it. On social media, he declared that the six lawmakers were traitors who should be “arrested” and “put on trial.” He called the video “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR … punishable by DEATH.”

    After Trump threw oil on this kitchen fire, the White House had to walk things back a bit. The press office said that Trump didn’t mean it literally, but that the lawmakers had “conspired … to defy the president’s lawful orders.” The fallout since has been minor. Most people agree that what the lawmakers did isn’t sedition, since all they said was that troops should only follow legal orders, which is true. Regardless, the Department of Defense has launched an investigation into Kelly, one of the “Seditious Six” and a retired Navy captain, citing “serious allegations of misconduct.”

    In recent days, the heat around the Seditious Six has died down, but that video hasn’t left my head. It was so weird and so out of place. What in the world were they talking about? One possibility is the presence of the National Guard in Washington D.C. In November 2025 Slotkin introduced the No Troops In Our Streets act, and said on a Sunday talk show that the military “should always remain apolitical and should never be used as a domestic police force.” Then an Afghan National shot down two Guardspeople unprovoked, so suddenly Slotkin was on the very wrong side of history.

    Another possibility is the shooting down of Venezuelan drug boats, and, in particular, the “second shot” on one of the boats that currently has Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in the media and Congressional crosshairs. But while the drug-boat attacks did seem to come out of left field, they’re not particularly inconsistent with the Administration’s policy of aggressive action toward drug cartels, so it hardly seems to constitute “illegal orders.”

    Some more paranoid commentators on the pro-Trump right are saying that the Seditious Six are trying to foment a “color revolution,” a mass protest movement aimed at overturning a government or forcing mass political change. Threatened governments use this term derogatively toward protesters, indicating that the impetus behind the revolution comes from foreign entities or politically-motivated NGOs. In other words, the Seditious Six are a thinly-disguised branch of No Kings, Inc.

    There may be some truth behind the conspiracy theories, but it’s also true that this particular color revolution isn’t particularly colorful. Trump’s D.C. National Guard deployment and drug-boat attacks have their loud detractors, but are actually quite popular with the majority. Trump and his Administration enjoy broad support in the new “no fatty” Armed Forces, which seems more willing than ever to carry out the wishes of the Commander in Chief. Anyone who thinks that there’s a platoon of Manchurian Soldiers out there ready to carry out the whispered wishes of Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly and Maggie Goodlander is just being a nutter. The troops are listening to Trump and Hegseth and their generals, not Representative Jason Crow.

    In reality, the Seditious Six’s audience isn’t actually the US military, but what remains of the anti-Trump “Resistance.” It’s a video to be played on loop in the social-media feeds of the likes Rick Wilson and Randi Weingarten, and for the millions of permanently terrified Heather Cox Richardson readers. It’s an MSNBC special report.

    The US military isn’t behaving any more illegally than it ever does, and Trump’s usage of it isn’t unusual. As the Trump era enters its fourth quarter up 24-0 with the ball and all of its timeouts, the Resistance’s plays are getting loopier and riskier. That very odd video from a couple of weeks ago may not have been seditious. But it was certainly desperate.

  • Trump’s cabinet is a liberal’s nightmare

    Trump’s cabinet is a liberal’s nightmare

    “Some people will correct me. They love to correct me. Even though I’m right about everything,” President Trump was saying, but no one was about to correct the President at this December cabinet meeting, the last in a series of extremely long such affairs that TV has carried this year. At this point, YouTube might as well set up a 24-hour livestream from inside the White House, like the sorts of stunts that were popular at the dawn of the personal video era. Trump is always with us, and talking at us.

    Before the roundtable of cabinet members listing their accomplishments and kissing the boss’s butt, Trump talked for nearly 30 minutes. Some highlights: “affordability” is a “fake narrative that Democrats talk about”; Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is “incompetent,” a “real dope” and “a stubborn ox who probably doesn’t like your President, your favorite President”; prices have come down substantially for “the fat drug for fat people”, and, stop the presses, “at some point in the not-so-distant future you’re not going to have income tax to pay.”

    And lest someone test Donald Trump’s mental acuity, he put all doubt to rest by saying, “I sit here and do four news conferences a day and answer questions from very intelligent lunatics, you people. I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong with me. There will be some day. It happens to all of us. I think I’m sharper now than I was 25 years ago. I took a cognitive test. I asked “is it hard?” Biden didn’t have a news conference for eight months and you said he was fine. I went one day without doing a news conference and you all went back and wrote “what’s wrong with the President?” I read in the New York Times, ‘Is Trump sharp?’ Trump is sharp. They’re not sharp.”

