by Paul Waldman | Jul 3, 2026 | Opinion
Despite our differences, as Americans, we can all join together in the hope that when an enormous fireworks display happens at Mount Rushmore on Friday, it doesn’t spark a wildfire in the Black Hills National Forest. As in 2020, when the Trump administration suspended an 11-year ban on fireworks at the memorial, the show is being staged amid cautions about fire risk. The threat of catastrophe for a presidential photo op — indeed, the show appears to be largely for Trump’s benefit, as he will be in attendance — is par for the course in Trump’s Fourth of July celebrations.
Let’s start with Graft Force One. Trump is scheduled to fly to South Dakota on the $400 million jet gifted by the government of Qatar, just one high-profile part of the grubbiest presidential cash grab in 250 years of American history.
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‘Shameless’: Trump slammed for ‘cashing in’ on the presidency
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According to the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, presidents aren’t supposed to accept gifts, certainly not ones worth mid-nine-figures. But since the terms of the deal say the plane is in the temporary possession of the U.S. government until Trump leaves office, when it becomes the property of his “library” — i.e., he can do whatever he wants with it — it’s not supposed to count.
As mind-boggling as the size of that gift was when it was announced, it turns out that pales in comparison to the ways Trump has increased his personal wealth since returning to office. Trump made more than $2 billion last year, mostly through crypto schemes, according to a mandatory government financial disclosure report released Tuesday. Crypto appears to have provided an easy path to influence.
by Jacques Berlinerblau | Jul 3, 2026 | Opinion
In order to make sense of Louis C.K.’s new Netflix special, “Ridiculous,” I find it’s helpful to consider how the controversial and once-“canceled” comedian looks. When I watch him move on stage, it seems he moves slowly. The camera trains on his face, weighed down by eye bags that cast shadows on his cheeks. His balding dome is potted with a few wisps of disobedient hairs sprouting this way and that. From a very specific angle, it appears two curved lines are indented on each side of his forehead, forming a set of parentheses around his mind. Within those parentheses he seems to be thinking: “I no longer give a f—!”
Fans of C.K.’s brand of absurdist nihilistic humor will love the show. He opens by mentioning that he contracted AIDS by having intercourse with a rat.
Fans of C.K.’s brand of absurdist nihilistic humor will love the show. He opens by mentioning that he contracted AIDS by having intercourse with a rat. He tells us he dreamt that he urinated on a baby (after sharing this with his shrink, he says, his course of therapy was promptly terminated). He appraises his mother’s genitals. He thanks his father for never having sexually abused him — though he concedes there’s still time for that to happen.
For me, the best bits were the ones that had little to do with his customary themes of pedophilia, incest, rape, sexism and casual racism, the abject staples of the C.K. canon. Rather, it was a series of more observational riffs that I found to be quite good. Reminding us how deft a physical comedian he is, C.K.
by Hannah Holland | Jul 3, 2026 | Opinion
A new advertisement for Kylie Jenner’s special edition Meta Glasses is a stylized, first-person view of a morning in her life. Through Jenner’s $399 lenses, we watch as she murmurs directions to her staff: placement for a large “Beetlejuice”-esque statue, whether she likes the feeling of a moisturizer sample. We watch as she applies cuticle oil to her manicured set overlooking a pool being skimmed by a smiling older man, leafs through clothing hanging in her closet and through a pile of fan letters, makes a green smoothie.
The glasses, called Meta Starfire Kylie edition, are part of Meta’s first line of in-house, celebrity-branded smart glasses. Jenner told Elle Magazine that she was involved in “everything” from campaign to design. She even lent her voice to the artificial intelligence for the product. “You ask. Kylie answers,” Meta’s website promises.
Jenner provides a powerful combination of extremely lucrative marketing techniques: Instagrammable aspiration and pseudo-accessibility.
Jenner and her Starfires (which are priced at $100 more than most of Meta’s models) are a boon for Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Glasses have long been marred by controversy and consumer criticism. Jenner provides a powerful combination of extremely lucrative marketing techniques: Instagrammable aspiration and pseudo-accessibility. More crucially, though, as one of the most familiar faces on the internet, she normalizes the product. Jenner is not merely making Meta Glasses more palatable but surveillance technology writ large.
Released in 2021 via a partnership with Ray-Ban, Meta Glasses debuted as a competitor to Google Glass. Wearables of this ilk have long been a preoccupation of Silicon Valley and of Zuckerberg.
