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Maggie Haberman Says Trump Skipped Fallen Soldier Ceremony for Golf Because He’s ‘Stopped Caring’ About ‘Optics’

Maggie Haberman with The New York Times told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Friday night that President Donald Trump skipped the dignified transfer of remains for four soldiers earlier in the day because he has stopped caring about “optics.”

Trump traveled to Florida and sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Dover Air Force Base to greet the remains of four soldiers who were found dead in Lithuania Monday following an exhaustive search.

The families of the four troops, who had been missing since late last month, were in attendance at the transfer.

The president attended a LIV Golf event at his Doral golf resort. The Trump family is a LIV Golf business partner.

Trump also played a round of golf.

While interviewing Haberman Friday night, Cooper noted Trump’s absence in Dover.

Haberman said, “I think long ago he stopped caring about certain optics, and he’s made very clear during this presidency, he’s going to do what he wants. And you know, it’s not just playing golf. He went down to a Saudi-backed golf tournament that his family business does business with, to speak at some event related to that. So yes, all of this is true.”

Haberman added Trump’s mindset applies broadly to issues such as the blowback to his tariffs:

He is not messaging this in a way that suggests that he understands what average people might be going through right now. And part of what it is is he is convinced he is right, he is going to show people he is correct, he has believed in terrorists for 40 years, he wanted to do this last time and he was stymied by a bunch of advisors who were much more pro-free trade. And now he’s gonna do what he’s going to do. He’s doing it in a very different economy post-COVID.

Friday morning, The Washington Post quoted a person reportedly close to Trump’s inner circle who said he had reached a point where he no longer cared about negative headlines.

“He’s at the peak of just not giving a fuck anymore,” the person said . “Bad news stories? Doesn’t give a fuck. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. He’s going to do what he promised to do on the campaign trail.”

Watch the clip above via CNN .

The post Maggie Haberman Says Trump Skipped Fallen Soldier Ceremony for Golf Because He’s ‘Stopped Caring’ About ‘Optics’ first appeared on Mediaite .

Michael Moore Thanks Fans For Turning Trump’s ‘Mouth and Face’ Into ‘Literal Butthole’ In Bizarre Portrait Contest: ‘Truly Impressive’

Michael Moore Vows 'We're Not Going to Let Biden Get Away with This'

(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Michael Moore offered thanks to his fans for their submissions to a President Donald Trump portrait contest where Moore said he was “impressed” at how many people turned the president’s “mouth and face” into a “literal butthole.”

Moore took to his Substack earlier this week to announce a Trump portrait art contest. Moore’s announcement came in response to the president taking issue with a portrait of himself hanging in the Colorado State Capitol.

Trump wrote about the portrait on Truth Social:

Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before. The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one of me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) later mocked Trump over the portrait complaint, posting a South Part-style portrait of himself.

In a Friday Substack post, Moore said he received more than 1,000 submissions to his art contest. He was particularly impressed with portraits making the president’s mouth into a butthole.

The filmmaker wrote:

All of them are deeply respectful and reverential of what some say is the greatest President America has ever had, a lot of people are saying it actually, and these outstanding portraits of Donald capture his spiritual and strongman essence.

And, on a personal note, may I say, the number of you who depicted his mouth and face being a literal butthole is truly impressive — and much more than I asked for or needed to see. Thank you.
The portrait entries shared included Trump with bloody hands behind bars, Trump with a shrunken head, one with his face made out of deli meat, one with a face drawn on an orange sitting atop toilet paper roll, one of Trump as a pig in a tie, and one of him in lipstick. There are also, yes, some that appear to turn his mouth into a butthole.

Moore wants to take the contest and images beyond just a competition — he said he’ll be sharing more — and suggested galleries should be set up that he will promote.

“I can provide you with a link to download these images at their full resolution, and I can promote your exhibit across my social media and its nearly 10 million subscribers,” he wrote.

The post Michael Moore Thanks Fans For Turning Trump’s ‘Mouth and Face’ Into ‘Literal Butthole’ In Bizarre Portrait Contest: ‘Truly Impressive’ first appeared on Mediaite .

Sean Hannity Praises Trump’s ‘Funny’ Third Term Talk As Expert-Level Trolling: ‘I Love It!’

Fox News’ Sean Hannity loves President Donald Trump’s talk of a third term, arguing it’s an expert level way to take “up space in people’s minds.”

Hannity joined Kyle Forgeard on the Full Send Podcast this week and offered nothing but praise for the president’s third term teasing, though admitting it’s a “constitutional issue.”

