What Trump said in his first new presidential TikTok
Plus: The record-breaking country singer teased a new song against ICE raids
After literally saying he wants to send the military into U.S. cities, POTUS is working to send the military into even more U.S. cities, but judges are pushing back, as is a super-popular country singer.
Welcome to this week’s issue of Whig. Read to the end to find out what one beloved science guy said about saving NASA. — Hunter Schwarz
Shutdown continues:
The federal government shut down last Wednesday after Congress failed to reach an agreement on spending, and it remains shut down nearly one week later.
The White House is blaming Democrats while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pointed to cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies that could double insurance premiums for some Americans as their sticking point. “This is one of the dirtiest tricks that is being pulled on the American people right now,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a joint video with Sanders.
Trump says U.S. cities should be training ground for the military:
In a speech last week to U.S. military leaders, President Donald Trump literally said he “told [Defense Secretary] Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
And speaking about NSPM-7, an executive order Trump signed last month that’s alarmed civil liberties groups because it’s worded broadly to encompass activities that are protected by the First Amendment, Trump added, “this is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
Overall, though, Trump’s and Hegseth’s speeches were panned as a meeting that could have been an email and Trump had a “please clap” moment: “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” he told the assembled military leaders. “And if you want to applaud, you applaud.” No one clapped.
Trump blocked from sending troops into Portland:
Trump’s efforts to send troops to more U.S. cities keeps getting blocked by our Constitutional system’s checks and balances. A Trump-appointed federal judge on Sunday blocked Trump’s attempt to send National Guard troops from California and Texas to Portland, Oregon. The judge said that there was no evidence of an emergency that would necessitate federal forces in the city, and a court previously denied an earlier effort to deploy Oregon’s own National Guard in the state.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) said in a statement the ruling “is another validation of the facts on the ground in Portland. It is also a clear and forceful rebuttal to President Trump’s misuse of states’ National Guard. The rule of law must stand. This is not just about Oregon or a handful of states anymore — it’s about the integrity of our democracy.”
Meanwhile Illinois just sued over Trump sending troops to Chicago:
In Illinois, where a judge declined to block Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, one protester has been shot, and ICE agents repelled into one building from a helicopter, separated kids from their parents and dragged them into U-Hauls, and arrested 37 people and at least one U.S. citizen.
The state filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block Trump’s move. “Illinois will not let the Trump Administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) wrote on social media. “We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities.”
Trump once claimed to not know what Project 2025 is. Now he’s all in:
During the 2024 campaign, Trump falsely claimed “I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” the deeply unpopular blueprint for a second Trump term agenda. And here’s his campaign’s deputy communications director and actress Caroline Sunshine swearing up and down to the Recount last year that Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. In hindsight, she seems like a bad actor and Trump wasn’t telling the truth.
The Trump administration is now 48% of the way through enacting Project 2025, according to the Project 2025 Tracker, and Trump is now openly embracing it. In a post on his social network, Trump wrote he was meeting with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, “he of PROJECT 2025 Fame” to make cuts targeting Democrats. Vought wrote the Project 2025 chapter on executive power, and Trump is already targeting Democratic states with cuts during the shutdown.
What Trump said in his first new presidential TikTok:
In his first TikTok post since the 2024 campaign, Trump spoke from the Oval Office and said: “To all of those young people of TikTok, I saved TikTok, so you owe me big, and now you’re looking at me in the Oval Office, and someday one of you are going to be sitting right at this desk and you’re going to be doing a great job also.” Also?
Trump’s approval rating at this point in his term is lower than any modern president. Most Americans don’t think he’s doing a great job.
This fundraiser for the family of the Michigan church shooter’s family has raised $300K:
More than 7,600 people have raised more than $300,000 for the family of the gunman who attacked a chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints late last month, including many members of the church.
“It was actually pretty simple,” David Butler, a church member who started the fundraiser on GiveSendGo told ABC News. “Jesus tells us that we should do this. We should love our enemies, that we should mourn with those that mourn, that we should care for the widow and the orphan.”
Butler added that it “became obvious that nobody was doing anything to care for Sanford’s family, and it was obvious they were going to need it.” What a beautiful example of charity and grace. Amen.
🎬 No. 1 movie: Taylor Swift: The Official Release of a Showgirl brought in $34 million.