    The cabinet meeting was a liberal’s nightmare, with all their villains taking turns speaking. War Secretary Pete Hegseth used the word “lethality” several times, saying, “We’ve only just begun striking narco boats and putting terrorists at the bottom of the ocean.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick extolled the virtues of the tariff regime, while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that people were no longer wearing pajamas and slippers on airplanes, to which Trump said, “We’re saving our country. I don’t want to be braggadocious. Our country was down and it was never coming back.”

    Attorney General Pam Bondi said her department was keeping men out of women’s sports, fighting DEI, antifa and sanctuary cities, and helping free J-6 rioters from prison. Over in Homeland Security, Kristi Noem said Joe Biden “used this department to flood the country with terrorists. It’s our job to get them out. We’re going to send more home for the holidays, to make sure they can spend the holidays with their families.” Meanwhile, the head of the Small Business Administration invited everyone to join her in daily Bible study, and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said “the Green New Scam is dead.” RFK Jr. said the Trump administration is defeating “the mercantile interests of Big Pharma and the medical-industrial complex” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this was “the most transformational year in American foreign policy since the end of the Second World War.”

    That all took more than an hour, after which Trump said, “I hope it wasn’t too long but it was very concise.” Then came everyone’s favorite segment, Q&A. An early question was about Elon Musk, whose hyperactivity was often a focus of the early-year cabinet meetings, before Trump tossed DoGE into the dustbin of history. A reporter asked if Trump and Musk were still friends. Trump said, sort of, he guesses. “We had one problem, I didn’t want everyone to have an electric car. And he makes electric cars.”

    Of the attacks on Venezuelan boats, Trump said, “I want those boats taken out, and if we have to we’ll attack on land as well, just like we attacked on sea.” That was sort of ominous, and Hegseth added that even though he didn’t witness the “second strike” on a boat that’s creating controversy and congressional investigations, he hardly apologized for the action. He said, “We will eliminate that threat, and we’re proud to do it… these white bales are not Christmas gifts from Santa.”

    “This is what’s called the fog of war,” Hegseth said, even though, technically, we’re not at war. “This is what you the press don’t see. You sit in your air conditioned offices or on Capitol Hill… while we’re doing dark and difficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people.”

    The gathering ended with Trump talking about Minnesota welfare fraud to benefit Somali terrorist groups, which had him incensed, as it does all right-thinking people. “When I see what’s happening in Minnesota, the land of a thousand lakes, I don’t know how many lakes, they got a lotta lakes, it makes me mad. Our country’s at a tipping point. We could go bad. We could go one way or another. We’re going to go bad if we keep taking garbage into our country… if they come from hell and they complain and they do nothing but bitch, we don’t want ‘em in our country.”

    Around the room, people pounded the table at that piece of closing rhetoric. The President had spoken on behalf of the American people. Trump, leading the greatest cabinet the world has ever seen from “the most transparent administration in history,” was very sharp indeed.

  • Howard’s beginning: the luck of Lutnick

    With Elon Musk no longer sleeping in a cot in Washington, only one member of the White House inner circle comes close to matching Donald Trump’s net worth: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Commerce is usually a mid-tier cabinet post; even fervent political observers would be hard-pressed to name previous officeholders. But Lutnick has been one of Trump’s most impactful advisors in this second term. His ideas about tariffs have greatly affected the world’s economy, and have influenced Trump’s mercurial tariff pronouncements. Plus, he’s worth about $3 billion himself. Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, himself a billionaire, is only worth about half as much.

    Lutnick made his name as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a major New York financial services company. After hundreds of Cantor employees, including Lutnick’s brother, died in the 9/11 attacks, Lutnick rebuilt the company and provided support to the families of the victims, which amounted to two-thirds of the company’s workforce. Trump later called Lutnick “the embodiment of resilience in the face of unspeakable tragedy.”

    The two met in 2008, when Lutnick appeared on an episode of Trump’s TV show The Apprentice, but Lutnick wasn’t part of the conversation during the Donald’s first term. By the end of that term, he’d become a major Trump donor, and he stuck by Trump during the years of impeachment, the January 6 rebellion and exile. Lutnick is credited with raising $75 million for Trump’s 2024 capaign – and Trump rewarded Lutnick by making him co-chair of the presidential transition team.

