The House of Medici patronized Michelangelo, Botticelli and da Vinci. The House of Obama patronized Nicola Green: the artist wife of David Lammy, who served as deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom until Monday. From August 2008 to January 2009, Green was offered, according to her website, “unprecedented artistic access to President Obama’s monumental campaign,” the fruit of which was In Seven Days…, a portfolio of seven abstract paintings of the new president, released in 2010.
Cockburn’s favorite is “Day Six, Sacrifice/Embrace,” which shows the head and hands of the 44th president, splayed on a sky-blue field. Sixteen years on, the pictures seem to belong to a lost world: when Barack Obama was an almost Christlike figure, when even his disembodied limbs were the objects of trembling reverence. Some of the series’ promotional copy has to be seen to be believed. “Green was unencumbered by being commissioned; she was not a journalist or press photographer,” we are told. “She spent years reflecting on what she had witnessed.”
Pity the artist who loses their patron. Caravaggio was famously dropped by his benefactors when he killed a man and had to flee Naples. The prudent creative, then, must always be on the lookout for new wealthy and powerful people to flatter with their art. Cockburn hears that Nicola Green has been doing just that. At a reception to celebrate the opening of the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago, she was seen offering the full In Seven Days… treatment to virtually everyone present. According to someone who knows the business, the going rate for this kind of thing would be about $700,000.
It is not yet known whether any of the guests took Green up on the offer. If she had no luck with the Obamas’ friends and allies, she could always tack in the other direction and use her husband’s well-documented friendship with J.D. Vance to secure a new patron in the Vice President. Vance would want something Catholic, no doubt – maybe a series about the lives of the Saints. Given the near-religious ecstasy of her Obama pictures, Green should be able to whip up something like this in no time.
On our radar
ANOTHER WHITE HOUSE The Office of Administration began tests this week on the condition of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which President Trump announced last year would be repainted white to match the nearby White House.
LETTUCE LIVE IN PEACE Four new states — Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania — join Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia on the list of cyclosporiasis outbreak locations in what was already the country’s largest cyclosporiasis outbreak in history.
PLANE DOWN Today is Amelia Earhart’s 129th birthday. The Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University are planning an expedition to a remote Pacific island to attempt to recover her plane, which disappeared 89 years ago.
Let’s try that again, shall we?
Cockburn had all but forgotten about the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner this evening, amid the throng of 250th celebrations, summer weddings and World Cup watch parties. After the first dinner was disrupted by, let’s face it, America’s most slapstick presidential assassination attempt, the White House Correspondents’ Association and President Trump declared that the show must go on. The rescheduled dinner takes place at the Waldorf Astoria (formerly the Trump Hotel) and will host around 700 guests, as opposed to the 2,000 who showed up the first time around.
The social calendar around the dinner, as a result, is proving rather truncated. Cockburn stopped by Butterworth’s for George Santos’s “Alternative Media Bash,” which doubled as the disgraced former congressman’s 38th birthday. “You are subpoenaed,” read the invite, which was in that awful ChatGPT-generated style that all drinking establishments seem to use these days. Mercifully there was an open bar. “DJ MAGA Mike” was blasting “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees through an LED-lit speaker. Tim Pool sat quietly in the corner in his eternal beanie. Anjuli Ayer, the CEO of OneTaste who, like Santos, is seeking a Trump pardon, was chatting away at a high-top. Santos sauntered around the room in a black-and-white-striped quarter-zip and Jeff Goldblum-esque sunglasses. A young man was performing close-up magic for Santos as Cockburn made for the exit. “I feel like the Fly when I’m talking to some of these people,” quipped one journalist. “Helpppp meeee…”
In attendance: Juliegrace Brufke; Gabe Kaminsky; Jon Levine; Isabella and Richie McGinniss; James Pogue; Robby Soave, and Alex Stein.
The British Embassy hosted a slightly more well-to-do affair, where Tammy Haddad’s White House Correspondents’ Insider and Spotify were honoring outgoing WHCD president Weijia Jiang. The staple cocktail was a spicy margarita, chilled with a Spotify-branded ice cube. Cockburn briefly chatted with Ambassador Christian Turner, who’ll be attending the dinner as a guest of CBS. After remarks, attendees were blessed by a set from DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Spotted: Kate Andrews; Wolf Blitzer; James and Melissa Braid; Kara Kennedy and Nick Clairmont; Kellyanne Conway; Josh Dawsey; JP Freire; Carine Hajjar; Freddie Hayward; Antonia Hitchens; Naomi Lim; Katie Pavlich; Shawn McCreesh; Aidan McLaughlin; Sarakshi Rai and Bernd Debussman; Manu Raju; Ed Roman; Chloe Ross and Jordy Minot, and Jasmine Wright.
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Cockburn is changing things up. You will now receive one, slightly longer edition of his Diary in your inbox on Fridays. Any feedback on his endeavors? Email cockburn@thespectator.com.
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Sophie Cunningham 2050?
Last week, Cockburn wondered if Sophie Cunningham was trying to make inroads with the Republican base. This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump is “following” the Indiana Fever WNBA player and her recent public statements.
Cunningham has long been an advocate of “protecting women’s sports,” but her comments earlier this week were perhaps the sharpest line she has drawn.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she told ESPN Tuesday. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
A recent poll released by Quinnipiac University has shown that seven in ten American voters agree with Cunningham’s stance. The US Department of Education reshared a Fox article Tuesday with an AI-generated image of Cunningham wearing a crown. “Common sense prevails” read the caption.
The response from fellow WNBA players has been mixed, with some complaining that the issue has been overblown – after all, there has never been a transgender athlete in the WNBA. “I’ve been an advocate for the trans community since I entered the WNBA,” Las Vegas Aces forward Brianna Turner, Cunningham’s former teammate, said. “So many takes about them are based on fear-mongering and bigotry.”
Cunningham has repeatedly declined to align with a specific political party – “I’m very much in the middle,” she told ESPN. Still, some online commenters have tagged her as a “MAGA princess.”
“Sophie Cunningham… I’m going to say 2050 is going to be vice president of the United States,” former ESPN writer Chuck Klosterman joked on a podcast recently. “Something about the way she triggers in-bound plays at the end of games makes me think she will be someone’s ideal vice president.”
DoGE eat DoGE world
The Department of Government Efficiency may have ceased operation on July 4, but its former employees have been finding ways to stay busy. A team of four former DoGE staffers – Gavin Kliger, Luke Farritor, Marko Elez and Jack Stein – have used their new open schedules to develop a startup that aims to use AI to expand US military cyber capabilities.
DoGE was created to cut down on federal spending and maximize productivity in the federal government, especially through the introduction of new technologies. The initiative was only ever intended to operate for a year and a half, meaning that staffers were aware that their time in government would come to an end earlier this month. And the team spearheading this new startup has been laying groundwork for months.
The company, called Cathedral, is now valued at $1.4 billion, per Reuters, showing early investor appeal. Perhaps some of that appeal comes from the startup’s close ties to the Trump administration and to Elon Musk, former senior advisor to the President for DoGE. Two members of the team – Farritor and Elez – interned or worked at SpaceX before joining DoGE.
It’s a quick turnaround for the young men with recent government access. It could also prove a risky move to tie the company so closely to a political administration, since Cathedral may find itself out of favor if Democrats take control of the House and Senate in November.
Cathedral is explicitly aiming to secure government contracts for AI-driven offensive and defensive operations. After 18 months of reducing government spending, the DoGE staffers are now trying to win some of that money for themselves. That’s the Swamp for you.
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