Two Dan Sullivans are running for Senate in Alaska, and if their names aren’t confusing enough, you might want to take a look at their logos.

Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is an incumbent Republican who’s served in the U.S. Senate since 2015, while Dan J. Sullivan is a last-minute candidate who’s also running as a Republican. He entered the race just days before Alaska’s filing deadline.

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Save the flamingos.

The Trump family is no stranger to absurdist, animal-based protest to make a larger point. In President Donald Trump’s first term, there was an orange rat inflatable at some protests that the creators made to ridicule him, while during term two, some protesters have worn frog suits to look purposefully ridiculous.

Now, at demonstrations in Albania over a luxury development there that Trump’s oldest daughter and son-in-law are connected to, the flamingo has become a symbol of protest, though it’s for a literal and not just figurative reason. A foreign Trump family development has inspired species-specific environmental activism with the flamingo, and there’s hardly a creature more camp. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.

Some 3,000 flamingos and other wildlife live across from Sazan Island on the Adriatic Sea, where Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are developing a more than $1 billion luxury resort. Environmental activists say no environmental assessments have been done for their project so close to a feeding area for flamingos, Dalmatian pelicans, and endangered Mediterranean monk seals, per Courthouse News.

Environmental concerns aren’t the only knocks from critics against the project being developed by Kushner’s private equity firm Affinity Partners. There are concerns that the land wasn’t acquired by Kushner’s firm transparently, and protesters are also expressing discontent with the country’s Socialist Party government and Prime Minister Edi Rama, according to the BBC.

The flamingo has made a handy symbol to express all of that. It’s a charismatic species.

The Elton John of birds, flamingos don’t even have to show off like a peacock, they’re just naturally pretty like that, and the bird’s feathers get their pink color because of their diet of algae and brine shrimp. The flamingo makes for a good flagship species, or a single species that conservation groups use to center their efforts around, like “save the whales.” It’s done in hopes it will have an umbrella effect for other species too, but there’s disagreement over whether the single-species approach biases conservation efforts towards species that are cuddly or cute.

Studies have found these charismatic species attract more funding and create emotional resonance, and conservation and nature magazines tend to feature mammals and birds on their covers over invertebrates, fish, amphibians, or reptiles. It’s little wonder protesters in Albania have gravitated to a colorful bird.

In Albania, the flamingo has taken on the role of the flagship species in protests not just to protect the bird and other wildlife near Sazan Island, but to represent wider grievances against the resort proposal and government. In posters and social media posts, they call it a “Flamingo Revolution.”

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Inside the proposed design for a new Penn Station

The architectural firm behind plans to remake New York City’s Penn Station unveiled its design on Monday, and renderings show a station that’s meant to be bigger, brighter, and more welcoming to the public.

The design, which leaked last month before its formal reveal, would encase the circular form of Madison Square Garden with a classical-style, square-shaped station that’s designed to let light in. Inside, narrow walkways would be expanded and low-slung ceilings raised. Architects estimate the redesigned platforms will reduce egress time by more than a minute.

More details about the plans reveal a design blends a modern classical look with retro-inspired art deco forms that architects looked to for inspiration. The ceiling in the main hall is decorated as a map of Manhattan streets with a clock hanging in the middle where Penn Station is located on the map, and as a callback to the clock that was once displayed in the main concourse of the old Penn Station. The New York City skyline is depicted in decorative reliefs in the main entry space, and four original eagle statues from the original Penn Station would be placed at the building’s corner entries. Architects are using the original station’s foundations as much as possible.

“This is geeky but it’s really important because building new foundations at Penn when a train’s coming in every three minutes during the day is incredibly complicated and costly,” Vishaan Chakrabarti, the lead design architect and founder of PAU, said during a press conference. “So we’re trying to reuse and recycle foundations wherever we can.”

One entrance features a large display showing Trump’s name and a presidential seal. Criticism over it, Chakrabarti said, is “much ado about nothing.”

“This couldn’t be more commonplace. Federal buildings everywhere have presidential seals,” he said.

PAU and HOK are leading the architectural plans, and they worked with developers Halmar and Skanska and other partners including Severus Associates, ME Engineers, Lerch Bates, HNTB, and CBRE. Pentagram was named as the agency behind the station’s way finding, signage, and graphic design, and L’Observatoire would do the lighting design.

The proposed plan calls for removing the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden and turning that space into a grand entrance. In addition, there would be loading space inside for trailers so they no longer have to unload on the sidewalks outside. Sidewalks would be widened outside the station, creating what designers hope is a new public space.

“We think about how architecture and the city engage constantly,” Vishaan said.

The proposal is estimated to cost somewhere between $7 billion to $8 billion and be paid through federal grants and loans.

“There will be no fare hike to pay for this project, that’s not going to happen,” Andy Byford, special advisor to the Amtrak Board, said.

Byford denied the procurement process for the project was corrupt after elected officials including Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said it lacked transparency. Byford said the finalist design was selected from four letters of interest that were whittled down to three.

“This was without question the best technical proposal of the three they received,” Byford said.

This story first appeared in Fast Company.

Have you seen this?

Who knew Hunter Biden was a natural-born poster? The former first son can’t stop tweeting, and some of it is funny. Plus: Mariah Carey released a Pride collection. [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

Top White House historian says Trump’s UFC fight would have “repulsed” Founding Fathers. Edward Lengel, chief historian of the White House Historical Association during Trump's first term, said hosting “a vicious and violent sport” “sullies the image of this country.” [HuffPost]

The U.K.’s next banknotes might feature cute foxes and prismatic butterflies. Following a public consultation last year, the Bank of England has decided its next series of £5, £10, £20, and £50 bills will feature wildlife instead of historical figures. The financial institution is letting the public vote on which creatures will star on the paper currency. [Fast Company]

To save on space, the Library of Congress is packing what would otherwise be pages and pages worth of documents and other media from U.S. history into a single vial for the nation’s time capsule marking 250 years since the founding. The method that makes it possible is synthetic DNA.

The storage technique uses artificial DNA molecules like a hard drive by converting data sequenced in 0s and 1s, the binary language of computers, into As (adenine), Cs (cytosine), Gs (guanine), and Ts (thymine), the bases that make up a DNA molecule.

It’s not biological in any way, but it does use DNA structure to pack data more densely than other storage methods, and it lasts far longer than paper would. For a time capsule that’s not supposed to be open until 2276, it’s a smart way to preserve history for the long run.

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Cut some slack to the musicians who dropped out of the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair shortly after it was announced. With multiple organizations putting on commemorations for the 250th anniversary of America’s founding next month, it can be hard to tell them apart.

Nearly the entire lineup of the multi-day festival planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C., dropped out except Flo Rida and Vanilla Ice. President Donald Trump suggested he headline the festival himself by holding a rally, then posted on social media Saturday that it should just be canceled. Artists who dropped out, like Martina McBride and Bret Michaels, explained that they felt misled that the event was not nonpartisan as they were told.

Confusion is everywhere ahead of the nation’s big birthday in July as separate organizations make their own plans, and McBride isn’t likely the only one unaware of the distinctions. Fifty years ago for the nation’s bicentennial there was a single brand that marked the occasion, but in 2026 for the semiquincentennial, it’s diluted between two brands from two different branches of government, America 250 and Freedom 250.

America 250 is the original, older and nonpartisan. Founded a decade ago in 2016 by Congress, its logo is a red, white, and blue ribbon that spells out “250” designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, the same design firm behind the Bicentennial logo for 1976.

Then you have Freedom 250, which is newer and founded by Trump in an executive order last year. Its logo is “Freedom 250” written in serifs inside a circle of 13 stars like the original U.S. flag.

America 250 has a head start and major placements at big events like NFL games, where it was stenciled on the field, and at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Its initiatives include a time capsule, and America Gives, a volunteerism campaign.

Meanwhile Freedom 250 appears at events and activations put on by the executive branch and endorsed by Trump, like his UFC fight on the White House grounds or his Department of Transportation’s Freedom 250 train that included his name on the car. A promotional video for the forthcoming Freedom 250 Grand Prix race through the streets of D.C. shows a cartoon of Trump giving a thumbs up to a bald eagle in Marine One.

Though Freedom 250 has described itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit, the fact it was started by Trump through an executive order after a nonpartisan organization already existed makes that claim harder to justify.

The group’s events run parallel to other Trump administration efforts to put his name or likeness on government assets like currency and a monument to ostensibly celebrate the holiday. And Freedom 250 partners like PragerU, the Koch brothers’ group Americans for Prosperity, and the Museum of the Bible appeal especially to conservatives and evangelicals in Trump’s political base.

Tied to Trump, Freedom 250 appeals to his existing fans, but their numbers are shrinking as his net job approval ratings reach new lows. The Freedom 250 effort is pushing Trump’s toxic brand at a time when he’s never been more unpopular.

Publicly, America 250 is gracious about Freedom 250. “Together, we will ensure that our nation’s 250th anniversary becomes a unifying and unforgettable moment for all Americans,” America 250’s website reads. The Trump administration, though, has withheld tens of millions of dollars meant for America 250 while funding Freedom 250 with taxpayer money, according to documents obtained by NOTUS.

With a month to go until July 4, though, it’s not clear either brand has particularly penetrated the zeitgeist, nor does either have much time to do so. The brands are diluted, and for millions of Americans, the logo they may well associate with the commemoration next month could come from state-specific logos, or logos from corporate 250 tie-ins rather than the logos from the federal government. In an era of declining trust of institutions, it tracks.

This story first appeared in Fast Company.

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The U.S. Constitution is on the blockchain

Someone published the entire U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and all the Amendments on the blockchain all thanks to a change in data limits.