    Trump’s nomination of Lutnick for Commerce met with controversy and resistance. One critic called it “totally sketchy” and others said that Cantor Fitzgerald’s vast interconnected business ties made it impossible for Lutnick to be an impartial bureaucrat. “Howard has gotten out way over his fucking skis on this,” a senior Republican official told Politico.

    The ballooning cryptocurrency industry was a particular space of concern, given Cantor Fitzgerald’s relationship with the controversial crypto company Tether, which issues a stablecoin tied to the value of the US dollar. Trump, who himself was about to make a vast fortune in crypto, hardly seemed to care, vowing to turn the US into “the crypto capital of the planet.” Who better to do that than Lutnick? “There’s nobody more loyal and capable than Howard,” Trump said.

    Given that tariffs are the shining centerpiece of Trump 2.0’s economic program, it’s not surprising that Lutnick supports them wholeheartedly. For him, tariffs are not just economic tools, but weapons that the government can use to affect national security and industrial policy. In an April interview with CNBC, he touted tariffs as the key element in transforming the American economy and was thrilled that a president, for once, was listening to him.

    “When I say to him we want fair trade, we want to be treated the way we deserve to be treated, that’s what’s happening now,” Lutnick said. “Finally, someone is behind the desk who is going to protect America. It feels great.”

    On tariffs, trade and industrial policy, Lutnick sounds so much like Trump it’s hard to tell where one man’s monologue ends and the other’s begins. “The rest of the world’s markets have been taking advantage of the trading policy,” he told CNBC. “Our policies were designed to make you rich and make us poor.” It’s been a non-stop tariff blitz for months. Back in April, Lutnick said on CBS’s Face the Nation, “The tariffs are coming. [Trump] announced it – and he wasn’t kidding. The tariffs are coming. Of course they are.” On Newsmax around the same time, he said “tariffs are not inflation. It is outrageous that people think tariffs are inflation.”

    In an economy run by two of America’s richest men, it’s hard to focus on, say, Lutnick’s efforts to onshore US semiconductor production. Tariffs take up all the oxygen. “Trump wants the people of America to appreciate these tariffs,” Lutnick said on Fox Business in November, “If he puts money into their pockets, they’ll better understand how important this is for America.” And there’s a literal plan to put money into the pockets of Americans, with the administration proposing a “tariff dividend” of $2,000. Why, with that, Americans could buy nearly 1/20th of a Bitcoin! “Yes, it’s going to make the country stronger,” Lutnick said.

    Then there’s the matter of Lutnick’s sons. In May, he transferred his ownership shares in Cantor Fitzgerald to his four children. His “economic benefits” have ceased but the family still runs the firm – and Bloomberg said, “the grip on his businesses is bolted tight.” Lutnick’s son Brandon is CEO and chairman and another Kyle, is executive vice-chairman. They’ve out-Successionedeven the Trump family. Brandon Lutnick is leaning hard into special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, for crypto, even while his father pushes the President to establish a national crypto reserve.

    “President Trump’s billionaire Commerce Secretary has been playing the ultimate Washington insider game to pad his family’s riches,” left-wing watchdog site Accountable.US said earlier this year. While it’s true the Lutnicks won’t be qualifying for a $2,000 tariff dividend check, it remains to be seen whether or not all boats rise with theirs.

    Once upon a time, Kyle Lutnick was an aspiring rapper who performed under the name “Kxtz.” Though it appears he’s moved on, one residual lyric still seems relevant: “Until I run the game, I’ve got everything to gain.” But now Kxtz has put aside childish things. In November, Bloomberg reported that Cantor Fitzgerald was about to post a 2025 annual revenue of $2.5 billion, an all-time high and 25 percent more than the previous reporting period. “When you have a titan of industry and an indomitable personality like Howard, who was here for 40 years and ran the firm for 30 years, it can leave a significant vacuum when he leaves,” a Cantor official said. “The whole firm stepped up… and that’s because of Brandon. That’s because of Kyle as well.” The rich, it seems, are getting richer.

    This article was originally published in The Spectator’s December 8, 2025 World edition.