💿 No. 1 album: The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, with Dojo Cat’s Vie debuting at No. 4 and Mariah Carey’s Here For It All debuting at No. 7.
🎵 No. 1 song: “Golden” by Huntr/X is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for an eighth week while Tate McRae’s “Tit for Tat” is the week’s highest new debut, at No. 3.
Trump keeps losing his podcast supporters:
Podcast host Theo Von says the Department of Homeland Security’s unauthorized use of footage of him for a social media video about deportations “shook me,” and he’s not the only podcast bro who’s turning on the Trump administration after hosting Trump for an episode during the 2024 campaign.
“My father immigrated here from Nicaragua. One of my prized possessions is, I have his immigration papers when he came here,” Von said in a recent episode of his podcast. He said the DHS video that used a clip of him made him “paranoid,” especially after he says a high-ranking government official asked him if he wanted “extra security.”
Podcast host Andrew Schulz said Trump is “doing the exact opposite thing of every single f***ing thing” he campaigned on, and “I voted for none of this” in July, and Joe Rogan has called some of the Trump administration’s deportations “f****ing crazy.”
The record-breaking country singer teased a new song against ICE raids:
In a social media clip of a new song called “Bad News,” Zach Bryan, who just broke the U.S. record for largest ticketed concert audience, is taking on ICE. Bryan captioned his post “the fading of the red white and blue.”
The snippet includes the lines like“I heard the cops came/ Cocky motherf***ers, ain’t they?,” “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more/ But I got a telephone/ Kids are all scared and all alone,” and “The middle finger’s rising, and it won’t stop showing/ Got some bad news/ The fading of the red, white and blue.”
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show is teaching Americans more about America:
Right-wing media is having a meltdown over Bad Bunny’s scheduled performance at next year’s big game, and in a teaching moment that should prompt more Americans to brush up on their U.S. territories, podcast host Tomi Lahren falsely claimed Bad Bunny “is not an American artist” during an interview with pundit Krystal Ball.
“He’s Puerto Rican,” Ball responded. “That’s part of America, dear.” Open the schools.
The Taylor Swift curse continues:
Swift released her new album The Life of a Showgirl Friday, which sold 2.7 million copies in a day. The album’s getting panned online (Pitchfork gave it a 5.9 rating), but it’s Swift’s eighth album to sell more than 1 million copies in a week.
It was bad news for the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue lost Saturday to Illinois, the football team’s 11th consecutive loss in a game played within seven days of a T-Swift album release, per ESPN.
Rolling Stone named “…Baby One More Time” the best Max Martin song:
The Life of a Showgirl might not be songwriter Max Martin’s best work, that’s reserved for Britney. Rolling Stone named Britney Spears’s debut single “…Baby One More Time” Martin’s best song, followed by the Backstreet Boys’s “I Want It That Way,” Swift’s “New Romantics,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”
You can see the full list here. What’s your favorite Max Martin track?
Lorde just removed her music from streaming in Israel:
Lorde, who yelled “Free f***ing Palestine” during her performance at Madison Square Garden last week, joined 1,000 artists in removing her music from streaming in Israel as part of “No Music for Genocide,” a boycott. Other artists joining the boycott include Björk, Paramore, and the Blessed Madonna, according to the group’s website.
Mariah Carey says she has an unreleased collab with Michael Jackson:
I need to hear this. Carey told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live last week that she has an unreleased song with Michael Jackson, “but there’s an issue with his estate because they’re doing something really huge for him and, you know, it would sort of usurp the situation.”
“It’s one of his classics and I sang along with it and did new background vocals,” Carey said. “I’m telling you. If someone just calls his management and tells them we want to hear this. Give a call.” Ma’am, give us the number and we’ll call. Carey previously went No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992 with a cover of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There.”
Kelly Clarkson covered Ari:
For a new Kellyoke performance, Kelly Clarkson covered Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love).” 10/10, no notes.
Bill Nye is on a mission to save NASA:
Bill Nye “the Science Guy” called on Congress to restore funding for NASA Monday. The cuts, which the Planetary Society called nothing short of an “extinction-level event for space exploration,” represent a 24% reduction to NASA’s budget.
“We’re not talking about delays in scientific exploration, we’re talking about the end of it,” Nye said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “While we’re checking out, our competitors are checking in.”
Thanks for reading! See you next week. ⭐