An unknown user spent about $83 to inscribe the Constitution in what’s basically the notes section of their Bitcoin transaction last Thursday that was spotted online by Bitcoin Magazine and others.

It’s not the first time the Constitution has been written on the blockchain — the Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings published the document along with a portrait of then-President-elect Donald Trump last year before the inauguration — but last week’s 44.4 kilobyte transaction showed the data storage capabilities of crypto as a platform using the Constitution without promoting a business or politician too.

The OP_RETURN field in a Bitcoin transaction is a space where text can be included. Room was once limited to 80 bytes, so people used it to attach short notes or messages that fit. Last year, though, that cap was lifted, allowing for more text to be included in the field, like a whole Constitution.

In 2021, a group of more than 17,000 people called ConstitutionDAO tried crowdfunding enough cryptocurrency to win an auction of an actual physical copy of a first edition of the Constitution, but they were outbid.

Billionaire Ken Griffin bought the document for $43.2 million, a record for any historical document. Griffin now owns the only two privately held copies of the Constitution, one of which is now on display at the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan. It might not be a rare, physical copy, but writing the document in the OP_RETURN field of a Bitcoin transaction is much cheaper and will always be on display.

The U.S. Constitution is the most influential constitution in the world, but it’s “also among the oldest, a relic, as brittle as bone, as hard as stone,” author Jill Lepore argues in her We The People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. “But the U.S. Constitution is neither bone nor stone,” she writes. “It is an explosion of ideas. Parchment decays and ink fades, but ideas endure; they also change.”

Digital copies of the Constitution like at the National Constitution Center’s website leave in the document’s original language even if it’s referencing something that’s been amended, like a message in the blockchain that can’t be erased. But pop-ups over highlighted, outdated text provide additional information where Amendments are relevant, like Emancipation or the popular election of Senators.

From being written on parchment with ink to Bitcoin on the blockchain, the Constitution is a document that’s stood the test of time in no small part because of its capacity to be updated. Rooted in tradition with the capacity for change embedded into its very text (see: Article V), the U.S. Constitution is a document designed to adapt and endure.

Have you seen this?

Jill Biden’s book tour begins. The former FLOTUS and English teacher is out this week with her new memoir View from the East Wing, and the only White House pet she mentions is Willow the cat, according to early reviews. Meanwhile, the view from where the East Wing once stood is an actual mess. Plus: Britney’s ex is an ally and he’s celebrating Pride. [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

A Trump banknote is in the works, and it might be worth $250. The president has put his name and face on buildings, booze, and monuments. Next stop is your wallet. [Fast Company]

Democrats think their secret sauce in 2026 is targeting Trump and Republicans on “corruption.” “The idea is it’s an affordability cycle, and so everybody cares about affordability, No. 1, when you pair the message with the reason that your costs are going up is because politicians care more about themselves, they’re corrupt, they’re bought by corporate donors or they’re lining their own pockets, and that’s why they’re not looking out for you, that’s the most potent mix of the two arguments,” a national Democratic strategist said. [NBC News]

Val Kilmer’s icconic ‘Top Gun’ Iceman helmet is up for grabs. The auction house Goldin is selling the artifact with a starting bid of $25,000. [Artnet News]

Construction has begun on a giant, temporary fighting ring on the White House grounds.

President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that construction would soon start on an open-air mixed martial arts venue for a UFC fight, which is ostensibly to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. on July 4, but conveniently will be held on his 80th birthday on June 14.

Cranes and crisscrossing arches taller than the White House now stand on the South Lawn with an American flag pattern covering the lower half of the temporary structure. The venue is expected to seat about 5,000 people.

The event gives Trump ally and UFC CEO Dana White, who endorsed his reelection in 2024, a one-of-a-kind spotlight. It also gives Trump a helpful photo op. The fight night burnishes his tough-guy image and projects a sense of strength at a time when he’s never been more politically weak.

Trump’s disapproval rating has hit an all-time high as the young male voters who helped get him back into office — not to mention who might be the most interested in watching an MMA fight — are abandoning him in droves. A Harvard/IOP poll found just 28% of men ages 18 to 29 support Trump after 49% voted for him in the last election.

The price of bread and other staples is up, but the circus (or rather, the gladiator fight) is coming to the White House and will be streamed on Paramount+.

Whether the fight on the CBS streaming platform can win back young male voters ahead of the November midterm elections remains to be seen, but the Harvard/IOP poll found young people are most concerned with issues like rising prices, housing costs, healthcare, climate, crime, and Iran, none of which can be solved in an MMA ring. Either way, Trump’s hosted fights before, like a boxing match at his Atlantic City casino before it went bankrupt.

The UFC shared renderings of an octagonal stage under the crisscrossing arches, in which an American flag (notably missing some stars) is featured. The venue is built by Tait, a Pennsylvania-based live events production company, according to CBS affiliate WHP-TV in Harrisburg.

Tait’s work spans theater, malls, and media, like The New York TimesDealBook Summit, but it works often in live music. The company is behind staging for major artists such as Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, and U2’s concert residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

For the UFC’s White, an outdoor stage isn’t his preferred kind of venue.

“There’s two things I hate: I hate stadiums, and I hate — even worse than a stadium — is fighting outside,” he told NPR. “There’s just so many different variables you have to deal with,” like weather and bugs. D.C. in mid-June is often humid and muggy.

When asked whether the sport represents the president’s view of America and the world, White said, “Trump is the toughest, most resilient guy I’ve ever met,” adding during the interview that the sport “speaks to young men” and “we supported Trump.”

It’s not the first time an aging U.S. president has worked with CBS or its parent company to turn their birthday into a soft coverage opportunity before a crucial election. Ahead of his 66th birthday in 1956, amid his reelection bid, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower faced mounting questions over his age and health. Needless to say, he got a huge boost from a celebrity-studded televised birthday tribute on CBS dubbed “Ike Day.”

Trump is 14 years older than Eisenhower was then, and more deeply unpopular than Eisenhower ever was, but he’s trying his hand at an even bigger stunt. According to White, the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, is running point for the project. But whereas Eisenhower threw a party, Donald Trump is holding a fight. If anything, he’s on brand.

This story was first published in Fast Company.

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The 2028 L.A. Olympics won’t have just one font, it has a whole font book

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After proposing a new design for its municipal logo on Facebook, one tiny Maine town faced backlash in the comments section when it admitted the mark was generated by A.I. The post and page are now private.

Newburgh, Maine, population 1,520, is some 25 miles from the coast, just outside Bangor. In its Facebook post late last month, the town didn’t hide the fact that its proposed farm-theme logo was A.I.-generated, and even asked for feedback.

“It’s time to update our town logo that we use on our letterhead,” the post read, according to Bangor Daily News. “This is what AI and I came up with as I am no artist. Also, attached is what our old logo looked like. We wanted to know thoughts on the new design and if it represents Newburgh.”

The logo shows a farmhouse with a silo inside of a round seal with hills in the background. In the foreground, there are rows of crops and a pine tree, a longtime Maine symbol. The A.I. authorship of the logo is obvious in text written along the bottom, where the two number 1s in “1819” are upside down and the letter I in “Incorporated” is a number 1.

Residents from the small town were not happy. David Aston, who lives in Newburgh and owns the nearby Timber Hearth Tattoo Co., offered to design a logo for the town.

“I think it’s important for local governments to go human-made because it reinforces the importance of design and art as a human endeavor that’s just as important as the other functions of government,” he tells me.

The A.I. logo was a take on Newburgh’s current logo, an illustration of a farmhouse that’s too detailed to look good when shrunken down. On town letterhead, the current farmhouse mark appears along with Word Art-style text in a concave shape that writes out its year of incorporation. It looks dated, and the town is well intentioned to consider a new logo.

Redesigning town or city logos is inherently fraught, though, since everyone has an opinion about graphic design, especially when it’s about where they live. When it comes to winning over the public, using A.I. is likely to make the process even harder.

A Pew Research Center survey released in March found nearly 40% of U.S. adults believe data centers are “mostly bad” for the environment and home energy costs.

That’s especially true in Maine, where growing backlash culminated in the first statewide ban on data centers in the U.S. The ban, passed by state lawmakers in April, lasts more than a year and covers data centers that surpass a certain size.

Representatives for Newburgh didn’t respond to a request for comment, but taking into account the small size of the town staff and government (its town manager, for example, serves as clerk, treasurer, tax collector, registrar of voters, and general assistance administrator), it’s perhaps not surprising they might turn to A.I. for logo ideas.

Graphic design experience is not a requirement for public service, and not every municipality has the budget or resources for design-forward government services. Still, the blowback in Newburgh is instructive.

Getting public input was smart, and what town officials found was that for many residents, an A.I. design doesn’t represent them. When it comes to branding the places we call home, a human touch is key.

This story was first published in Fast Company.

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How do you brand the campaign of a “warm body” for Congress?

The most important part of Kentucky Republican and congressional candidate Ed Gallrein’s campaign logo is the tagline, “Endorsed by President Trump.”

Gallrein is a U.S. Navy veteran recruited to primary the libertarianism Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and he uses a logo that looks like the mascot for G League NBA team. A blue-and-gold bald eagle holds a triton in its talons as a symbol representing Gallrein’s service as a Navy SEAL, but the Trump endorsement really is the whole ball game here.

Gallrein’s candidacy is part of a wider effort by Trump to punish fellow Republicans he’s deemed insufficiently loyal, and so far he’s on a roll.