  • Dog Man Vs. Antifa and other kids’ books to ‘own the libs’ with

    Dog Man Vs. Antifa and other kids’ books to ‘own the libs’ with

    Liberals are in a tizzy as usual over Pete Hegseth, our slick-haired Secretary of War. And in particular over his nonchalant attitude toward blowing Venezuelan drug boats out of the water, acting like the US is attacking the Old Man and the Sea or some bachelorette party boat instead of some highly organized narcotraficantes. That said, Hegseth did issue a bizarrely immature meme yesterday, tweeting out a fake cover of the children’s book character Franklin the Turtle called “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.” In it, Franklin, wearing a helmet and a gunbelt in addition to his usual protective carapace, fires an RPG and blows up a drug boat near some sort of tropical shore.

    You could ask what Franklin, usually depicted running off to school or going to the pharmacy with grandpa, has to do with the War on Drugs. But we now live in an era where you can be a cabinet secretary and also a shitposter, so let’s just roll with it. Like Pete Hegseth, I also enjoy using AI to make children’s book parody memes. Here are some other suggestions for Republicans who want to lightly troll their opponents.

    Amelia Bedelia Rides The Bus For Free In New York City

    Everyone’s favorite ditzy housekeeper learns to navigate the realities of Zohran Mamdani’s New York.

    The Unfortunate Case of the Sinister Six

    We’ll call them the “Sinister Six” instead of the “Seditious Six” because, well, frankly, I mistyped it into ChatGPT. But it definitely sounds like a Lemony Snicket book. Mark Kelly is a Count Orloff type for sure.

    Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Stolen Social Security Numbers

    The teen girl sleuth – and her chums – investigate the shadowy world of immigration fraud.

    Choose Your Own Adventure: You Are a Somali Warlord In Minnesota

    Speaking of immigration fraud, don’t think Tim Walz is getting out of this meme-free. I’ve chosen my favorite 1980s childhood book series for this story. Will you save the princess? Or will the Yeti eat you?

    Dog Man Vs. Antifa

    Let’s not forget our favorite domestic terrorist organization. Maybe Kash Patel or Kristi Noem can tweet out this Dav Pilkey-style book cover.

    This doesn’t have to be limited to Republicans. Maybe someone from Gavin Newsom’s savvy social-media team can join in on the fun and give Pete Hegseth a taste of his own medicine with Where’s Waldo In The Pentagon?

    Really, why does this have to be partisan at all? Let’s close this magical journey back to childhood with a book riffing on the Olivia Nuzzi/RFK Jr. relationship, which people of all ideological stripes love to hate.

    It’s Olivia and the Bear In Central Park.

    This American Canto will bring us all together.

  • When Donald met Zohran

    When Donald met Zohran

    “I’ll tell you,” the President was saying. “The press has eaten this thing up. I had a lot of meetings with world leaders, and the press didn’t care. The biggest people in the world come over and nobody cares. This one, they care about.”  

    President Trump sat at the Resolute Desk, wearing a red tie. Standing next to him was the Boy Wonder, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York City, wearing a blue tie. Their hour-long meeting at the White House had just concluded. In recent weeks, Mamdani had called Trump a fascist. Trump had called Mamdani a communist and a “lunatic.”  Anyone expecting acrimony or fireworks, though, would have been disappointed by this joint press appearance. Cats and dogs, living together. The Donald and the Zohran, it seems, can be friends.  

    “The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump said. “There’s no difference in party. Congratulations Mr. Mayor.”  

    Mamdani was equally gracious, if somewhat slicker in presentation. 

    “I appreciated the meeting with the President, based on a shared admiration and love for New York City,” he said. “We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities. I appreciated the time.” 

    One of ten Mamdani voters voted for Trump, which was enough to melt the ice. Trump said that what surprised him the most was how much he and Mamdani had in common. They both want safer streets, both love New York, and both think the cost of living is too high in New York. Also, they agree that the best solution is to build more housing. If you want to get close to Donald Trump’s heart, say that you have to build something. “People will actually be shocked,” Trump said. “I want to see the same thing.” 

    “Would you feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration?” a reporter asked Trump.  

    “Yeah, I would, I really would,” Trump said. “Especially after the meeting. I think he’s different, and that could be in a very positive way. He has a chance to do something great for New York. He came out of nowhere. I watched, I said, ‘Who is this guy?’ It’s a great tribute. It’s an amazing thing he did. By the way, being the mayor of New York City is a big deal. I always said that I wanted to be the mayor of New York City… and I think he’ll do a great job.” 

