Trump said he didn’t approve Noem’s $220M ad campaign. But she told this story more than a year ago at a CPAC dinner
06.03.2026 01:44
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Trump said he didn’t approve Noem’s $220M ad campaign. But she told this story more than a year ago at a CPAC dinner
Story with @michaelscherer.bsky.social @russellberman.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
1/ Every winter and spring, cedar pollen blankets Central Texas and makes millions of people miserable. For @texashighways.bsky.social, I wrote about why I look forward to it anyway and what it taught me about belonging somewhere. texashighways.com/culture/find...
This is what the founders meant when they wrote about the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.
NEW: President Trump is expected to endorse John Cornyn over Ken Paxton in the Texas GOP primary runoff, three people briefed on the deliberations tell me + @michaelscherer.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Read the great Josh Partlow on the avalanche that stunned the nation
www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
What’s happening (and not happening) in Iran.
Trump: "The White House Correspondents Association has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner, a long and storied tradition since it began in 1924, under then President Calvin Coolidge. In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these 'Correspondents' now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER! Because the Press was extraordinarily bad to me, FAKE NEWS ALL, right from the beginning of my First Term, I boycotted the event, and never went as Honoree. However, I look forward to being with everyone this year. Hopefully, it will be something very Special. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Trump: "The WCHA has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner ... In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these 'Correspondents' now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., it will be my Honor"
ICYMI over the weekend: My colleagues and I reviewed 15,000 documents to put together a detailed account of how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged medical care to manipulate and control victims, and how some doctors enabled that. Gift link:
As U.S. and Israeli missiles fell on Iran this weekend, just weeks after President Trump ordered a lightning strike that put Venezuela’s president in a New York City courtroom, Trump is already eyeing his next target: Cuba, @vmsalama reports.
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Trump: I am going to talk to the new Iranian leadership within days to do a new deal
Also Trump: I'm hoping this new leadership, the one I'm going to do a deal with, is quickly overthrown by democracy protesters...
Also also Trump: ...but they're on their own.
Exclusive: “I have agreed to talk”: Trump tells @michaelscherer.bsky.social that he plans to speak with Iran’s new leadership. Read more from his interview:
I called him.
NEWS: Trump told me in a phone call Sunday morning he plans new talks with Iranian regime: "They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them." GIFT LINK: www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Full story here, with lots of other internal company docs being revealed in New Mexico court case. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
NEW: In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg said it was "not true" that his company prioritized profit over safety. Instagram execs created this decision memo in '20 proposing default private teen accounts to prevent sexual groomers from exploiting minors. Growth team opposed. IG waited til '24 to make change.
National PTA breaks ties with Meta amid child-safety trials share.google/NawnwmWjDUNa...
NEW: "We will never get out of this mess"-- Zuckerberg told the world in 2021 that his company would not prioritize growth over safety. But new docs show Instagram execs chose growth over fixes they knew would stop the sexual exploitation of teens.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
In his lawsuit against OpenAI, Musk touted xAI safety compared with ChatGPT. A few months later, xAI's Grok flooded X with non-consensual nude images.
NEW: Documents viewed by @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @kait.bsky.social give a candid look at how Meta approaches the issue of child safety. For years, it dragged its feet on features that would help prevent groomers from targeting kids, explicitly prioritizing growth and engagement instead.
NEW: "We will never get out of this mess"-- Zuckerberg told the world in 2021 that his company would not prioritize growth over safety. But new docs show Instagram execs chose growth over fixes they knew would stop the sexual exploitation of teens.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
For all you election betters on PolyKalshIt
An incident involving a Russian drone in Kyiv last month, which has not been previously reported, set in motion a chain of events that would allow Ukraine to seize the momentum at the front with the help of an unlikely ally: Elon Musk, reports Simon Shuster.
Clinton: It then got at the end quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate. One of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet.
Viktor Orban is now 20 points behind in the polls - and so he has ordered the military to guard “key energy facilities” against a possible Ukrainian “attack.” Hungarians fear he plans a fake national security emergency or false-flag incident before the April 12 election
apnews.com/article/hung...
Counterpoint
White House advisers and top Republican strategists are reverting to a familiar playbook: On midterms messaging, let Trump be Trump while demanding discipline from the rest of the GOP ecosystem, reports @michaelscherer.bsky.social.
NEW: Trump’s top aides are preparing for rocky midterms. “The president will have his message. And that works for him. But you are not the president. . . . Going on Fox News and reiterating what the president says every day—that is a problem.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