All five of Trump’s endorsed candidates for Indiana’s General Assembly won their races earlier this month, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), one of the few remaining Republicans who voted to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection in 2021, lost his primary Saturday. Massie is Tuesday’s target. He co-sponsored the Iran War Powers Resolution and bill to release the Epstein files, as well as voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act since it adds to the deficit.

Trump once called Gallrein a “warm body” (“Give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie, and I got somebody with a warm body, but a big, beautiful brain and a great patriot,” Trump said in March), and the candidate’s campaign advertising, branding, and merchandise center on Trump’s backing.

The Gallrein campaign’s $25 “You’re Fired Thomas Massie” shirt shows Trump’s face on the front, and his ad “Complete and Total Endorsement” clips Trump’s praise of the candidate’s firm handshake and look. “He is central casting,” Trump says over B-roll of Gallrein shaking a cop’s hand. “Just elect him.”

While Gallrein has made Trump’s support part of his branding, Massie is keeping close to the president even as his adherence to conservatism over Trump is central to his appeal. One Massie commercial that started airing in the campaign’s final week opens with an old picture of Massie and Trump posing together with thumbs up for a photo, and the narrator calls Gallrein woke and “a Trump traitor.”

Trump’s never been more unpopular nationally than he is now, but among Republican Party primary voters, his endorsement still matters. It shows in this one U.S. House race. The Republican Party is Trump’s party.

Have you seen this?

You won’t believe what Michelle Obama just said about Trump voters. The former FLOTUS doesn’t want liberals pigeonholing Trump voters. Plus: Guess which Beyoncé song has been inducted into the Library of Congress? [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

Everyone’s running anonymous political accounts now. Operatives on both sides of the aisle are using anonymous social media brands to boost their preferred candidates, drop opposition research, and amplify messaging. [Chaotic Era]

Here’s what I told the DNC autopsy. The report may never see the light of day—so the Harris campaign’s head of digital offers his candid breakdown of what worked, what failed, and what Democrats have yet to learn. [The Bulwark]

Relax! Spotify was never going to keep its disco logo. The music-streaming giant went full “discomorphism” for its 20th anniversary logo. The internet didn’t approve. [Fast Company]

Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell is a pixel-art-style role playing game by an anonymous group of public art activists that turns President Donald Trump’s war in Iran into an unwinnable arcade game that satirizes his presidency.

Physical, playable arcade cabinets loaded with the game went up this week on the National Mall at the DC War Memorial, and it’s by the anonymous group Secret Handshake who’s also behind other recent public protest art installations in Washington, D.C. Their work is aimed at skewering and parodying Trump, but their latest installation isn’t limited to D.C. tourists and locals, as the game is also available to play online.

Trump is the only playable character in Operation Epic Furious, which features three levels and tasks like burning Epstein Files and finding oil in Iran. But good luck beating it because the game’s makers say you can’t win.

“Much like most American conflicts in the Middle East, it is impossible to win,” a representative from Secret Handshake tells me. “But you can lose by trying to hold Melania’s hand,” since asking to hold first lady Melania Trump’s hand in the game triggers game over.

A plaque at the in-person installation says that the Trump administration knows that the best way to sell combat “is by making it a video game.” It’s a reference to social media content put out by Trump’s administration mixing actual war footage with scenes from video games and movies. The game uses Trump’s communications strategy against him.

Like Secret Handshake’s own “A Throne Fit for a King” installation poking fun at Trump’s gaudy D.C. remodeling projects or California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Trump parody schtick before it got old, the best satire for someone like Trump is simply holding up a mirror. Since Trump tries selling his unpopular war like a video game, the medium is a fitting platform for protest.

The group tells me they worked on the game “non stop for three weeks” and it features battle scenes plus cameos from top administration officials like Vice President J.D. Vance, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a centaur who asks Trump to go away with him to start a new life. There’s other Easter Eggs embedded throughout that will delight your most MS NOW-watching uncle, including past statues of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein on the White House grounds that Secret Handshake previously put up in D.C.

Designers have turned to video games as a form of playable protest or activism before. Just last month, one designer released Tax Evaders to make a point about the Trump administration cutting funding for priorities like healthcare, education, housing, and food. The intent was there, but the execution — a Space Invaders-style shooter — was stale. We’ve seen this game before.

Operation Epic Furious raises the bar for what a playable political game can look like. Rich, pixilated graphics and nostalgic RPG game play are matched by creative, satirical storytelling that anyone who watches Saturday Night Live can more or less follow.

Trump may treat war like a game, but it’s one the American people don’t want to play. Recent polling has found large, growing majorities of U.S. adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Iran war and don’t believe he has clearly explained why we’re in it. By making an actual arcade game out of the experience, the team behind Operation Epic Furious is showing how misguided Trump’s attempts to sell the war really are.

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Ralph Lauren designed this year’s flag stamp

The American designer known for turning the U.S. flag into a sweater is now turning that sweater into a stamp, and it’s at the very heart of a first-of-its-kind collection.

The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that a photo of a 13-star knit flag designed by Ralph Lauren that says “1776 - 2026,” “USA Forever,” and “American Icons” will be 2026’s U.S. Flag mail use stamp. The designer also curated a whole sheet of stamps called American Icons coming out next month that celebrates Americana.

The 13-stamp sheet features photos that Lauren, 86, curated himself from his eponymous label’s archives and images that inspire him. It’s the first time in history the USPS has invited an individual to curate a complete official stamp issuance, according to the Postal Service.

The knit flag stamp in the center of the sheet, and other stamps in the collection show things like a baseball glove used by Jackie Robinson, wild horses, a cheeseburger, and a pickup truck. American flags abound, including one on an RL flag sweater worn by a teddy bear and others that flutter in the foreground of the Empire State Building, where Lauren once sold neckties from out of a single drawer. One stamp shows a pattern from a Diné blanket woven by Naomi Glasses, a Navajo weaver the label first hired to design a collection in 2023.

The designs of the stamps were selected to reflect the fabric of the nation and represent “freedom, independence, equality, opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness,” per USPS.

If any designer should curate a first-of-its-kind issuance about the flag, it’s Lauren. “His remarkable visual archive beautifully captures the aspirational spirit and shared values that have united Americans since before our nation’s founding,” USPS vice president of marketing Sheila Holman said in a statement.

Lauren designed the first flag sweater as an homage to American folk art, samplers, and patchwork quilts, and it debuted in his Fall 1989 collection on model Isabelle Townsend. He famously wore one of the sweaters himself at his label’s Spring/Summer 2002 show just 10 days after the 9/11 attacks, and before that, he donated $10 million through Polo Ralph Lauren to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner, the 1813 flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write that words that would become the lyrics to the National Anthem. This is a man whose brand bleeds red, white, and blue.

“I love America,” Lauren said in a statement.

Lauren’s clothes have been worn by first ladies of both parties, he’s outfitted Team USA Olympians, and in 2025, then-President Joe Biden awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making him the first fashion designer to receive the honor. His stamp sheet is another first, and by making his famous sweater a stamp, Lauren’s turned a fashion icon into a functional piece of government-issued art.

Have you seen this?

Golden idol. The same week the U.S. Secretary of State gave the Pope a crystal football, a golden statue of the president went up in Florida. It’s not a golden calf, a pro-Trump pastor said. Oh, I’m sure. Plus: The story of Xtina’s “Beautiful” recording session is a lesson for us all. [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

Here’s Shepard Fairey’s take on Marilyn Monroe. The street artist is out with his take on one of the most famous icons in American pop art. Fairey’s Marilyn Sunrise and Marilyn Sunset are based on two photos taken of the actress by Milton H. Greene in 1956, and their release comes just ahead of what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday on June 1. In a statement, Fairey mentioned Andy Warhol’s portraits of Monroe, which he called “superb,” but said his take “called for a much more delicate approach.” He said he hopes the prints “inspire an empathetic look at Marilyn’s complex humanity and remind us that we are all teetering between strength and fragility.”

DOGE used ChatGPT in a way that was both dumb and illegal, judge rules. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s cancellation of over $100 million in grants was unconstitutional, according to a ruling on Thursday that restores federal grants that were shut down for “DEI” prejudice. [The Verge]

What campaigns need to know about direct mail in 2026. “As campaigns contend with fragmented attention and rising digital skepticism, direct mail continues to serve as a trusted, powerful advertising channel for reaching voters,” reads a study from the American Association of Political Consultants and USPS. [Campaigns & Elections]

Since President Donald Trump named then-Senator JD Vance of Ohio his running mate in July 2024, his campaign logo has included both of their last names placed within a rectangular frame. In fundraising emails sent to the president’s mailing list last month, though, a different version of the logo included just one name: Trump.

Trump last used a Vance-less version of a MAGA Box logo during the 2024 campaign, but it reappeared in April in fundraising emails for an “Official Midterms Patriot Roster.” It’s one of a dozen or so logos used in fundraising emails over the past month by Never Surrender, Trump’s leadership PAC, which manages the mailing list from his most recent presidential campaign.

While variations of the Trump-Vance logo remain in circulation, a growing number of alternative logos and email header graphics don’t mention Vance at all. It’s a subtle branding shift that puts the sole focus on Trump, and comes amid growing questions over who the president might back as a successor in the 2028 race.

Trump-only logos started appearing in fundraising appeals as early as Trump’s first month back in office in January 2025, but their number has grown. The percentage of logos in Trump’s fundraising emails that are branded solely for him and not his VP has risen from 25% in March 2025 to a high of 42% in March 2026, according to a review of the Archives of Political Emails, a database. In April, it was more than 30%.

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The logo for the Florida airport that’s soon to be renamed after President Donald Trump looks more like the logo for a presidential library than an actual airport.