    But, said a reporter, looking for controversy, is he a communist?  

    “I met with a man who’s a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again. I’ll be cheering for him.” 

    Mamdani also didn’t take any bait, bringing any question back to his stated campaign goals of making New York affordable for working people. But, the reporters kept asking him, is Trump a despot, like you’ve said? Trump, who at this point is an Old Master on dealing with the media, took point and said: 

    “I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting. I think he’ll chance his mind once we start to work together.” 

    “How about a fascist?” they asked. Is Trump a fascist?  

    Mamdani hemmed and hawed a little bit, not wanting to get into trouble. But his new friend, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, came to his rescue.  

    “That’s OK,” Trump said. “You can just say it. It’s easier than explaining what you actually mean.” 

  • Stacey Plaskett avoids Epstein Files repercussions… for now

    Stacey Plaskett avoids Epstein Files repercussions… for now

    Anyone who hopes that the forthcoming Epstein Files will mean the end of Donald Trump’s political career is sure to experience extreme disappointment in the weeks ahead. But The Files have a life of their own, and we’re still not yet entirely sure what story they’re telling us. Former Treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers has already lost his New York Times column-writing gig, and just about everything else, as the Files revealed he texted Jeffrey Epstein, of all people, for dating advice. No one rushed to Summers’s side, as he’s basically out of active political life. You can’t say the same for Delegate Stacey Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands in the House, who the Files have implicated…in something.  

    Epstein lived in The Virgin Islands, or at least had his primary residence there, so Plaskett was his congressperson. Documents from Epstein’s estate show that he and Plaskett exchanged text messages during a 2019 congressional hearing. Epstein actively coached her on how to question Michael Cohen, even sending the message “good work” when she asked a question he suggested.  

    To be clear: this had nothing to do with sex trafficking. But Republicans still introduced a resolution this week to censure Plaskett, saying she and Epstein had engaged in “inappropriate coordination.” In retaliation, Democrats threatened to censure Republican Cory Mills, currently accused of domestic violence and subject to a restraining order.  

    Republican Ralph Norman said Plaskett’s conduct “reflects discreditably on the House of Representatives,” which feels somewhat hard to do given how little credit people give the House, and that the censure would give the House Ethics Committee authority to investigate “the extent of Plaskett’s ties to Epstein and any potential further improprieties.” The measure failed, with three Republicans voting with Democrats, and three voting “present.”  

    Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, one of Trump’s most fervent opponents, said Plaskett merely “took a phone call from one of her constituents,” somehow neglecting to mention that said constituent was Jeffrey Epstein. But then he invoked the unholy name after all. “I don’t think it is the position of [Norman] that if we find Jeffrey Epstein on the phone with Donald Trump, that he should be impeached for it. That sounds like guilt by association.” 

    For her part, Plaskett said, “I don’t need to get advice on how to question anybody from any individual. I have been a lawyer for 30 years,” which in itself should be grounds for censure.  

    So if Trump isn’t going down with the Epstein Files ship, and Democrats refuse to turn on one of their own, who, exactly, will end up making the sacrifice, other than Larry Summers? Florida’s Anna Paulina Luna, a major backer of the Epstein Files release, asked, on the House floor, “why leadership on both sides, Democrat and Republican, are cutting back-end deals to cover up public corruption in the House of Representatives.” Good question. Colorado’s Lauren Boebert told her fellow Republicans, according to the Wall Street Journal, “This is why America hates us.” That’s not the only reason; there’s a reason why congressional approval is at an all-time low. Still, rats do have an uncommon ability to survive.  

  • Nicki Minaj and Mike Waltz team up at the UN

    Nicki Minaj and Mike Waltz team up at the UN

    Before Nicki Minaj spoke at the United Nations today, Ambassador Mike Waltz referred to her as “the greatest female recording artist” and a “principled individual who refuses to remain silent in the face of injustice.” Adele, Beyoncé, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Barbra Streisand and many others would like to have a word with Ambassador Waltz (I hear he’s on Signal). But unlike Minaj, none of them appeared at the UN to speak out against the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.  