Hannity said:

It would be an interesting challenge. Ultimately, it’s a constitutional issue. Um, as he, but read the next sentence. I’m not thinking about it. It’s way too early in my administration. But again, he’s taking up space in people’s minds, which I find funny. Is that constitutionally something that could actually be possible? Well, not according to the actual wording of it, two terms.

Hannity chalked Trump’s teasing up to expert level trolling.

While recently speaking at the White House, the president said he’d welcome he and former President Barack Obama somehow going head-to-head in a race that would see both running for unconstitutional third terms. A YouGov poll released this week found nearly 60% of respondents think Trump will definitely or probably try to run for a third term.

Check out the Hannity exchange below:

KYLE FORGEARD: What do you think about when he says he’s going to run for a third term?

SEAN HANNITY: I love it because they bubble and fizz like Alka-Seltzer and Happy Dad. Listen, it would be an interesting challenge. Ultimately, it’s a constitutional issue. Um, as he, but read the next sentence. I’m not thinking about it. It’s way too early in my administration. But again, he’s taking up space in people’s minds, which I find funny.

FORGEARD: Is that constitutionally something that could actually be possible?

HANNITY: Well, not according to the actual wording of it, two terms, but would that be a possibility maybe in some other respect? Yeah, but I’m telling you, he takes up space on people’s heads. He’s great at it.

Watch above via Full Send Podcast .

The post Sean Hannity Praises Trump’s ‘Funny’ Third Term Talk As Expert-Level Trolling: ‘I Love It!’ first appeared on Mediaite .

Why Canadians Are Better Than Americans at Protesting Trump Right Now

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

In America, the chaotic first few months of Donald Trump’s term have featured roiling stock markets, mass deportations, and a Tesla showroom on the White House lawn. But if you look north, it has unified Canadians against a common threat: a country once considered a friend.

In a bewildering reversal of a close allyship that’s lasted for more than a century, Trump recently started a hot-and-cold trade war that has so far produced 25 percent tariffs on many of Canada’s goods. Canada has imposed retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. imports, and announced yesterday that more are set to go in effect in response to Trump’s latest auto levy. In the meantime, Trump keeps waving around the threat of annexation. He has repeatedly suggested that Canada become America’s “51st state” and, according to The New York Times, told then–Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in early February that he considers the 1908 treaty delineating the Canada-U.S. border to be invalid . Many Canadians have responded in kind, sending a clear message to the Trump administration by hitting America where it hurts: the economy.

Now is “the time to choose Canada,” Trudeau said in February. “It might mean opting for Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon, or forgoing Florida orange juice altogether.” The “Buy Canadian” movement is gaining ground; Canada is America’s top export market, and 63 percent of Canadians are actively looking for Canadian-made products when they shop, according to a poll from February (though enthusiasm for the movement varies based on class and age ). Some stores are adding Made in Canada labels to products—one liquor store in Vancouver posted Buy Canadian Instead signs on empty American-whiskey shelves—and Canadian grocers are reporting that domestic-product sales have recently increased by up to 10 percent . Canadians make up the largest group of international visitors to the U.S., but Canadian airline bookings for U.S. destinations have reportedly dropped more than 70 percent for the spring and summer, according to one industry monitor. The U.S. Travel Association calculates that a 10 percent annual decline in Canadian travelers could amount to more than $2.1 billion in spending losses for America.

Figuring out how to deal with Trump’s recent attacks is the top issue for some Canadian voters ahead of the April 28 federal election, ranking even higher than the economy. Conservative and Liberal party platforms prominently feature their plans for how to rebuild Canada with reduced dependence on America. “The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week. Across party and provincial lines, the path is clear: Canada wants to Trump-proof itself and America-proof the future.

On the other side of the border, Americans who oppose Trump have struggled to come up with a unified response to his presidency. In part because of the speed and scale of his directives, it’s been hard to develop a protest message or strategy that is as ubiquitous as the “Buy Canadian” movement. Since January 22, the number of street protests in the U.S. has more than doubled compared with the same period at the start of Trump’s first presidency—but they also tend to be smaller in scale, according to the Crowd Counting Consortium. Jeremy Pressman, a co-director of the organization, told me that disorientation could be a factor affecting protests. Since taking office, Trump has signed off on a flurry of actions that empower ICE to detain and deport people without due process , pave the way for Elon Musk’s shadow presidency , gut the federal government , and grant mass pardons for January 6ers (while also floating the idea of compensating them for their prison time ). What should the next protest focus on when so much of American life is under attack?