Palm Beach County officials voted today to advance an agreement to license Trump’s name and rename the Palm Beach International Airport after him. Brand guidelines for the new airport published in the naming rights and license agreement signed by Trump and representatives from DTTM Operations, his trademark company, show the mark they agreed on, and it looks like a presidential seal.

The logo shows a gold bald eagle positioned like the bald eagle in the seal, except the airport version carries olive branches for peace in both its talons instead of olive branches in one and arrows in the other. The logo uses visual elements from Trump’s brand, like the motif of five stars from his campaign logo, and the new airport name is spelled out in Trajan, a serif typeface used by Trump’s businesses.

It certainly looks Trumpian, but the problem is this isn’t how airports named after presidents are branded. From Abraham Lincoln to George H.W. Bush, no airport named after a president in the U.S. centers their namesake’s highest office in their visual identities. That Trump’s does is instructive of the larger conflicts of interest he’s pursuing in his second term with the airport and other ventures, like cryptocurrency and branded merch.

The soon-to-be President Donald J. Trump International Airport is unprecedented as no U.S. airport has been named after a president while he was still in office. In addition, no president has ever trademarked their name for their airport like Trump has, according to the New Republic.

The airport’s trademark deal obtained by the Miami Herald includes unusual language giving Trump’s family the ability to profit off the new name. Trump’s company can choose a list of approved retailers for the airport to buy its branded merchandise from, and the agreement leaves open the possibility it can sell its own airport-branded items off site. Trump also has the final say over how his image, likeness, and biographical information is used at the airport, per the agreement. Trust that if there’s a plaque by baggage claim about the airport’s namesake, it won’t mention Jan. 6, Trump’s two impeachments, or his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The logos for airports named after former U.S. presidents lean into the airport part of their names instead of the president part, with visual elements like swooping lines evoking wings and flight paths. There’s nary a presidential-style seal graphic in sight, which reads post-presidential, like in the logos for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library or Richard Nixon Foundation that both use seals with eagles in them.

Instead, JFK’s logo shows a globe, while a jet trail is pictured behind the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol in the logo for D.C.’s Reagan National. The closest a logo actually gets to referencing its namesake is in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mark for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport shows a jet-style triangle making a double C. Then there’s the logo for the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, which doesn’t even have his name in it and just spells out its code IAH.

Trump’s airport logo doesn’t fit in with the rest when it comes to aesthetics, but neither does it fit in with the rest when it comes to precedent. For a president who flouts norms and uses the state for self promotion and self enrichment, a branded airport is just the latest example of Trump making government and public infrastructure all about him.

Naming an airport after an elected official was once an honor bestowed after a career in public service. For Trump, it’s a licensing deal now.

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This clever ad turns a bad reputation into a punchline

In “Not Like Most,” California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter leans into two things she’s best known for: white boards and being a dick.

Pardon my language, but Porter, a Democrat who represents an Orange County district in the U.S. House, brings white boards to write on to make her point in House hearings, and she’s also earned a reputation as something of a tough boss.

Video surfaced in 2025 showing Porter berating a staff member to get out of her shot during a webinar with then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in 2021 (“Get out of my f*****g shot!” she said), and anonymous accusations about how hard she is to work for have appeared on the Dear White Staffers social media accounts. In another incident caught on camera last year, Porter had a tense moment with a local TV news reporter and threatened to walk out but didn’t.

Rather than run from her reputation, Porter references it directly in her new ad. It’s a smart play for Porter, but it also highlights a larger point: in many of this year’s primaries, Democrats are looking for fighters, and having a reputation as one — even if impolite — can be a real asset.

“I’m not like most people who run for governor,” Porter says in the opening of her new 30-second ad. But instead of getting into how she runs her House office or berating her staff, she talks about her experience running a house in Trump’s America today.

“I actually get what you’re going through. A single mom of three kids, I know what it’s like to push the shopping cart. My minivan has almost 200,000 miles. I have a grown kid who may soon be living on my couch,” Porter says.

The visuals show her pushing a shopping cart through a grocery store aisle, pumping gas at a gas station, and at home with her grown kid, and through it all, background actors hold white boards with messages about costs like “Childcare Costs,” “Too Expensive,” and “Sky-High Gas Prices.”

In the closing scene, Porter’s in a park surrounded by people whose white boards show more pointed, political messages, like “Dump Trump #NoKings,” “Call Out Racism,” and “Abolish ICE.”

“To give Californians what they need, it’s going to take standing up to Donald Trump, calling out greedy corporations, and stepping on some toes along the way,” Porter says before getting to her punchline, directed to her supporters behind her: “Now, could you guys please get out of my shot?” They laugh. Fin.

The message is that while you might have heard a few things about Porter, she’s someone who’s ready to fight for you and against Trump. It’s an attempt to turn a potential liability into an advantage, and it comes at a time when being rough around the edges can be a plus.

Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who’s called for investigations into Trump and his administration, outlasted his opponent despite a controversial tattoo and past Reddit posts, while in Illinois, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won her primary race for U.S. Senate after airing a memorable “F*** Trump” ad that had to be censored for TV. In Trump’s second term, it’s clear voters are questioning the old rules of civil, courteous Democratic politics and electability. A 2025 CBS News-YouGov poll found 65% of Democrats want their leaders in Congress to oppose Trump as much as possible.

In this context, a video being mean to your staff once is less of a dealbreaker than it previously might have been. Democratic voters are increasingly fine if you step on a few toes, as long as you’ll stand up to Trump.

Have you seen this?

Apprentice II. Oh brother. Amazon is reportedly considering a reboot of President Donald Trump’s former reality show The Apprentice and getting his son Donald Trump, Jr., to host. What if we brought back The Simple Life instead? [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

How Amy Sherald referenced her own work at the Met Gala. Attendees at the Monday gala dressed up like works of art for the theme “Fashion is Art,” and Sherald dressed up like her own work. Sherald wore a custom Thom Browne dress with white studded dots on one side and a red fascinator to pay homage to the outfit worn by the model she painted in 2014’s “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance),” which is in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery collection. “I’m going to give all the credit to Amy, really, because this is her vision,” Browne told Vanity Fair. “It’s referencing, I think, one of her best and most important paintings to herself.”

LGBTQ+ candidates face increased threats, study finds. Nearly 9 in 10 candidates worried that running openly as an LGBTQ+ person would increase their risk of harassment or attack — and for most, those fears were quickly confirmed. About two-thirds encountered in-person harassment during their campaigns, while nearly 8 in 10 faced it online. One in seven experienced them in person. [Campaigns & Elections]

We’re all on Truth Social now. As a business, Donald Trump’s personal social network is insignificant. But it’s a potent tool for capturing the world’s attention. [Fast Company]

Editorial:

Hey, it’s Hunter. When Pantone named the white Cloud Dancer its 2026 Color of the Year, critics thought the color authority had finally run out of ideas. Actually, they’re just now catching up.

Some of the design projects I’ve …

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President Donald Trump’s plans to redesign the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool could make it less reflective.

The Mar-a-Lagoification of our nation’s capital continues apace. After the foiled shooting Saturday at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump and his allies said that was further reason to build his ballroom, while on Friday, Trump posted photos on his social network showing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool getting refurbished with a new coat in a different color. For now, the memorial looks more like a municipal swimming pool

In photos Trump shared to his site, workers in bright yellow safety vests apply what appears to be blue liquid epoxy or rubberized pool coating to the empty pool. “It’s essentially a pool surface, but it’s industrial-grade pool,” Trump said unprompted last week during a White House event on drug prices in which he claimed he had a bigger crowd at the Reflecting Pool than Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Over the years as a developer I’ve probably built more than 100 swimming pools,” Trump said. “You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful Reflecting Pool.”

The Reflecting Pool was designed by architect Henry Bacon and originally opened in 1923 with an asphalt and tile bottom, according to the Trust for the National Mall. Over time, the pool sank roughly a foot because it was built without pilings, and it lost about 600,000 gallons weekly from cracks and leaking. The pool was completely rebuilt in 2012 with a water supply system that pulled water from the Tidal Basin and filtered it. The bottom of the restored pool was tinted a neutral gray so it’d be more reflective.

Trump wants to make the pool blue, which Charles A. Birnbaum, president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, told the Washington Post “risks reading more like a large lap pool than the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.”

It could be worse. Trump said he originally wanted a turquoise color for the pool, “like in the Bahamas” (not to mention like at the pool at Mar-a-Lago), but his contractor suggested “American flag blue” instead. A resort-style turquoise pool would be ill-suited for the National Mall. If the new color is true to the U.S. flag, though — Old Glory Blue, or Pantone 282C — it will at least be dark.

Regardless of the finished look after work is completed, a larger issue will still stand. As with his tearing down of the East Wing, Trump’s top-down approach to redesigning Washington’s public spaces and federal buildings disregards federal law and degrades norms.

Tearing down and rebuilding the White House every four to eight years would be imprudent. Even Americans who’d prefer a U.S. capital city that looks like Palm Beach should be alarmed by the precedent taking shape if the president can tear down buildings or redesign monuments unilaterally.

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Why Trump’s ICE rebrand to NICE wouldn’t help its public image

President Donald Trump’s latest idea to rebrand a government agency could give one of his most disliked policies a much more pleasant-sounding name. That might not work out as planned, though.

Trump shared a social media post on Sunday highlighting a woman’s suggestion that he rename U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as National Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or NICE, “so the media has to say NICE agents all day every day.”

“GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT. President DJT,” Trump wrote.

