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We're in the age of the personal brand, where everyone uses various forms of social media and communication to develop a perception of themselves. Occasionally, those personal brands, especially when tainted, can seep into the broader brands of one's friends, families, or companies. Sometimes, they can even inundate an entire country. After having made the fateful decision to give Donald Trump a second turn in the Oval Office, to most of the world, America's brand is Trump. From the inside, we see a divided country in a fight for the future (and maybe the survival) of democracy. From the outside, we're the country that elected Trump again — the Oval Office outbursts and embarrassments, the humiliating interactions with foreign leaders, the abandonment of allies, the siding with dictators, the tariffs, the threats to take over other countries, the constant lies, the authoritarian behaviors, the sending of untried people seeking asylum to foreign gulags...you may hate it all but. But it's our brand now. Just today, the new prime minister of our closest ally had to sit in the Oval Office and suffer the buffoonery of our leader suggesting, again, that Canada would make a great 51st state. This is us. And it's not going to be easy to undo. On the national level, our allies are already looking to make deals that don't include us. But there's also the personal level, from Canadian hockey fans booing our national anthem, to a dramatic drop in international travel to the U.S., to European shoppers deciding they'd rather buy products from non-American brands. The long red tie, the fake hair, the orange makeup—we're all wearing it, and it's not a good look. NYT (Gift Article): Buy American? No Thanks, Europe Says, as Tariff Backlash Grows. "What is new, the central bank said, is a 'preference' among European consumers 'to move away from U.S. products and brands altogether,' no matter what the cost. That was the case even for households that could bear the brunt of higher prices. 'Even though they could afford more expensive U.S. products and services, they consciously choose alternatives,' the bank said. 'This suggests that consumers’ reactions may not just be a temporary response to tariff increases, but instead signal a possible long-term structural shift in consumer preferences away from U.S. products and brands.' ... [Even] McDonald’s said it was observing growing negative attitudes abroad toward U.S. brands, especially in Northern Europe and Canada. (American brands can argue that the president doesn't represent their views, that they're lobbying to end the tariffs, or that they share the frustration with the Trumpian policies. But this time around, the rest of the world isn't buying it.)
2
Branch Out
"Congress’s weakness is our deepest constitutional problem, because it is not a function of one man’s whims and won’t pass with one administration’s term. It is an institutional dynamic that has disordered our politics for a generation. It results from choices that members of Congress have made, and only those members can improve the situation. It is hard to imagine any meaningful constitutional renewal in America unless they do." Yuval Levin in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Missing Branch. "Many ambitious members of Congress have concluded that their path to prominence must run not through policy expertise and bargaining in committees but through political performance art on social media and punditry on cable news. Our broader political culture has pushed in the same direction, encouraging performative partisanship. And the narrowing of congressional majorities has put a premium on party loyalty, further empowering leaders, and leaving many members wary of the cross-partisan bargaining that is the essence of legislative work." (So Congress is ceding its role and the administration is ignoring the courts?)
3
Orbit by Bit
"Musk is clearly imagining a future in which neither his network nor his will can be restrained by the people of this world. But even now, here on Earth, space internet is a big business. Fiber networks cannot extend to every bit of dry land on the planet, and they certainly can’t reach airborne or seaborne vessels. More than 5 million people have already signed up for Starlink, and it is growing rapidly. (You may end up using Starlink when you fly United, for example.) In the not-too-distant future, an expanded version of this system—or one very much like it—could overtake broadband as the internet’s backbone. A decade or two from now, it could be among our most crucial information infrastructure. The majority of our communications, our entertainment, our global commerce, might be beamed back and forth between satellites and the Earth. If Musk continues to dominate the launches that take satellites to space, and the internet services that operate there, he could end up with more power over the human exchange of information than any previous person has ever enjoyed." Elon Musk may have seriously damaged Tesla's business outlook. But his DC efforts are paying off for SpaceX, a company with a massive lead in building the network that could connect us all. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Elon Musk’s Most Alarming Power Grab.
