Cockburn

Donald Trump set aside some time this morning to pay special attention to the most maligned minority in the country: Italian Americans. In an East Room reception, bookended by songs from – who else – tenor Christopher Macchio, the President paid tribute to Christopher Columbus, declaring, “I resurrected him.” Trump also name-checked “Alphonse Capone,” saying of Italian Americans’ affinity for mobsters, “You have to understand, the Italians, they love it.” Joe Biden was the first president to declare the October federal holiday “Indigenous People’s Day,” in 2021. In case it wasn’t obvious, Trump was eager to strike a contrast. “The radical left communists all hate Christopher Columbus,” he said.

Donald Trump stood outside the Palm Room doors at the White House this week, taking questions alongside the AI titans with whom he’d just had lunch. Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, Greg Brockman: a still image of the gaggle captures a net worth that edges into the trillions. Cockburn found his mind wandering back to Trump’s interview with The Spectator at the start of his second term. Ben Domenech pointed out that the priorities of his wealthy new big tech friends “and the kind of populist priorities of your voters, don’t necessarily align on everything.” “Probably,” Trump conceded. “Are you going to have to tell them no on some of the things that they’re going to ask of you?” Domenech asked. “Sure.

Nancy Mace appeared on her new video podcast Get Maced Thursday wearing a garment X posters called a “cat suit.” Technically speaking, it was a skin-tight black leather top with a zipper down the front. The outgoing (in every sense) South Carolina Congresswoman did resemble Catwoman from the DC Universe. Was the DC pun somehow intended? Graphics appeared on the screen during the video in the style of comic book drawings. The video pushed her YouTube audience to just over 70,000 subscribers. She spoke in an unsettlingly calm voice about topics such as the Iran war (“why we want it to end”), potential Democratic nominees and Hasan Piker (not yet a potential Democratic nominee). Throughout the video, Mace unpacked opinions on Yemen and Qatar as they relate to the war.

You meet Washington at a very Chinese time in its life – the capital is preparing for the state visit of Xi Jinping, as the Chinese president blows off the UN General Assembly and heads for talks with President Trump next week instead. His visit will include a state dinner, where invitees include a number of business leaders who operate in China. Cockburn understands that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia are on the guestlist. Presumably Altman will be trying to bend Xi’s ear on that AI slowdown to which he’s ever so committed. Huang, meanwhile, took a call from Trump onstage at a conference this week, where the President called AI concerns a “hoax” and Huang pledged, “We’re going to make sure that everybody wins in the AI race in America.

“Are you gay?” a tall young man in a cowboy hat asked Cockburn, under his breath. Your correspondent was hovering in the foyer of the American Airlines Center, looking up the RNC schedule on his phone. “Excuse me?” Cockburn said. “Are you gay?” the young man asked again. “Am I gay?! No,” said Cockburn. “Oh,” the young man said, a touch disappointed. “Seemed like you might be gay.” Cockburn had never read too much into the viral internet chatter that accompanies large conservative conferences, about the surge in activity on homosexual hookup apps. This interaction in Dallas gave him pause for thought. Perhaps there was something to the rumors about that one bathroom in the AAC.

As far as fall traditions go, the renaissance faire is among Cockburn’s favorite. Fair maidens and humble peasants amble around stalls, chewing on turkey legs and spectating jousts as they pretend to be in Auld Europe. Yet in recent years, modern degeneracy has taken hold: now instead of a family day out, renfaire is fun for the whole polycule. Pornified bartenders in Euphoria makeup humiliate horny patrons as they serve them drinks. The Maryland Renaissance Festival is taking steps to stop the rot. The faire is implementing a new dress code that bans “fursuits.” For the blissfully uninitiated: fursuits are full-body costumes worn by the “furry” subculture, which mean the wearer appears to be an anime-style anthropomorphic animal.

The Washington Post is under the microscope again. This time, it has been facing legal pressure to rehire former opinion columnist Karen Attiah. If she is brought back on board, her role would be within an overhauled Opinions section, which since early 2025 has had an explicit focus on “free markets and personal liberties” and is mostly populated by libertarians and conservatives. Documents cited in the legal decision make it seem like former Opinions editor Adam O’Neal wanted to fire Attiah for some time, as her body of work was “inconsistent” with his section’s new free-marketeer vision.

Down in North Carolina, Kyrsten Sinema is in the dock. The former senator for Arizona is being sued for $75,000 by Heather Ammel, the ex-wife of her old bodyguard Matthew, under the state’s “homewrecker law,” which allows jilted spouses to seek damages from “the other woman.” During her Senate tenure, there had long been whispers about Sinema, a bisexual divorcée, and her relationships with her security staff. At least one of those rumors proved to be true, apparently: “When the opportunity presented itself, and when Mr. Ammel approached me, we had sex,” Sinema told the court. In her July 31 deposition, Sinema admitted she and Ammel slept with each other several times in the summer and fall of 2024, all over the country.

How do you conceal yourself from the all-seeing-eye of the internet? Being married to the founder of an AI giant helps, apparently. A Wall Street Journal article this week delves into Cami Clark, the wife and key advisor to Anthropic’s Dario Amodei. “There are scant details about Clark online – and efforts have been made to remove references to her,” the Journal reports. One reason for this could be Clark’s past exploits running Eddice, an online sex magazine-cum-blog – and how at one point she sought investment from, oops, Jeffrey Epstein.

DC influencer Tony P has returned to the spotlight, in a Washingtonian profile titled “Guess What? Tony P Hates You, Too.” Cockburn would be remiss not to point out that The Spectator was first to cover Tony P’s rise to niche internet local celebrity back in August 2023. Tony P’s earnest tone has shifted significantly since then, as is made evident by the interview. He appears embittered by the fact that his brand-partnership earnings have decreased, from making half a million dollars at the height of his influence to now bringing in less than he made as a consultant (just below six figures). He is wistful about his “25 minutes” in the spotlight: “I stretched it out a decent amount of time. A year and a half is not that bad.

Troy Jackson, Maine’s new working-class Democratic candidate for Senate – following Graham Platner’s demise – has PR problems. Cockburn thinks it’s a case of #MeToo going a little too far. While Platner was on Kik posing in a towel and supposedly sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriends, Jackson was doing the honorable thing – pairing off with his cousin. The level of concern we are seeing over this simple fact is a case of parasocial hysteria. Who cares if Troy is dating, and has two children with, his second cousin? So did FDR. Well, that was his fifth cousin, but still. Though Jackson and his cousin Lana never wed, cousin marriage isn’t even illegal in Maine and for good reason. Troy Jackson is from a town of 250 people. He’s a logger.

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.