    “Ambassador,” Minaj wrote on X, “I am so grateful to be entrusted with an opportunity of this magnitude. I do not take it for granted. It means more than you know. The Barbz & I will never stand down in the face of injustice. We’ve been given our influence by God. There must be a bigger purpose.” 

    The event included a panel discussion, which didn’t include Minaj, moderated by Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner. Waltz appeared as part of that panel, and he also gave some opening remarks, which invoked a Nigeria torn apart by violence against Christians. “This is not random violence,” he said. “This is genocide wearing the mask of chaos.” 

    Waltz invoked the kidnapping of little girls from school, church burnings, the beheadings of pastors “for preaching the sermon on the Mount.” “We have an entire faith that’s being erased, one bullet at a time, one torched Bible at a time,” he said, which is why President Trump has declared Nigeria a country of extreme concern for violation of religious freedom. “He has reminded the world that protecting Christians is not about politics. It’s a moral duty.” 

    But Waltz knew why thousands of people were streaming a UN panel on a Tuesday afternoon, and it wasn’t to listen to him. “We’re going to hear from an especially powerful voice, a fearless advocate whose passion for justice transcends borders, and she uses her voice to defend the voiceless… She steps onto this world stage not as a celebrity, but as a witness. She uses, and has used, her influence to spotlight Nigeria’s persecuted Christian church, reaching out to her 28 million followers. Her ‘Barbz,’ as I’ve now learned.” 

    That was, of course, Nicki Minaj.  

    “Nicki,” Waltz said, “I can’t tell you how much I admire you. You’re stepping up. You’re leaning into this issue. You’ve enjoyed amazing success. And you could be sitting back just enjoying it. You could be just living the good life. But you’re coming here today, rolling up your sleeves, and let’s try to save these people. So everyone, please join me in welcoming a daughter of the Caribbean, a champion of the oppressed and a sister in Christ.”  

    Minaj wore a tasteful black pantsuit and stood at a conference-room lectern far stage right, humbly, out of the spotlight. She wasn’t there to sing “Starships” or her verse on the remix of “WAP.” “I must say,” she said, “I am very nervous.” 

    Minaj came before the United Nations, she said, “to combat extremism and to stop violence against people who want to exercise their natural right for freedom of religion or belief… we’re way beyond thinking or expecting or assuming that the person sitting next to you to needs have the exact same beliefs. We’re beyond that. That’s ridiculous.”  

    Music, she said, has taken her around the world. “I have seen how people no matter their language, culture or religion, come alive when they hear a song that touches their soul. Religious freedom means we can all can sing our faith regardless of who we are, where we live and what we believe. But today faith is under attack in way too many places. In Nigeria, way too many Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes and killed. Churches have been burned. Families have been torn apart, and entire communities live in fear constantly, simply because of how they pray.” 

    This problem, she said, demands urgent action. “Protecting Christians in Nigeria is not about taking sides or dividing people. It is about uniting humanity.”  

    Minaj looked at the audience as if to say I am serious here, people. “Nigeria is a beautiful nation with a deep faith tradition and lots of beautiful Barbz that I can’t wait to see. When one church is destroyed, everyone’s heart should break just a little bit. And the foundation of the United Nations with its core mandate to ensure peace and security should shake… 

    “Barbz, I know you’re somewhere listening. I love you so very much. You have been the ultimate light in my life and career for so long. I appreciate you, and I want to make it very clear once again that this isn’t about taking sides. This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for my entire career. And I will continue to stand for that for the rest of my life. I will care if anyone, anywhere is being persecuted for their beliefs. Thank you.” 

    The panel discussion followed. It was long, detailed and serious, and included testimony from a Christian pastor in Nigeria. But most of the online audience clicked away after Minaj finished her five minutes. The headliner had spoken, and she made her point strongly and loudly. Waltz chose his ally wisely. Nicki Minaj has a broad reach. And all true Barbz know that she doesn’t quit until she gets what she wants. 

  • Trump’s Oddjob: the rise of Steven Cheung

    Trump’s Oddjob: the rise of Steven Cheung

    Though reporters covering the Trump administration are very familiar with Steven Cheung, the Donald’s combative White House communications director, he’s not a recognizable face to the general public. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt plays good cop, deflecting questions; Cheung is bad cop, trolling the media on X. But Cheung had a moment in the spotlight early this month during a press conference in which Trump announced reduced prices for GLP-1 “fat drugs.” “Where’s Steve?” Trump said. “He’s taking it.”