The proposed rename goes against trend for Trump, who wants to formally rename the Department of Defense the Department of War. Trump’s branding instincts in office are toward toughness, not softness.

Public opinion about ICE is firmly hardening against it, which may be why the name change seems so obvious and smart. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how ICE handles its job, according to a UMass poll released on April 1, and Fox News polling shows the agency’s disapproval rising from 41% in 2018 to 58% today. But giving the agency a friendly backronym likely wouldn’t be a quick fix.

An alphabet soup of names

The U.S. government is filled with acronyms, and officials increasingly turn to backronyms, or acronyms that are reverse engineered because of what they’ll spell out. No one loves them more than Congress.

About 10% of bill and resolution names introduced in Congress over a two-year period were backronyms, according to a 2022 review by The Atlantic, and the proportion of backronyms in bill names has risen in every Congress since at least 2001.

There was the $2 trillion pandemic stimulus and relief legislation called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in 2020, and the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (CHIPS and Science Act) that funded semiconductors and other priorities in 2022.

With a little creativity, a piece of legislation with a name as long as a Fall Out Boy song title becomes a short, handy piece of storytelling in cable news chyrons and tweets.

Backronyms are a messaging tool that turns an otherwise bureaucratic-sounding collection of letters into a bumper-sticker-type slogan. But not all of them are honest. While some backronyms are corny or clever, others are designed to misdirect or manipulate, wrapping unpopular legislation in the flag.

The USA Patriot Act, or Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, passed weeks after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and expanded the surveillance state, while the SAVE Act, or Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, is a voter suppression bill that’s currently stalled in the Senate.

Why a “nice” rebrand is a bad idea

Renaming ICE to NICE might attract more negative attention to the agency, says Brian Christopher Jones, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool who’s studied topics such as acronyms and misleading PAC names.

“I wonder whether this particular backronym, NICE, would open the agency up to potentially even more criticism than before,” he says, noting the Patriot Act has been criticized for its name.

The turn in public opinion against ICE was spurred on by footage of its agents being the opposite of nice, and the proposed new name would only further draw attention to behavior that’s dissonant with the backronym.

The name of the U.K.’s own NICE, which stands for National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, hasn’t stopped people from disparaging it, says Jones, who also questions whether the new name in the U.S. would turn off the people the agency is trying to attract to work there.

“I’m not so sure if law enforcement personnel would think the same about working for an agency called NICE,” he says.

Trump could try renaming the agency, but actually making ICE nice will take more than just a cutesy acronym.

This story was first published in Fast Company.

Have you seen this?

A royal visit. What a scary weekend. I’m so glad no one was hurt after shots were fired at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The world needs more peacemakers and it starts with you and me. King Charles is in the U.S. this week for his first state visit as monarch, and I have some suggestions for where he should go. [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

State Dept. finalizing plans to put Trump picture on U.S. passports. The redesign is ostensibly part of a larger celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. [The Bulwark]

New York City’s iconic compost bin gets a cool kids makeover. In collaboration with the Department of Sanitation, Only NY reimagined NYC’s curbside compost containers. [Fast Company]

James Comey indicted over seashell photo that officials said threatened Trump. A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging former FBI Director James Comey over an Instagram photo he posted of seashells, which allies of President Donald Trump portrayed as a threat. [NBC News]

A new U.S. postage stamp is triangle-shaped, and it’s valid on mail sent around the globe to more than 180 countries.

The triangle Postcrossing stamp from the U.S. Postal Service commemorates an international pen pal project started in 2005 by Paulo Magalhães, a student in Portugal. The program connects people around the world in a simple but increasingly old-fashioned way: Send a postcard, get one back.

What started as a website Magalhães hosted on his personal computer has since spread around the world. Today, more than 805,000 people from more than 200 countries and territories have sent more than 80 million postcards through the program. Americans have sent more postcards through Postcrossing than the residents of any country except Germany, but maybe a new stamp could put the U.S. on top.

Postcrossing has gotten its own stamps before in countries including Germany and Finland. The U.S. Postcrossing stamps come following a letter-writing campaign by supporters to the USPS Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, which recommends future stamps. Their successful letter-writing campaign also marks the return of a rare postage stamp shape.

Most U.S. stamps are square- or rectangular-shaped, but in 1997, the USPS released its first triangle-shaped postage stamps, a pair of 32-cent stamps showing vintage-style illustrations of a clipper ship and stagecoach. Another, a 41-cent triangle stamp in 2007, marked the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, by English colonists, and it was shaped like a triangle because that was also the shape of the fort they built there.

The latest triangular stamps feature artwork by Arizona-based artist and designer Jackson Gibbs. Known for his editorial work in outlets like The New York Times and New York magazine, Gibbs says the creative brief for his first-ever stamps was to portray the activity of postcrossing, or sending postcards, which he depicted in images in his playful, cartoon style. The four stamps he designed show people carrying mail on horseback through a Saguaro desert, underwater, in space, and by motorcycle.

“The ideas came from things I like to draw over many years of culminated experience,” Gibbs tells me. The stamps were designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcalá.

The U.S. Postal Service says the stamps recognize postcrossing for “promoting greater understanding across countries and cultures,” and it’s unveiling them at the Boston 2026 World Exposition from May 23 to 30 alongside stamps commemorating the American Revolution, the American bison, international peace, and North American soccer.

The stamps come in sets of four or eight that fit together in a square, and they’re classified as Global stamps, which, like Forever stamps, hold the postage value equivalent of First-Class Mail no matter the cost of postage, except they can be used for international correspondence. First-Class Mail International is available in countries including Canada, Great Britain, and Australia, according to the USPS.

The official Postcrossing FAQ recommends writing on postcards about what daily life is like where you live, or about things like your favorite quote, a recipe, a childhood memory, or your favorite book, movie, band, or hobby. Bringing back triangle stamps for a program built on sending postcards makes smart design sense since they take up half the space of a rectangular stamp for a piece of mail without much room to spare. Now not only will Americans have more space for writing, but they’ll have a fun, friendly stamp to share with new friends around the world.

This story was first published in Fast Company.

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You can see these fonts from space

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Arizona’s Department of Transportation offers specialty license plates for Alice Cooper, the Phoenix Suns, and Route 66, and starting last month, it rolled out a simple new blackout design to raise money for good causes.

A portion of the fees from specialty plates in Arizona go to charities or nonprofits. For most, it’s $17 for the initial plate, then $17 annually thereafter for renewal fees. Most charities do this with plate designs that include their branding, like the Girls Scouts trefoil or a four-leaf clover for 4-H. For 4AZKids, a plate that supports charities that help Arizona children, the plate is all black and super minimalist with no logo. The state name and license plate number are written in white.

“Our goal is to raise as much as possible to support children’s charities in Arizona, and we believe we can do this by giving Arizona drivers what they want — a complete logo-free black plate,” Tad Crother, president of Saguaros, the group behind the plate, tells me. “We saw that all-black specialty license plates in other states are seeing huge sales numbers, and we wanted to capitalize on that demand here in Arizona.”

The group granted $750,000 to 29 nonprofits in 2025, he says, including Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Boys & Girls Clubs, and Arizona Cancer Foundation for Children. Crother says the money the plates raise has the potential to add a larger stream of funding for its work.

Blackout designs are growing in popularity across the country, but they’re actually a throwback to some of the earliest license plates in the U.S. In Delaware, the first state, its first license plates issued in 1909 was a white-on-black porcelain plate, while other states had their own early, simple, two-color plates.

License plate design started changing 50 years ago around the bicentennial as states put out red, white, and blue specialty plates for the occasion, then a specialty California license plate for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics popularized the idea of a specialty plate for an event or group outside of veterans or the disabled, says Jeff Minerd, of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association.

“Now, you know, there's everything,” he tells me.

As license plate design has grown more complex, the trend towards blackout plates or other minimalist, two-color scheme designs has caught on like a reaction against maximalism. Also they just look cool.

Colorado released simple black, red, and blue license plates in 2023 as a throwback to some of its own vintage designs, and the blackout plate became the most popular speciality plate in the state in its first month of its release. In Utah, blackout plates first released in 2023 to raise money for the Utah State Historical Society were so popular that lawmakers in March doubled the price to split the proceeds into three funds, including a grant fund for Olympic and Paralympic venues. Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Dakota all released their own black plates last year, and if your state doesn’t have one yet, don’t be surprised if it does soon.

In Arizona, the Saguaros’s blackout 4AZKids plate isn’t the only new license plate to go minimalist. New license plates for the Gila River Indian Community, No One Fights Alone to raise funds for mental wellness for first responders, military, veterans, and their families, and Teen Lifeline, for teen suicide prevention, are all black except for a seal or logos. And the groups Executive Council Charities and Empower Coalition also have their own blackout plates, but with text in red or blue, respectively, in order to fund grants for youth programs and veterans and military families.

Branding is great, but sometimes unbranding is better. Arizona’s blackout plate shows the best results don’t always come with a logo.

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This national flag was redesigned with endangered species for a campaign to protect marine areas

Brazil is home to both the world’s largest forest, the Amazon rainforest, as well as the world’s longest beach, Praia do Cassino, but the forest is much better known. A new multi-part campaign is aimed at drawing public attention to Brazil’s coastlines and ocean by remaking the country’s flag with endangered flora and marine life.

“People don’t talk so much about the oceans,” Diego Limberti, chief design officer at the creative agency Droga5 São Paulo tells me, but one depends on the other since oceans influence global weather patterns and climate. “If you don’t have oceans, you don’t have forests.”

