Trump and Tate: a match made in hell
There are three tried-and-tested methods for stepping into Donald Trump’s interior circle. No 1: be younger, blond and so obsessive about the president that even the Secret Service assume it’s kinda bizarre. That technique actually appears to have labored out nicely for Natalie Harp, a former far-right cable host who’s now an official aide to Trump.
Harp is what the New York Instances diplomatically termed “devoted”. In the course of the marketing campaign, she turned referred to as the “human printer” as a result of she adopted Trump round with a conveyable printer – even typically operating after him on the golf course – handy him onerous copies of flattering protection. The 34-year-old additionally reportedly supplied to go to jail for Trump, and advised the billionaire he’s her “guardian and protector on this life”. Based on excerpts from Michael Wolff’s new e-book on Trump, the “Natalie state of affairs” turned so intense that Secret Service brokers deemed her “a possible hazard to herself in addition to to the president”. However all’s nicely that ends nicely: now she’s serving to to run the nation!
Technique No 2: kill an unhoused man. Final 12 months, a Manhattan jury discovered Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, who’s white, not responsible within the chokehold dying of Jordan Neely, an unhoused Black man. Penny has turn into a celeb in rightwing circles, and was just lately employed by enterprise capital large Andreessen Horowitz (whose founders are massive Trump followers) as a deal companion in its American Dynamism observe. Penny has additionally just lately been noticed schmoozing with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Little doubt it’s not lengthy earlier than he will get a job within the Division of Protection.
Technique No 3: be a self-professed “misogynist influencer” accused by authorities of sexually exploiting ladies. There’s nothing that may win Trump’s sympathy quicker than a misogynist in a spot of authorized hassle: sexual predators of a feather flock collectively. In a transfer just about anybody might have seen coming, the Trump administration has determined to lend a serving to hand to manosphere influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who’re twin US and UK nationals. Earlier this week, the Monetary Instances reported that the Trump administration had requested Romanian authorities to carry journey restrictions on the brothers, who had been arrested in 2022 and indicted in mid-2023 on prices of human trafficking, rape and forming a prison gang to sexually exploit ladies – prices they deny.
Andrew Tate can be going through a separate civil motion from 4 British ladies who’ve alleged rape and coercive management between 2013 and 2016. As you’ll be able to think about, these ladies are deeply involved that the Trump administration appears to be interfering within the case and have requested them to depart authorities alone to “do their jobs”. The lawyer for the victims additionally famous that Trump was “interfering in due course of” not simply in Romania, however within the UK, the place the Tates are pending extradition.
Why is the Trump administration, which has lots on its plate, seemingly going out of its means to assist the Tates? As Matt Shea wrote in an explainer for the Guardian, the “alliance … has been within the making for a very long time. Paul Ingrassia, one of many legal professionals Andrew Tate employed to struggle his human-trafficking case, was just lately sworn in because the White Home liaison for the Division of Justice. Tate has additionally been buddies with Donald Trump Jr since 2016, and Alina Habba, who holds the high-ranking political adviser function of counselor to the president, has stated she is a “massive fan” of Andrew Tate. He has quite a lot of buddies in excessive locations.
There may additionally be a little bit of quid professional quo at play as nicely. Tristan Tate boasted on X in November that the brothers had helped Trump win the US election, claiming “thousands and thousands of younger males in Europe and the USA have a wholesome rightwing strategy to politics that they might NOT have if Andrew Tate had by no means appeared on their cellphone screens”. That’s broadly true: the Tate brothers have helped radicalize a technology. They usually proceed to be helpful propagandists for Trump. As Shea notes: “The Trump administration and Tate are each selling a conspiracy idea that USAid and the mainstream media have labored collectively to manufacture prices in opposition to Tate. By supporting him, the Trump administration is forging a brand new axis of disinformation to go after the press and the very thought of justice and due course of.”
Whereas the Tates are helpful to Trump, the Trump administration may actually be the brothers’ get-out-of-jail-free-card. After Trump received the 2024 election, Andrew Tate tweeted that his case could be dismissed. “Watch this house ;-),” he stated.
Oh, consider me, I’ve been watching this house, and it’s getting increasingly dystopian each day. Meddling with the Tates’s case is simply the beginning. Trump has made it very clear that he doesn’t assume the regulation applies to him or any of his buddies, tweeting: “He who saves his Nation doesn’t violate any Legislation.” He has additionally likened himself to a “king”. This isn’t bombast: Trump has advised us time and time once more he thinks he’s above the regulation and may do no matter he likes. We should take him at his phrase.
8,000 pregnant ladies could die due to Trump’s freeze on overseas assist
On common, 130,390 ladies get contraceptive care every day below US-funded packages, based on the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit that research sexual and reproductive well being. “If 11.7 million ladies and ladies are denied entry to contraceptive care in 2025, 4.2 million will expertise unintended pregnancies, and eight,340 will die from issues throughout being pregnant and childbirth,” the institute calculates.
After Texas banned abortion, sepsis charges soared
The speed of sepsis, a life-threatening situation, went up greater than 50% for ladies hospitalized once they misplaced their pregnancies within the second trimester, an investigation by ProPublica discovered.
Cheer your self up with some flawless lesbian line dancing
This joyful video of ladies dancing to Chappell Roan at a lesbian bar in Brooklyn has gone viral.
Missouri invoice proposes registry for pregnant ladies to ‘cut back preventable abortions’
Based on the Hill, the invoice abstract states that, if handed, Missouri would create a registry of each anticipating mom within the state “who’s in danger for looking for an abortion”. The celebration of small authorities strikes once more!
Nicole Kidman made a vow in 2017 to work with a feminine director each 18 months
And she or he has put her cash the place her mouth is, teaming up with a lady director both as a producer or as an actor 19 occasions over the past eight years.
The ‘enemy feminisms’ that allow the suitable
Plenty of outstanding British feminist writers have just lately described Trump, a legally adjudicated sexual predator, as a “feminist hero” due to his anti-trans insurance policies. How did we get right here? The Guardian’s Julie Carrie Wong brings this query to Sophie Lewis, whose new e-book, Enemy Feminisms, “seeks to know how and why some types of feminism have diverged so basically from others as to turn into, nicely, enemies”.
Sinn Fein’s management to boycott White Home’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations
Michelle O’Neill, Northern Eire’s first minister, stated she couldn’t ignore “the struggling of the Palestinian folks and the current feedback of the US President across the mass expulsion of the Palestinian folks from Gaza”. Alas, loads of different folks appear capable of ignore Palestinian struggling. The likes of the BBC have downplayed Trump’s mass expulsion plans by describing them as “a extremely controversial redevelopment proposal”. Crimes in opposition to humanity appear to have turn into horrifically normalized.
The week in pawtriarchy
If the information has received you stress-eating, you’re not alone. A sneaky, and really hungry, opossum broke right into a home in Nebraska and ate nearly a complete Costco chocolate cake, then collapsed on the sofa. She (the opossum doesn’t appear to have a reputation) is now being taken care of by an animal shelter. “I believe the opossum story is absolutely relatable, like, who doesn’t need to eat an entire chocolate cake?” the Nebraska wildlife rehab government director Laura Stastny stated.
Supply hyperlink