    The press is very familiar with Cheung’s weight issues. When one media outlet compared him to the rather overweight Bond villain Oddjob, Cheung leaned into the racially tinged stereotype and posed for a photo while wearing a bowler hat. Trump himself has called the 43-year-old “my sumo wrestler.” Cheung grew up in Sacramento, the son of Chinese immigrants, and participated in sanctioned amateur sumo wrestling tournaments in the early 2000s. The experience, he said, helped shape his “discipline and competitive spirit.”

    Cheung, for whom no job is too odd, has been with Trump since the beginning. He was “director of rapid response” during Trump’s 2016 campaign and has continued to rise through the ranks. He’s also worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elise Stefanik and as a spokesman for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In November of last year, after Trump’s re-election, Cheung posted on Instagram: “It’s been a hell of a ride – a campaign for the ages. We finally finished the story.” Included among the photos with that post was a (presumably AI-generated) image of himself as a blood-spattered UFC fighter sitting on a stool, with a besuited Trump as his cornerman. In the next image, his hands are reaching for Joe Biden’s throat. With Cheung, Trump has definitely chosen his fighter.

    Cheung’s greatest hits this year alone have included him saying, over a video of California Senator Adam Schiff, “The camera can’t stabilize because the watermelon head is wobbling precariously on a pencil neck.” He said watching CNN’s Erin Burnett talk about economics “is like watching a donkey try to solve a Rubix Cube.” In August, in the midst of a gerrymandering debate, he called California Governor Gavin Newsom a “coward and a beta cuck” who is “too chicken shit to take questions from the press” – even though Newsom did take questions after the speech. “He’ll never be ready for prime time,” concluded Cheung.

    In 2023, he called Ron DeSantis, then Trump’s chief rival for the Republican nomination, a “desperate eunuch.” He branded Kamala Harris a “stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate because she is flailing and her campaign is in shambles.” Of Biden: “He can barely put two coherent sentences together and slowly shuffles around like he has a full diaper in his pants, often falling on his ass in front of the world.”

    But Cheung saves his harshest vitriol for the press. He hits hard, hits often – and doesn’t like it when people try to hit back. In May, HuffPost reporter S.V. Dáte asked why the White House didn’t make the President’s remarks available on the White House website. Cheung responded: “You must be truly fucking stupid if you think we’re not transparent. The President regularly does multiple press engagements per day and they are streamed live on multiple platforms.”

    He already had the upper hand in the argument, but went for the body slam anyway. “We’ve even granted low-level outlets like HuffPo [sic] additional access to events, because we’re so transparent. For anyone to think otherwise proves they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Stop beclowning yourself.”

    On Halloween, citing national security concerns, the White House announced that it was restricting press access to communications staff offices, making it by appointment only. Cheung said that reporters had been “eavesdropping” and “secretly recording audio and video,” though he didn’t provide any evidence.

    “Some reporters have wandered into restricted areas (our offices are feet away from the Oval Office),” Cheung wrote in a post on X. “Cabinet secretaries routinely come into our office for private meetings, only to be ambushed by reporters waiting outside our doors.” White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang said her organization “unequivocally opposes any effort to limit journalists from areas within the communications operations of the White House that have long been open for newsgathering, including the press secretary’s office.”

    Cheung didn’t rise to his current high status in the Trump administration by cozying up to reporters, even if one reporter told the New Yorker last March: “I like dealing with him. He’s not a white nationalist. He gets back to you. He gets you statements.” Regardless, he owes his professional life to unrelenting loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief, who he’ll defend on any topic. When Joanna Coles, chief content officer for the Daily Beast, suggested on CNN in April that President Trump has lost a lot of weight because he’s been taking Ozempic, Cheung responded on X: “CNN had this blithering idiot on @InsidePolitics from the Daily Beast named @JoannaColes making unsubstantiated claims about President Trump’s health. Joanna is a piece of shit, clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome rotting her pea-sized brain.”

    That stood in stark difference to Cheung’s public response after Trump outed him as being on “fat drugs.” On that occasion, Cheung said: “It’s important to encourage others to explore options to address health concerns by speaking openly and honestly about it.” All the pea brains, beta cucks and desperate eunuchs surely appreciated his sincere candor.

    This article was originally published in The Spectator’s November 24, 2025 World edition.