To make that connection more apparent, Droga5 São Paulo worked on a “No Blue, No Green” campaign for SOS Oceano, a group of non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, that advocate for expanding marine-protected areas in Brazil. The campaign is all about the colors of Brazil’s green, yellow, and blue flag. The first phase blacked out the blue and green from the flag to convey environmental loss. The second phase takes a different approach by combining blue and yellow to get green on screen prints that cleverly mash-up images of endangered species to make a point.

The flag designs show endangered marine species in blue, and the yellow diamond-shaped lozenge on the center of Brazil’s flag is stamped in the middle where it usually goes. A corresponding forest scene in green completes the image by mixing two primary colors to get a secondary color.

The idea is to show the link between living things, like a humpback whale and Araucaria trees that are paired in one of the screenprints, or a piraña fish and restingas, a bush, in another. If we don’t protect the ocean areas where marine life lives, plants on land could go extinct too, the graphics explain. The goal is to show “how one biome depends on another biome,” Limberti says.

A total of six flags were created, including one that shows an Amazon rainforest scene stamped over Atlantic Ocean waves, while others were made to correspond with different regions of Brazil. Designers worked with biologists who identified the most endangered species from different regions to depict, and each was made using natural mineral pigments developed with Black Madre Studio and Joules & Joules Laboratory.

“The project is rooted in color theory,” Black Madre Studio creative director André Maciel said in a statement. “When we say ‘without blue there is no green,’ we’re working with the fundamental logic of primary and secondary colors: blue and yellow create green.”

Helpfully for Brazil’s environmental advocates, the country’s flag’s colors offer widely recognized symbolism when it comes to visually communicating the planet, both the oceans and land. “No Blue, No Green” uses color to reinforce that message in a simple but clever way.

Have you seen this?

Messages to America. Every former living U.S. president said their message to America in an interview with a former first daughter at an event for everyone’s dad’s favorite channel, the History Channel. Plus: Madonna announced Confessions II in the best way. [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

Hundreds of pro-Trump avatars emerge on social media. The artificial-intelligence-generated fake influencers have surged on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube in an apparent bid to hook conservative voters. [The New York Times]

NASA’s Artemis logo has a deep message you probably didn’t notice. The A makes an arrow that points beyond the moon. [Creativebloq]

Democratic primary challengers stockpile cash, putting House incumbents on defense. At least nine House Democrats and one Democratic senator, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, were outraised by their primary challengers in the first fundraising quarter of the year. [NBC News]

Maison Margiela’s “Future” sneaker returns strapped more than before. Originally introduced in the SS11 collection, the subversive mid-top silhouette makes a dramatic comeback. [Hypebeast]

To buy one of each item in President Donald Trump’s company’s online storefront today would cost you nearly six figures. The good news is you’ll qualify for free shipping for an order over $125.

The Trump Store sells a whole skincare line plus branded golf gear, robes, blankets, glassware, and more. There’s the classic red “Make America Great Again” hats for $47, an $80 Trump Home jasmine room spray and diffuser set, and Trump-branded coffee pods that sell for $18 for a 12-pack.

All told, there are 1,492 total items for sale at the Trump Store that together cost $91,145.12, according to a new review of Trump’s branded merchandising business by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the presidency, and it’s a growing revenue stream for Trump.

“We’ve never seen any president profit off of something like the Trump Store, or indeed, any of the numerous businesses that Trump has continued to profit from while serving as president,” CREW communications director Meghan Faulkner tells me. She says the merch along with things like Mar-a-Lago memberships or Trump’s cryptocurrency “normalizes the idea that the presidency is for sale.”

“The merch store is just the most obvious physical representation of how Trump has essentially put his office up for sale,” Faulkner says.

CREW found that this storefront, which Trump launched in 2017 during the first year of his first term, brought in about $8.8 million in 2024, the latest year of Trump’s financial records, which is more than double how much it made the year before. Of the shop’s currently available products, 662 of them were launched since he took office for a final term last year.

Congress could and should pass a law requiring presidents and vice presidents to divest from assets that could pose a conflict of interest within 30 days of taking office, Faulkner says, and there should be clear enforcement mechanisms to hold them accountable if they don’t divest.

The Trump Store isn’t the same thing as Trump’s since-shuttered online campaign store where he once hawked MAGA hats to fundraise for his presidential campaigns. It’s his company’s own storefront, which isn’t beholden to the same Federal Election Commission rules, like annual limits or a prohibition against any foreign purchases. This revenue also goes straight to him rather than being split up among other groups that his joint fundraising campaign revenue was once divided between.

The growth of Trump’s merchandising business comes amid a broader shift in his overall merchandising strategy. Though Trump continued his campaign shop for a time after taking office for a second term last year, introducing new products like a prop “Gulf of America” executive order, lately the focus has been on releasing new products on his company’s shop instead, like new “Trump 250”-branded items to profit off the anniversary of the U.S. founding this year. Meanwhile the campaign’s online shop is no longer accessible from Trump’s campaign website.

Before entering politics, Trump licensed his name to branded buildings and products like water and a board game, and his hotel and golf course business necessitated things like branded toiletries and robes that he still sells today.

But it’s unusual for a U.S. president to sell branded gear in office like Trump does. Jimmy Carter’s family put its peanut farm in a blind trust after he took office, and they didn’t start a peanut butter brand or sell peanut tchotchkes to supporters. And while some presidential libraries do have gift shops, those come after a president leaves office, and are nowhere near as robust as Trump’s efforts.

Trump’s merch isn’t just lifestyle stuff, it’s explicitly political too. He sells at least 99 items that reference his presidency, including a $55 Space Force hat and a $50 “Gulf of America – Yet Another Trump Development” hat. The shop also sells merch promoting an unconstitutional third term, like “Four More Years!” and “Trump 2028” hats and a shirt that says “Trump 2028 (Rewrite The Rules).”

Trump’s already rewriting the rules of how presidents profit off their office. By merchandising his presidency, he’s monetized political fandom into a personal revenue stream for himself.

This story was first published in Fast Company.

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For Confessions II, Madonna’s working with the creative agency behind brat

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For its 2026 MLB City Connect uniform, the Texas Rangers looked to influences from south of the border for inspiration. The Rangers announced their special-edition City Connect uniforms with Nike Thursday that the team says are meant to celebrate “the Mexican influences across the entire state of Texas.”

Hispanic Texans today make up roughly 40% of the state, which was famously once part of Mexico before declaring its independence and then joining the Union. With the new uniforms, the only MLB team ever owned by a future U.S. president (former President George W. Bush had an ownership stake in the team from 1989 to 1998) is paying homage to state and team history while reaching out to the largest demographic group in Texas.

The new “Viva Tejas” uniforms, for “Long Live Texas,” uses the state’s Spanish-language name on the front, while the bright red color of the jersey was chosen to match the color of a crimson dye made from cochineal insects, the oldest pigment in the Americas. There’s a Charro-style pattern around the sleeve inspired by the embroidery used by Mexican horsemen, and on the left sleeve, there’s a Texas map decal designed in the style of Mexican papal picado, or tissue paper art.

The blocky, athletic-style typeface on the jersey was designed as an update on the team’s 1980s uniforms typography, while the T on the ball caps is from the team’s original uniforms after relocating to Texas in 1972.

“Nike’s theme for us was reimagining tradition,” Travis Dillon, Rangers senior vice president of marketing, said in a statement. And in celebrating the state’s Hispanic heritage through design, it’s part of what Dillon described as a longer-running effort “to build what we think is an authentic and reciprocal relationship with our Hispanic fans.”

Major League Baseball introduced City Connect uniforms in 2021 as an initiative to commemorate teams’ local history and culture in creative ways with alternative uniforms that might otherwise clash with the official team brand guide. While it’s led to some fun, alternative jerseys, there have also been a lot of clunkers. The Milwaukee Brewers “Wisco” uniforms this year are corny, and no shade, but I thought the bisexual gradient Kansas City Royals uniforms were for Pride. GQ announced this week “It’s Time to Kill the MLB City Connect Jerseys” because they’re “youth-travel-ball-ass getups.”

Designers for the Rangers, though, hit a grand slam with a uniform that manages to teach a mini social studies lesson without being lame and fitting within the team’s visual brand universe while also establishing what could become a long-running alternative visual identity.

In 2005, San Francisco Giants wore “Gigantes” jerseys to honor Hall of Famer Juan Marichal, a Dominican Hall of Famer, while the Milwaukee Brewers debuted an alternative “Cerveceros” brand that year for “Cerveceros Day” to celebrate Latin American culture. Since then, other teams have added their own alternative Hispanic heritage brands. While these brands serve as marketing tools, they’ve been used before to make a political statement too.

After Arizona passed a strict, controversial immigration law in 2010, Phoenix’s NBA team wore “Los Suns” jerseys in protest on Cinco de Mayo during the Western Conference Semifinals. Steve Nash called the law “misguided” and a “detriment to our society and our civil liberties” and Amare Stoudamire said he wore the uniforms “to let the Latin community know we're behind them 100%.” The “Los Suns” brand has lasted more than a decade, and the team released “Noche Los Suns City Edition” jerseys in black in 2019.

The rollout of the Spanish-language Rangers uniform isn’t tied to protest, but to come following President Donald Trump’s ramp up in deportations and his administration’s white washing of U.S. history through the levers of the state on things like coins and national parks, it’s a reminder that sports has a unique ability to promote inclusion and diversity through the power of its example. “Texas” is a Native word for friend or ally. Viva Tejas.

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Nearly a quarter of Trump’s proposed arch height is statue

For months, President Donald Trump has shown off various prototypes of an arch monument he wants to build in Washington, D.C., and finally he’s landed on a concept: an extra-tall “Triumphal Arch” that he hopes will soon rise just outside Arlington National Cemetery overlooking the National Mall. Nearly a quarter of the arch’s 250-foot height is thanks to a gilded statue on top.