“I don’t think phones are going to go away completely, but I
by Ja'han Jones | Jul 2, 2026 | Civil Rights, Opinion
The state of Florida remains a cesspool for some of the conservative movement’s most virulent racism and xenophobia.
As Republicans have wedded themselves to the Israeli government amid its ongoing bombardment of Gaza — devastation that a United Nations panel has called a genocide — some in the party, especially in Florida, have ramped up their attacks on Muslims.
In recent years, Reps. Randy Fine and Brian Mast have arguably become faces of the Sunshine State’s dark bigotry with their remarks about Muslims and Palestinians, while Florida officials — such as Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier — have used their offices to launch illiberal attacks on Muslim people and groups who advocate on their behalf.
These attacks continued Wednesday, when DeSantis officially declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations a terrorist organization. There is no proof supporting this designation, but CAIR, much like the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, has long been targeted by conservatives.
The Miami Herald reported that CAIR has sued Florida over the designation, which DeSantis said he was authorized to make thanks to a new state law that has been described by critics as an assault on free speech. After its passage, I explained how the law aligns with our country’s sordid legacy of white officials targeting civil rights groups known for defending nonwhite people.
CAIR says its mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.” Among the other groups DeSantis designated as terrorist organizations are antifa, the amorphous leftist movement for people who oppose fascism.
DeSantis, who has downplayed the severity of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection and faced bipartisan backlash
by Paul Farhi | Jul 2, 2026 | Opinion
President Donald Trump’s diatribes against the news media and Big Tech are more than a major plank in his MAGA platform. They’ve also been highly lucrative.
A 2025 financial disclosure filing released Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics revealed that Trump earned $86.5 million from legal settlements with media and tech companies he had sued.
The scale of presidential income is unprecedented, as are the lawsuits that led to the settlements. Many presidents have criticized the news media over coverage they disliked, but until Trump, no sitting president had ever sued a media outlet for defamation — or collected millions of dollars to dismiss such a claim.
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Trump’s use of presidency to rake in billions is so corrupt that the law can’t even keep up
July 1, 2026 / 10:30
Trump has done so repeatedly. He has never won a defamation case in court, despite filing more than 30 such lawsuits against news organizations or journalists since the 1980s. To the contrary, Trump has lost many defamation cases, both as a plaintiff and a defendant. The most notable may be the 2023 finding — which the Supreme Court recently let stand — that he was liable for sexual assault and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, with a jury awarding her $5 million. Legal experts say that Trump faces nearly insurmountable odds to win a defamation case at trial.
But once Trump won a second term, the implicit threat of presidential punishment loomed. Suddenly, Trump’s ability to extract large payments without going into court increased markedly.
He has never won a defamation case in court, despite filing more than 30 such lawsuits against news organizations
by Mike Wise | Jul 2, 2026 | Opinion, Sports
In the end, just three things remain certain for all of us: death, taxes…and LeBron James curb-stomping another American city’s heart and forcing his fans into debt with the purchase of yet another team’s jersey.
Yes, the GOAT of the NBA, LeBron James, has worn at least 54 different primary regular-season jerseys throughout his career across three franchises: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers. But he’s also the GOAT of crushing the heart of a city’s NBA fans. Just as LeBron told the Cleveland Cavaliers he would “take my talents to South Beach” in a wrenching and televised gut-punch of a breakup in 2010, told the Miami Heat he was leaving them in 2015 to go back to Cleveland and then told the Cavaliers he was leaving them again in 2018, the King of Pain has now called it quits with the Lakers and will pursue free agency at 41 years and more than 180 days old.
LeBron James has worn 54 different primary regular-season jerseys throughout his career across three franchises.
Lakers ownership, team legends and his LeBron’s teammates congenially thanked LeBron and described how lucky they were to be in a committed relationship with him for eight years — four years longer than the heartsick Miami Heat. The ugliness of past jiltings was absent — some Cleveland fans torched his jersey when he first left the Cavs — but he’s leaving many a young fan clutching a purple-and-gold No. 23 jersey autographed by LeBron, feeling abandoned and disillusioned. And wondering how much their gullible parents will be willing to pay for LeBron’s authentic, NBA-licensed jersey when he signs with his next team.
Signing LeBron at
