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Trump Unfortunately Wades Into Sydney Sweeney Jeans Ad Debate

The president of the United States apparently has nothing else to do.

Billboards of actress Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagles ad. One shows her lying on her side wearing jeans and a jean jacket, with nothing underneath. Another shows her wearing jeans with the caption "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans."
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The president of the United States of America on Monday weighed in on the viral American Eagle advertisement featuring Sydney Sweeney. In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump expounded on Sweeney’s reported Republican Party membership, “woke” advertisements, and, bizarrely, his vehement dislike of pop star Taylor Swift.

“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying of [sic] the shelves.’ Go get ’em Sydney!” Trump wrote.

The day prior, the president had been informed that Sweeney is reportedly a card-carrying Republican. Then and there, he grew fond of her recent ad campaign. “If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic,” Trump said.

Last week, several Republican officials, including Vice President JD Vance, also commented on the recent ad campaign, which caused a stir as some netizens claimed the slogan “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” has eugenic undertones. Vance falsely conflated these random social media users with Democratic officials, suggesting that the party’s “actual strategy” is telling “everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi.”

Trump’s Monday Truth Social post went on to compare American Eagle’s advertising campaign with what he called a “disgraceful” ad from British car manufacturer Jaguar, which he said fell flat because it was “WOKE.” Trump also mentioned conservative backlash against Bud Light in 2023 for the beer band’s promotion with a transgender TikTok personality.

Trump then pivoted to attacking “Woke singer Taylor Swift.”

“Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on TRUTH that I can’t stand her (HATE!). She was booed out of the Super Bowl and became, NO LONGER HOT.”

Trump has a perennial fascination with Swift and her “hotness” or lack thereof. In a May post, he asked, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer HOT?’” That post was referencing an all-caps, September 2024 post, which stated, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

Trump’s post concluded that conservatives enjoy increased influence over American culture: “The tide has seriously turned—Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be.”

Notably, this all-important communiqué from the commander in chief was actually a revised version of a post he shared, then deleted, earlier Monday morning. In the first version, the president had misspelled Sweeney’s first name, twice, as “Sidney.”

Trump Had Vile Suggestion for Prince Andrew, Damning Book Reveals

A new book reveals Donald Trump’s deeper (and disturbing) ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s network.

Donald Trump speaks while Prince Andrew stands behind him
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The extent of Donald Trump’s involvement with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein’s inner circle continues to deepen: The president reportedly had a vulgar conversation with Prince Andrew in 2000 in which he gave the royal a list of masseuses.

According to an excerpt from a new book by historian Andrew Lownie, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Trump was seen hanging out with Prince Andrew at multiple events in 2000, where listeners overheard the two men talking about “pussy.”

Trump was quoted as saying about the prince, “He’s not pretentious. He’s a lot of fun to be with.” Trump denied knowing Prince Andrew in 2019, despite being photographed with him on numerous occasions.

Lownie continues in his description of Trump and Prince Andrew’s relationship: “Shortly afterwards and clearly good friends, Trump and Andrew were overheard at an event to discuss Trump’s plans for a golfing complex in Scotland, talking entirely about ‘p***y’, with the American producing a list of masseuses for the prince.”

Trump’s comfort with vulgar misogyny isn’t exactly a shock—the president’s infamous Access Hollywood tape caught him bragging in 2005 that he grabbed women “by the pussy”—but the comment about providing the prince with a list of masseuses is ominous.

Virginia Giuffre, a central figure in the Epstein case, was approached in 2000 by Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and hired as a masseuse for the financier. She was then repeatedly sexually abused by Epstein and his network of wealthy friends, including Prince Andrew, Giuffre said. She accused the prince of sexually assaulting her three times while she was a minor, a case that Andrew settled in 2022.

And where did Maxwell meet Giuffre? At Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach club, where she worked as a spa attendant as a teenager.

In July, Trump told a reporter that Epstein “stole” Giuffre from him. The president has recently claimed that he fell out with “terrific guy” Epstein because the financier poached workers from his club.

When asked if one of the people in question was Giuffre, Trump responded: “I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.”

Giuffre committed suicide in April. Her family was shocked by Trump’s disclosure, and demanded answers from the president. “It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey ‘likes women on the younger side … no doubt about it,’” Giuffre’s family told The Atlantic.

House Democrats Begin Push for U.S. to Recognize Palestine

As Israel continues to starve Gaza, some Democrats in Congress are pushing the Trump administration to recognize Palestine.

Pro-Palestinian protesters march near the Capitol in Washington, D.C. One waves a large Palestinian flag.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
A pro-Palestine protest in Washington, D.C., in July 2024

After watching Israel massacre innocents, demolish infrastructure, and incite famine in Gaza for almost two years, at least some congressional Democrats acknowledge it’s time to recognize Palestinian statehood. 