The Trump administration submitted renderings for the massive arch to the president’s handpicked Commission of Fine Arts on April 17. The renderings by Harrison Design, an architecture, interiors, and landscapes firm, show an arch and park that would stand in a roundabout between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.

The design carries some of the hallmarks of Trump’s second-term federal buildings initiative with its oversize, gold-accented classical architecture, which would look right at home at Mar-a-Lago. Harrison Design did not respond to a request for comment.

The height of the arch is a hat tip to the semiquincentennial anniversary of the nation’s founding, which will be celebrated in July. But like a skyscraper that adds a spire or antenna for a few extra feet, it gets there with some help from its ornamentation: a 60-foot winged Lady Liberty-like gold statue flanked by gold bald eagles. The rendering also shows gilded lions at the base and the phrases “ONE NATION UNDER GOD” and “LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL” inscribed on either side.

Trump wrote in an April 10 post on his social network that the structure would be “the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World. This will be a wonderful addition to the Washington, D.C. area for all Americans to enjoy for many decades to come!” Though he said the arch would be completed by Independence Day, construction hasn’t started.

Trump’s planned arch would tower above the 99-foot-tall Lincoln Memorial on the other side of the Potomac River. Architecture critic Catesby Leigh, who supports the idea of an arch monument in D.C. like those found in other Western capital cities like Paris, nevertheless told PBS that Trump’s proposal is “way out of scale” and “way too big.” Sue Mobley, director of research at the nonprofit public art studio Monument Lab, calls it “banal.”

“I believe it is traditional to have some sort of victory prior to erecting a triumphal arch,” Mobley tells me. “That said, one of the more exhausting traditions of authoritarians is to perform victory out of a loss, and to imagine that the aesthetic will overwrite the actual.”

As with Trump’s push to build a massive White House ballroom and add his name to any number of prominent structures, from the Kennedy Center to New York’s Penn Station, his proposal to build an arch has also drawn fierce scrutiny and lawsuits. Demonstrators marched on the site of the proposed arch during last month’s No Kings protest, and a group of Vietnam War veterans accused Trump of not getting the proper congressional approvals to build the arch in a suit filed in February by the watchdog group Public Citizen.

In their court filing, attorneys for the veterans said the arch, which would be roughly as tall as an 18- to 25-story office building, would obstruct “a line of sight” between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial “that was designed to represent the unification of the Nation following the Civil War and that has existed for nearly a century.” The filing further states that the plaintiffs believe the structure would “dishonor their military and foreign service and the legacy of their comrades and other veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and would degrade their personal experience when visiting Arlington Cemetery.”

Trump announced his plans for an arch last year, but if pushback to the project is anything like pushback to his ballroom, there could still be hurdles. A federal judge halted construction of the ballroom earlier this month.

This story was first published in Fast Company.

Have you seen this?

DoorDashing to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In an historic first, Trump got McDonald’s DoorDashed to the White House after deleting a sacrilegious social media post, and when he asked his delivery driver Sharon Simmons if she voted for him, all she could say was “maybe.” [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

The brand tightrope of the summer: How to make a patriotic sales pitch for America250 that won’t make anyone mad. Brands are gearing up for America’s 250th birthday celebration. But invoking an all-inclusive patriotism that doesn’t alienate anyone in 2026 is a fine line to walk. [Fast Company]

Two of Keith Haring’s painted cars roll into New York for the first time. The vehicles' outing marks the release of the new book, "Keith Haring in 3D." [Artnet News]

Postal Service union launches ad campaign promoting mail voting as Trump assails the method. A major U.S. Postal Service union is launching a national TV ad campaign promoting voting by mail, stepping into a politically charged debate as skepticism about mail-in ballots has been raised by Trump and others. [Associated Press]

George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns used “W. Stands for Women” branding as part of its outreach to female voters. And his father was called George Herbert Women Bush. [hunterschwarz/X]

When this year’s hurricane season starts in June, the federal government’s hurricane and marine forecast office will have new, more colorful maps of its forecasts than ever before in the hopes of better communicating the risks posed by oncoming storms.

The National Hurricane Center, or NHC, announced updates to its operational hurricane track cone maps are coming. The old map shows a cone shape that charts the probable path of a storm over five days, as well as coastal areas likely to be hit. What it didn’t show was what happens inland or areas removed from the storm’s direct predicted path.

The new map, which NHC previewed with a recreation of 2024’s Hurricane Milton, seeks to remedy that with new color-coded graphics for inland areas. Tropical storm and hurricane watches are in pink and yellow to show where conditions are possible, and tropical storm and hurricane warnings are in red and blue to show where conditions are expected. The map was announced in March following an initial 2024 unveiling and pilot last year.

NHC, which is housed under the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, introduced the cone graphic in 2002. People have been confused about the cone’s size, though, falsely interpreting it as representing a storm’s size rather than the area of its potential paths, or mistaking it for showing the fullest extent of the storm’s reach. Over the years as NHC’s forecasts have gotten better, the cone has gotten smaller, and thus so has the confusion over what the charts actually mean.

The urgency for a redesign picked up in 2022 after maps were misinterpreted ahead of Hurricane Ian in Florida. University of Miami researchers that year found a majority of Florida residents falsely believed the shaded area of the cone represented areas the storm would affect, not the range where the eye of the storm could be, and a Miami TV news station changed how it displayed its hurricane forecast maps on its own.

NHC worked with social scientists to develop the new map template, according to USA Today. Experts advised to make changes gradually, and a major challenge was limiting the amount of information that goes on the map, since too much could end up making it more confusing. The new maps, for example, still don’t show storm surge.

The new colors on the map were tweaked following feedback during the trial phase, and NHC’s warning coordination meteorologist Robbie Berg told USA Today they plan to make more frequent updates from now on rather than sit on it for a decade or two.

Clear, accurate, and actionable government communication is never more important than during storms and other disasters that threaten human life. By updating their cone maps slowly and intentionally, federal forecasters are taking steps to communicate more clearly when it matters most.

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To rebrand Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, designers went with a wordmark because the house is “un-logoable”

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When Virginia’s independent U.S. Senate candidate Mark Moran announced his campaign in a short-form video last Thursday, he moved his arms in ways I don’t think arms have ever been moved before in a campaign launch video.

Shot outside St. John's Church in Richmond where Patrick Henry gave his most famous speech, Moran introduced himself with a walk-and-talk-style video popularized by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. With a mic on his collar and pep in his step, Moran talks in the cadence of a frat leader with gestures that look like a white dude trying to rap. Swinging his arm around to deliver Henry’s famous phrase, “Give me liberty or give me death,” Moran adds, “My name’s Mark Moran. 250 years later, I’m saying the same thing.”

Being a bro is no crime, but Moran’s bro-ey video has drawn nearly 8 million views on X and inspired mockery and scorn. It likely won’t be the last cringe attempt to campaign on social media we’ll see this year. The class of 2026 is entering politics in a period of transition as social media and streaming continues to overtake traditional television as the main platforms where potential voters spend their time and campaigns try to reach them. Adapting for this new reality, it’s clear not all candidates are quite sure what to do with their hands yet.

Democratic consultant David Plouffe wrote in a New York Times editorial Sunday that successful campaigns in 2026 “must operate like a full-time production studio” and that candidates “should center each day on content creation.”

It’s not a new concept to turn candidates’ daily itineraries into the raw material for content. In the television era, presidential campaigns for John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter scheduled events that could be clipped for TV ads or covered by the evening news. The difference today, though, is the sheer scale of output that’s needed to feed the content beast for more intimate, owned platforms and smaller screens in an attention age.

Mamdani’s 2025 campaign video style, with its quick cuts that show the candidate in motion as he talks, has inspired imitators both in the U.S. and abroad. Some politicians don’t even try to hide it.

“I know what you’re thinking, Marit Stiles is totally copying Zohran Mamdani with these fundraising videos,” a provincial lawmaker in Ontario, Canada, named Marit Stiles said in a Mamdani-style video late last year. “And you’d be right.”

Copying Mamdani isn’t the only way, though. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) did an unboxing video for her reelection launch. And after Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said he wouldn’t eat a food truck taco on camera during a conservative talk show interview, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) ate a taco on camera.

If it’s true that we’ll see a senator release an eyeshadow palette within our lifetime, it’ll probably be because they were a make-up artist influencer on TikTok first. Cutting through today is harder than ever, and candidates are getting creative.

In his landmark book The Image published in 1961, the year after the first nationally televised presidential debates, media theorist Daniel J. Boorstin wrote, “If we test presidential candidates by their talents on TV quiz performances, we will, of course, choose presidents for precisely these qualifications.” The platforms today are different, but the implications are the same. If we test candidates by their talents to make TikTok videos, we will, of course, choose candidates for precisely these qualifications.

Luckily, there are signs that fluency in short-form video making isn’t the end-all-be-all of skills needed for politics now. The best-testing ads that one Democratic group ran in 2020 when the trend from TV to smartphones accelerated with the pandemic were Zoom-quality and direct-to-camera testimonials from voters, according to Everytown’s senior director of communications Max Steele.

You don’t have to be able to dance on camera to run for office today, and a future President Jake Paul isn’t an inevitability. Being able to speak honestly and authentically over FaceTime is now a competitive advantage. But while the medium matters, the message matters more.