That’s not to say that larger-scale action has been absent in America. The People’s March took place in D.C., two days before Trump’s second inauguration, to “help participants find a political home.” Thousands joined, but it ultimately saw far fewer people than the Women’s March, eight years prior. Pressman noted that lately, more people have shown interest in economic boycotts of companies that support Trump or the administration’s anti-DEI agenda, including Amazon, Target, and Tesla. Republican representatives are getting shouted down in local town halls (Democrats, too, for their inaction), and protesters are demonstrating at Tesla facilities across the country. A bright spot has been the national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, headlined by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which has drawn more than 100,000 attendees over the past month.

Protesters also face an environment especially hostile to dissent. When Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist on a green card, was arrested in New York last month, the government did not provide evidence of illegal activity. And when Rümeysa Öztürk, a graduate student who co-authored an op-ed urging her university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” had her visa revoked without her knowledge and was confronted by six masked federal agents last week, the Department of Homeland Security stated vaguely that she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” Their stories are a warning from the Trump administration: Defiance can come at a steep price.

Of course, protests outside the U.S. are bound to look much different from those in a country contending with its own leadership. But Canada’s situation is a notable point of contrast, because the sentiment of citizens is being echoed and acted on by their representatives. Even if America’s anti-Trump protests pick up more speed, a successful movement requires those in power to be willing and able to harness that energy. Traditionally, two important avenues for such action run through Congress and the courts. When Trump signed an executive order in 2017 banning travel to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries, thousands of people flooded airport terminals in protest. Civil-liberties groups took notice and filed suits in quick succession to block the order; the watered-down version of the ban, upheld by the Supreme Court more than a year later, was a pale imitation of the original.

Things are different this time. “Two months into Trump’s second term, fear is taking hold across broad cross sections of American society,” my colleague Isaac Stanley-Becker wrote last week. Trump and his allies are openly calling for the impeachment of federal judges who push back on his orders, and high-powered law firms are falling like dominoes as they capitulate to the administration’s demands. Half of Congress is beholden to the president; the other half is dogged by historically low favorability polling . Whereas Canadian leaders of all political stripes are calling for their constituents to boycott American goods, America’s only opposition party is scrambling to cobble together a coherent strategy . Democratic Senator Cory Booker, who delivered a record-breaking 25-hour speech on the Senate floor this week, issued a wake-up call to his fellow senators: “Generations from now will look back at this moment and have a single question: Where were you?”

Winning more blue congressional seats in the 2026 midterms is one way to loosen Trump’s grip on the federal government, but those are more than a year away. “The only way to win is people power,” Jonathan V. Last, the editor of The Bulwark, wrote last week; the Democratic Party “will have to be pushed into fighting by a mass popular movement.” “Hands Off!” protests against Trump and DOGE will take place around the country tomorrow, with a large march planned in Washington. Thousands have rallied to oppose the detainment of Öztürk and Khalil. And the sweeping “Liberation Day” tariff announcements have already ramped up outrage over potentially devastating price increases. Many Americans still have an appetite for dissent. But whereas the Trump presidency has cast into sharp relief Canada’s national identity, it has had the opposite effect domestically. The challenge for Trump’s detractors will be figuring out how to take a fractured coalition and rebuild.

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Evening Read

illustration of woman with dark hair wearing yellow dress falling backwards into the arms of same woman in yellow dress with dark hair, on reddish-brown background
Illustration by Isabella Cotier

Who Needs Intimacy?

By Jordan Kisner

Over the past decade or so, an influential set of female novelists has been circling a shared question: Given how often women are forced to understand themselves as fundamentally in relation to others (most commonly a child and/or a partner, but also parents, extended family, friends), is it possible for a woman to have an authentic, independent self? If a female narrator is extracted from her core relational ties, what kind of consciousness is left?

Read the full article.

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Culture Break

Ringo Starr holds up two peace signs at the Grand Ole Opry
Dina Litovsky

Reminisce. The world still needs Ringo Starr, Mark Leibovich writes.

Read. “Relatable Mom,” a short story by Curtis Sittenfeld:

“I wondered if my sister would disapprove, which hadn’t been a thing I’d wondered much before our estrangement.”

Play our daily crossword.


Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.

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Exclusive: how the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg got added to the White House Signal group chat

Internal investigation cleared the national security adviser Mike Waltz, but the mistake was months in the making

Donald Trump ’s national security adviser Mike Waltz included a journalist in the Signal group chat about plans for US strikes in Yemen after he mistakenly saved his number months before under the contact of someone else he intended to add, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The mistake was one of several missteps that came to light in the White House’s internal investigation, which showed a series of compounding slips that started during the 2024 campaign and went unnoticed until Waltz created the group chat last month.

Continue reading…

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