Axios has reported that over a dozen House Democrats have signed a letter calling on President Trump to recognize the state of Palestine. 

“This tragic moment has highlighted for the world the long overdue need to recognize Palestinian self-determination,” reads the letter addressed to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We encourage the governments of other countries that have yet to recognize Palestinian statehood, including the United States, to do so as well.” 

The United Kingdom, France, and Canada last week all moved to recognize Palestine as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza becomes undeniable. But in the United States, both Democratic and Republican leadership have remained staunch advocates of Israel, essentially signing blank check after blank check so that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can continue his indiscriminate assault on Gaza. This letter, although it’s unlikely to move the needle in any tangible way, is the most significant break from that course of action to date. Even Trump last week expressed mild displeasure at the carnage, claiming that he wants to find a way to end the starvation crisis. 

“The recognition would come by embracing the 22 state Arab League Plan just passed this week that calls for a Palestinian state and the recognition of Israel as a Jewish democratic state,” said Representative Ro Khanna, who is spearheading the effort. “We cannot be isolated from the rest of the free world.”

Progressive and vocal pro-Palestinian Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are surprisingly absent from the list of current signatories.  

The signers are as follows:

  • Greg Casar 
  • Lloyd Doggett 
  • Veronica Escobar 
  • Maxwell Frost 
  • Al Green 
  • Jared Huffman 
  • Ro Khanna
  • Jim McGovern
  • Chellie Pingree
  • Nydia Velazquez
  • Mark Pocan 
  • Bonnie Watson Coleman

DOJ Scrambles to Get Distance From Stephen Miller’s Immigration Plan

The department’s sudden turn from Stephen Millers’s deportation goal could be to avoid judges’ ire.

Stephen Miller stands on Air Force One as Donald Trump speaks to reporters
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s ideology is making it difficult for federal authorities to actually meet his deportation quota.

The Justice Department is trying to distance itself from Miller and his expectations for federal agents to arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants per day. In the midst of a lawsuit over ICE’s illegal sweeps in Los Angeles, the department informed federal judges that no such official quota existed.

“DHS has confirmed that neither ICE leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that ICE or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law,” a Justice Department attorney reported to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth attributed the number to “anonymous reports in the newspapers,” but that’s not true. Miller was recorded stating the goal in May, when he told Fox News unequivocally that the administration was “looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day.”

The discrepancy between what White House advisers are willing to say on live air versus in court could boil down to a growing “gulf” that “may be undermining the DOJ’s already strained credibility with judges,” reported Politico. Skeptical judges have pointed to the figure as grounds to question whether the Trump administration’s immigration objectives are even legal.

Yet a Justice Department spokesperson insisted to the publication that there was no divergence between the White House and the law enforcement agency regarding its immigration stats and orders.

“The entire Trump Administration is united in fully enforcing our nation’s immigration laws and the DOJ continues to play an important role in vigorously defending the President’s deportation agenda in court,” a DOJ spokesperson told Politico.

Greg Abbott Escalates War With Democrats Over Gerrymandering Plan

The Texas governor is threatening Democrats who don’t show up to the Capitol to vote on his gerrymandered maps.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is threatening to expel any Democratic legislators who don’t show up to the Texas Capitol by Monday afternoon—after Democrats fled the state to stop a vote on Republicans’ obviously gerrymandered congressional maps.

Fifty-one Texas Democrats left the Lone Star State over the weekend, thus denying Republicans the two-thirds quorum needed for votes in the state’s 150-member legislature. They plan to stay away for the duration of the two-week special legislation in which the House is scheduled to vote on the GOP’s new congressional maps.

“We’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,” said state Representative Gene Wu, who chairs the Texas House Democratic Caucus. “As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”

In a statement Sunday, Abbott fulminated against the Democrats. “This truancy ends now,” he wrote. “The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025.”

Citing a 2021 opinion by Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton—who, during this ongoing gerrymandering saga, has called Democrats “cowards” who ought to be “hunt[ed] down”—Abbott said he may treat quorum-breakers as having forfeited their offices, in which case they, purportedly, could be removed from office and “swiftly” replaced.

He also accused the Democratic lawmakers of possible felonies for receiving donations to offset daily $500 fines for their absence.

The Paxton opinion, however, does not say that lawmakers who break quorum can be removed, but rather that “this is a fact-specific question only resolvable by a court,” noted Politico’s Kyle Cheney. It also refrained from deciding on the constitutionality of breaking a quorum.

Texas Democrats replied to Abbott with a storied Texas battle cry, issuing a four-word statement: “Come and take it.”