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These are Apple’s best ad in 50 years

Apple turned 50 on April 1 — the same day as the Artemis II launch — and like the best birthday present ever, the NASA mission’s crew has captured amazing views from space on Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max on their way to the far side of the moon and back. It’s the best ad for a smartphone ever.

The Artemis II launch is one of the first times NASA has allowed astronauts to take smartphones into space, but the devices the crew left with have limited capabilities. Though they can photos and video, they can’t connect to the internet or Bluetooth. These phones are meant as cameras, not for making calls.

The crew also has a Nikon D5, Nikon Z 9, and GoPro HERO4 Black on board, and photos from all have been updated to NASA Johnson’s Flickr photo stream and social media. While the Nikons are getting some of the mission’s most jaw-dropping shots, the iPhone pics connects mankind’s farthest-ever voyage from Earth to the bestselling consumer product in the U.S. Shots taken of crew members looking out the Orion window at Earth were selfies taken from the phone’s front-facing camera.

More than 50 years after the Apollo 11 crew wore Omega Speedmaster Professional watches to the moon, the watchmaker still promotes that fact and calls the model the “Moonwatch.” For Apple, the Artemis II snaps gives the company its coolest “shot on an iPhone” assets at a moment when it’s celebrating its storied history and smartphone sales are red hot.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is Apple’s newest and most expensive model, priced starting at $1,199, but still, it’s far more accessible than a Moonwatch, which is seven times as expensive at its cheapest and can only tell time. Apple announced all-time revenue record for its iPhone of $85.3 billion in the last quarter of last year, and with reports for a foldable iPhone coming this September, the 17’s shape and size could one day soon feel vintage. It’s already historic.

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Have you seen this?

To the moon. After blasting off last Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen made history. [Whig by Hunter Schwarz]

Melania Trump’s unexpected Easter look. If it wasn’t fully red, white and blue, it was at least white and blue; if it wasn’t exactly pastels and chickadees, it was very Hyannis Port, yacht-club-coded. And the name on the label was the most American of all American brands: Ralph Lauren. [The New York Times]

Here’s the American Egg Board commemorative egg for FLOTUS. The industry checkoff group has created commemorative eggs for the first lady for 49 years. The latest, for first lady Melania Trump, was made by Ohio egg artist Mark Malachowski, whose design pays homage to the U.S. semiquincentennial.

TikTok isn’t changing political views, a new study suggests. Research published in Political Studies Review in March found that college students who were exposed to TikTok content from political influencers reported experiencing more negative emotional states: anxiety, anger, depression and the like. Perhaps even more striking: the content didn’t appear to have a noticeable influence on participants’ political positions. [Campaigns & Elections]

The Coachella billboards are here. Billboard from artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Katseye, Justin Bieber, Addison Rae, and more have gone up ahead of weekend 1 for the California festival. [Hypebeast]

Today’s issue is free for everyone. For full access to future issues, plus exclusive stories and the full archives, click below to subscribe:

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Editorial:

Hey, it’s Hunter. President Donald Trump called himself “an important designer” during a fundraiser for his planned White House ballroom last year, but with his approval tanking and the ballroom now on ice, I can’t help but wonder how badly his preoccupation with his extra-constitutional role as designer-in-chief is hurting him politically.

A federal judge ordered construction on the ballroom to halt on Tuesday, the day after the art group The Secret Handshake installed a gold-and-marble bathroom installation on the National Mall (see today’s “Street Art Sightings”). As Trump works to Mar-a-Lagoify Washington, D.C., his aesthetic now makes for an easily-understood punchline, not to mention it feels increasingly out of touch in a country that’s growing more uneasy about the economy.

Consider: while Trump works to renovate his temporary home, Home Depot reported in its most recent earnings call that home improvement activity is down, and the company cut its full-year outlook. Read the room.

A wartime president, Trump nevertheless spends an inordinate amount of time talking about his elective construction work. During his White House address to the nation Wednesday night, Trump failed to clearly articulate a rationale for the Iran war, but after architectural critics criticized his bad ballroom design, he brought props on Air Force One to defend the project.

As I’ve covered the Trump administration’s efforts to put Trump’s name, likeness, and design preferences front and center on everything from currency to buildings since he took office for a second term, it’s clear no one really wants this but Trump. Still, these efforts are ramping up in earnest as Trump’s approval sinks. Trump posted a video this week imagining a future presidential library that’s a Miami hotel tower with Air Force One in the lobby and golden statues of him even as polling from YouGov and the Economist found his approval at 35%.

The people are certainly in no mood to build statues to Trump, so he’s pushing to build them himself.

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History of American design:

Earth Day poster (1970). The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, and this poster, for an event at Union Square in New York City, was put out to promote it by the group Environmental Action Coalition. It’s estimated 20 million people in the U.S. participated that year, making it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

Fallingwater (1936-1937). Construction began 100 years ago this month on architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous home, which was built over a stream southeast of Pittsburgh. The building became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, and there’s a livestream on YouTube you can watch 24/7.

The best of Yello:

Street art sightings:

“A Throne Fit for a King.”A faux gold-and-marble toilet went up on the National Mall from the public art group the Secret Handshake, which was behind a statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein there last month. The installation pokes fun at Trump’s reported renovation of the Lincoln Bathroom. Yes, you can sit on it, and yes, tourists love it.

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Social media companies were handed a major loss Wednesday after a California jury found Meta and Google negligent for designing their platforms to be harmful for kids. Do democracy next.

This week’s verdict was reached following a novel line of attack from the plaintiff. Online platforms have long been shielded by Section 230, federal law that protects sites and apps from being liable for third-party content, but in this case, lawyers argued it’s really a design problem. Companies engineer their apps to be purposefully addictive for young users with features like “infinite scroll,” “autoplay,” and “filters,” attorneys for the plaintiff argued, and the jury agreed.

“These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose,” attorney Mark Lanier said during the case. “When you’re making money off kids, you have to do it responsibly.” The same might be said of making money off our politics.

While the landmark case decided this week was about a young woman and thus focused on predatory design features that especially target girls, like Instagram’s beauty filters, consider how social media’s dark design patterns affect our most hyper-partisan posters, podcasters, and politicians. Social media might not be giving them body dysmorphia, but it’s warping their worldviews and incentives in other ways.

Designed for engagement, optimized for rage

Social media is designed for engagement. The longer you stay on, the more ads apps can serve you, and as evidence in the case that they’re optimized to keep you on longer, Lanier showed the court one 2015 email from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling for a 12% increase in time spent on the app. When it comes to politics, one surefire way to boost time in-app is anger and rage.

The engagement-based algorithm for Twitter, now known as X, amplifies posts that are emotionally charged and hostile to out-partisans, one study published in 2024 found. On Facebook, the app shaped the way elected officials lead their countries: Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said in 2021 that an internal company report found after an algorithm change, European political parties “feel strongly that the change to the algorithm has forced them to skew negative in their communications on Facebook… leading them into more extreme policy positions.”

The precedent set by the California case now looms over thousands of other suits challenging social media companies because of design choices they say harm young people. It also puts social network UX and UI under greater scrutiny.

There’s a growing sense in the U.S. that social media is bad. The percentage of U.S. teens who view it as mostly negative grew from 32% to 48% from 2022 to 2024, according to Pew Research Center, and Pew also found a 64% majority of U.S. adults view social media as a bad thing, higher than in any other country polled. Maybe a redesign could help.

For now, social media companies seem designed to suit the needs of their owners. Whether that’s nudging the ideological alignment of the algorithm in a certain direction or increasing engagement time even if it corrodes the national discourse, scrolling and posting today can feel more designed to benefit billionaires like Elon Musk (X), Zuckerberg (Meta), and President Donald Trump (Truth Social) than provide a positive user experience that strengthens our community, nation, and world.

Voters and donors don’t reward lawmakers for optimizing their public speech to go more viral online, but X does. Redesigning social media to bridge people together rather than drive them apart could be just the fix we need.

Is it ethical to put words in someone’s mouth with A.I. in a campaign ad if they wrote them?

Political professionals are split.

Political admakers know it’s best to have a clip of their clients’ opponent saying something damaging on camera for an attack ad rather than just written in text. With a clip, viewers can see it, hear it, and read it, which is better for capturing attention on visual channels like television or YouTube. It’s why opposition researchers have used “trackers” that record candidates at events on camera, and it’s why more recently, some admakers have turned to artificial intelligence.

Is it OK to put words in someone’s mouth that they wrote but didn’t actually say? Political professionals are divided, according to a new survey conducted this month by the American Association of Political Consultants, or AAPC. The survey of its members found that 48% believe that “realistic audio of candidate’s printed quote” is ethical when disclosed, 40% believe it’s not, and 12% say it depends or they don’t know.

Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico is the latest to have his likeness recreated in an A.I.-generated spot. The National Republican Senate Committee, or NRSC, released an A.I.-generated video earlier this month depicting Talarico saying some of his most woke takes that previously were only posted to X. Though the video is labeled A.I. at the beginning, for the majority of the clip, a small label is barely visible in the corner, and there’s also some added commentary that the A.I.-generated Talarico says that the real one didn’t write when he praises his own tweets. Some liberties were taken.

Texas state law bans A.I.-generated “deepfake” political ads within 30 days of an election, and the Talarico video inspired some pushback. “These deepfakes are dangerous and wrong. We need protections not just for politics, but for all Americans that could be targeted,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J) wrote on X. Could this be the direction political advertising takes? Potentially. But there’s also evidence political professionals and voters have concerns.

🔒 See more here: Go deeper

Trump’s plans for a Washington, D.C., golf course built on East Wing rubble

Trump’s burying the East Wing at the site of a municipal golf course he wants to redesign.

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