The celebs are depoliticizing
Plus: Trump’s accepting crypto campaign donations now
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
The celebs are depoliticizing
Trump’s accepting crypto campaign donations now
This low-budget courthouse campaign ad is unlike any I’ve seen before
Scroll to the end to see: what fragrance the French postal service picked for its new scratch-and-sniff postage stamps 🇫🇷
The celebs are depoliticizing
Cardi B won’t be making an endorsement in the presidential election this year.
Citing the high cost of living, low wages, and the U.S. spending money on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Cardi B reiterated in her recent Rolling Stone cover story that she has no plans to back a candidate after endorsing President Joe Biden in 2020.
“I feel like people got betrayed,” she says. “It’s just like, damn, y’all not caring about nobody.”
Cardi B isn’t the only celeb not making an endorsement this year. In a new song about Palestine released earlier this month, Macklemore said of Biden, “I’m not voting for you in the fall.” And Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who spoke at the 2000 Republican National Convention and endorsed Biden four years ago, said he won’t endorse again because last time it “caused an incredible amount of division.”
“I keep my politics to myself, and I think it's between me and the ballot box,” Johnson told “Fox & Friends.”
These celebrities are getting out of the endorsement game for different reasons. Macklemore says Biden has blood on his hands over his handling of the Gaza war, and while the Rock didn’t say so explicitly, he has a new pro-sports league to promote, (and as Michael Jordan said, Republicans buy sneakers too). But the pressures facing celebrities for going public with their politics are not unlike those facing businesses. Politics is divisive, and some who once spoke out on political and social issues are now opting out from doing so.
And yet Taylor Swift.
In Swift’s 2020 Netflix film “Miss Americana,” a member of her team warned her against speaking out on the campaign saying, “we could halve the number of people that come to the next tour.” The Eras Tour would like a word. Swift spoke out on politics anyways, and her next tour became the first to gross more than $1 billion. No wonder Republicans are scared of the power of her endorsement.
Still, celebrity endorsement might not be all that influential after all. A USA Today-Suffolk University poll released Saturday found voters don’t put much stock in most of them. The exception is celebrities who are only famous because of politics. Five of the eight most influential celebrities in the poll were either former politicians or married to one.
The poll found 34.6% of voters said former President Barack Obama’s endorsement would influence their vote, more than anyone else, followed by 29.4% for former first lady Michelle Obama, 20.4% for former President Bill Clinton, and 19.8% for former President George W. Bush. They were followed by Oprah at 15.4%, Elon Musk at 15.2%, former ambassador and presidential candidate Nikki Haley at 13.8%, and Rachel Maddow at 13.2%
While Biden won’t have the Rock in his corner this time around, he will have the Obamas, and it turns out that’s even better.
Swift was among the most influential celebrity included in the poll, with 9.2% of voters saying her endorsement would influence their vote. That’s less than Charles Barkley (10.6%) but more than House Speaker Mike Johnson (8.8%) and Beyoncé (7%).
The poll did not include Amber Rose, the model and reality show personality who endorsed Trump on Monday, so I guess we’ll never know if it matters or not. Just 3% of respondents said Kim Kardashian would influence their vote.
Trump’s accepting crypto campaign donations now
Former President Donald Trump’s supporters can now donate to his campaign with cryptocurrency.
The Trump campaign announced Tuesday it’s accepting donations from any cryptocurrency available on the blockchain service Coinbase Commerce, which includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and others.
“As our President, Donald J. Trump has reduced regulations and championed innovation in financial technology, while Democrats, like Biden and his official surrogate Elizabeth Warren, continue to believe only government has the answers to how our nation leads the world,” the campaign said in a statement. “The effort to reduce the control of government on an American’s financial decision-making is part of a seismic shift toward freedom.”
A new crypto donation landing page — donaldjtrump dot com slash crypto — includes standard language around political donations, stating they “are subject to federal contribution limits and source prohibitions.” According to the fine print, donations will be allocated with 90% going to Trump’s campaign and 10% to the RNC.