4
Vegas Nerve
"Zapata wrapped her foot in gauze. She swallowed the antibiotics and painkillers the doctor gave her, hobbled out of the clinic and started to run." WaPo (Gift Article): No route. No rules. All passion. "Welcome to the Speed Project, a 340-mile relay race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas with no designated route, no specific rules and only one goal: to get there as fast as possible." You probably haven't heard anything about this race. Apparently, what happens on the way to Vegas stays on the way to Vegas.
5
Extra, Extra
Port of Call My Broker: Percival Everett's James won the Pulitzer for best fiction. Here's a look at All the Winning Books and Finalists. And a little closer to home (or least to NextDraft HQ), here are the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. The winner for illustrated reporting, Ann Telnaes, who won for "delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions" recently left WaPo in protest.
+ Rogue One: Pete Hegseth has had a terrible, and at times embarrassing, stint as Defense Secretary. But he's still got the gig. And he's still purging people who actually know how to do their jobs. And this report from Reuters is just plain scary. Order by Hegseth to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard.
+ Jersey Oys: "Those 30 seconds of silence when communication went down – and controllers’ temporary loss of radar contact with the planes they were supposed to guide – ultimately cascaded into a weeklong meltdown at Newark, one of the nation’s largest airports. It resulted in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers, controllers taking leave for trauma, and renewed scrutiny on an outdated air traffic control system. The chaos also highlighted the challenges of an understaffed system." Inside the multi-day meltdown at Newark airport.
+ Trill Seeker: "OpenAI has decided that its nonprofit division will retain control over its for-profit organization, after the company initially announced that it planned to convert to a for-profit organization." You'll have to ask ChatGPT about all the details. But this point certainly stands out: "CEO Sam Altman said he thinks OpenAI may eventually require 'trillions of dollars' to fulfill its goal of '[making the company’s] services broadly available to all of humanity.'" (I'll serve all of humanity for half that.)
+ Houthis on First? "We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated... we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that's the purpose of what we were doing." U.S. will stop bombing Yemen after Houthis "capitulated," Trump says. (This comes at a confusing moment as the Houthis bombed the airport in Tel Aviv over the weekend and Israel just retaliated with strikes "conducted in coordination with U.S. Central Command.")
+ Drill Baby Drill: "At Donated Dental, providers expect their monthslong waitlist for children’s procedures to grow significantly and their need for volunteer dentists to skyrocket." How Utah dentists are preparing patients for the first statewide fluoride ban.
+ Ego, Superego, and I.D. What you need to know about the REAL ID requirements for air travel.
+ The Right Puff: "Wait, you might say, haven’t I seen this movie? It sounds like the intrigue-laden, Oscar-winning film 'Conclave,' starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal who oversees a papal election beset by rivalries. Except this is the real-life version." WSJ (Gift Article): Real-Life Conclave Rivals Drama of Movie Version.
+ Little Ditty 'Bout Barry and Diane: "I’ve lived for decades reading about Diane and me: about us being best friends rather than lovers. We weren’t just friends. We aren’t just friends. Plain and simple, it was an explosion of passion that kept up for years. And, yes, I also liked guys, but that was not a conflict with my love for Diane. I can’t explain it to myself or to the world. It simply happened to both of us without motive or manipulation. In some cosmic way we were destined for each other ... What others think sometimes irritates but mostly amuses us. We know, our family knows, and our friends know. The rest is blather." Barry Diller on Diane von Fürstenberg: The truth about us, after all these years.
6
Bottom of the News
"A 7-year-old boy, who took his younger sister for a spin in their mother’s car in the hunt for a McDonald's Happy Meal, has been found safe, according to police." The kid drove his sister 10 miles! According to his mom, "he’s probably grounded for the rest of his life."
+ Here's What Everyone Wore To The 2025 Met Gala.