In 2021, Trump said Bitcoin seemed like a “scam against the dollar,” but he’s since come around and has been quite bullish on Web3 tech. His likeness was featured on NFTs sold by the right-wing social network Parler and in 2022 he released NFT trading cards.
The campaign did not indicate how it planned to cash out its crypto donations. The Federal Election Commission has special rules around in-kind contributions that have values that could appreciate over time, like stock or even artwork.
This low-budget courthouse campaign ad is unlike any I’ve seen before
In a campaign full of historic firsts, here’s another: the first campaign ad filmed from a courthouse during a candidate’s criminal trial.
The 47-second YouTube preroll ad “Breaking Video from the Courthouse” is low budget. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who appears to hold the camera, speaks alongside Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), Eric Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and RNC co-chair Lara Trump, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who take turns delivering lines about donating to former President Donald Trump.
“Anything you can give would make a world of difference,” Lara Trump says. “We are here fighting the good fight. They cannot win. We need your help to make America great again.”
Trump appears in the background about 30 seconds in, and the first time you see it, it’s like, are they not going to acknowledge the guy this video is about is literally in the room with them? But they do at the end.
“Let’s make America great again and he’s the man to do it,” Eric Trump says, pointing to his father who gives a thumbs up after the camera pans over.
The Trump National Committee joint fundraising committee has spent about $1 million airing the ad since last week, and it’s been shown more than 10 million times, according to Google’s ad library.
Meanwhile, Trump’s fundraising emails about the case have taken liberties for dramatic effect. His remarks to the press assembled outside the courthouse Tuesday were called “an EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE” in an email with the subject line “Prosecutors rest their case.” On at least three occasions, his subject lines have falsely claimed he “stormed out of court!” OK, drama queen.
One email sent Tuesday with the subject line “Do you need a hug?” was far less combative. It asked supporters to respond with their opinion on which of Trump’s accomplishments they were most proud of.
“Before I go to bed tonight, can you leave me a quick personal note? I’m dying to read it,” the email read. “Hearing your kind words encourages me to keep fighting against the Radical Left Democrats - even in the face of sham trials, endless witch hunts, and relentless attacks on MAGA. You give me the strength to FINISH THE JOB.”
Have you seen this?
38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are no longer accessible a decade later. Even as users across the world rely on the web to access books, images, news articles, and other resources, this content sometimes disappears from view. [Pew Research Center]
Of course, France made a scratch-and-sniff stamp that smells like a baguette. La Poste, the French postal service, is out with scratch-and-sniff stamps of their best-known bread with art from Paris-based artist Stéphane Humbert-Basset. [Fast Company]
Trump’s social media account shares a campaign video with a headline about a “unified Reich.” The 30-second video appeared Monday on Trump’s account at a time when the presumptive Republican nominee for president, while seeking to portray President Joe Biden as soft on antisemitism, has himself repeatedly faced criticism for using language and rhetoric associated with Nazi Germany. A Trump campaign spokesperson said it was “reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word.” [Associated Press]
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) moves to trademark “bleach blonde bad built butch body.” Last week’s insult-laden House committee hearing may soon be immortalized on a hoodie or pair of socks. [USA Today]
How Trump is staging his criminal case. If any presidential candidate running this year knows the value of casting the right extras, it’s former President Donald Trump, who produced a reality show before entering politics. But Trump’s Republican supporters aren’t just there for aesthetics. [Yello]
History of political design
Goregon tee (2000). It sounds like a character from “Lord of the Rings,” no? Then-Vice President Al Gore won the state of Oregon in 2000 with 46.96% of the vote while Republican George W. Bush received 46.52% and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader about 5%.
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I wouldn't characterize Cardi B and Macklemore's positions as depoliticizing at all. If anything, Palestine has forced them to articulate a pretty clear value-driven politics, and those politics don't align with Biden nor Trump. It's only depoliticizing if you think of politics as just our two-party joke of an electoral system.