How many dolls and pencils fit inside a Qatari bribe plane?
Surely more than 30 and 250, respectively.
Welcome back to Hot Tip to everyone, but especially to the amoebas that I have to assume are taking up residence in RFK’s already ~wormy~ brain, after the HHS secretary illegally went swimming in a toxic DC creek contaminated by sewage over the weekend!
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This week: White South Africans are granted refugee status in the US, Jake Tapper’s new book declares Joe Biden old and George Clooney insecure, and younger generations—especially women—are embracing solo travel.
In politics: There are only three things we can be sure of in this life: death, taxes, and Donald Trump accepting a bribe in the form of a $400 million “palace in the sky” airplane from Qatar. This Boeing 747 “gift” would theoretically replace Air Force One—only for the duration of Trump’s presidency, that is—and then would eventually be transferred to his presidential library, which I assume will be filled with his favorite book, the Testaments both Old and New.
Here’s the thing, though. I mean, really, there are a whole lot of things, from profound security issues to ethics concerns to remember when this guy said just last week that kids don’t need that many pencils or dolls?
But the other main issue is this:
Air Force One is not just any old plane—it’s known to aviation experts as “the most complicated aircraft on the planet”—and outfitting this palatial ride to suit the needs of a president would cost the American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and it likely wouldn’t be ready until at least 2029. So at the end of the day, this is just a private jet for Trump (and his many beloved books, I guess?) to use for the rest of his life—and it’s one that most certainly comes with strings attached during the duration of his presidency. Not to mention: high-ranking GOP members and even the most zealous of MAGAts are criticizing the potential Qatari deal, and having anything in common with Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro really makes me feel like I need to take a shower—or five.
Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller took a break from scaring the local neighborhood children to tell the press that the White House is considering suspending the writ of habeas corpus for migrants, aka the right to challenge a person’s detention by the government. The GOP’s proposed budget cuts would gut Medicaid and take away healthcare from at least nine million Americans. And Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden—the first woman and the first Black person to hold the position—and replaced her with his personal defense attorney Todd Blanche who 1) already has a job as Deputy Attorney General and 2) has no experience in libraries or archives.
Read this: Why I’m Resigning from Positions at the National Science Foundation and Library of Congress by Alondra Nelson.
In business: United and American Airlines both revealed newly-outfitted aircrafts with upgraded business class and premium economy seating—so at least if Newark air traffic control can’t find your plane, you’ll have a footrest. New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai wants to turn the WNBA team into the first women’s sports team valued at a billion dollars. And Microsoft is laying off 3% of its workforce—about 6,000 employees—which Forbes says is “is designed to free up capital to drive the company’s AI-centric strategy.”
In comfort food: A new pop-up bar is serving pancakes, latke sliders, and kitschy cocktails on weekends at S&P lunch counter in Manhattan. Pop Tarts is releasing a line of ice cream sandwiches—the perfect apocalypse food for 90s kids. And the ice cream news doesn’t stop there: Salt & Straw recently released a new cookbook, and Hi-Chew ice cream bars have been spotted in some Costcos.
In culture: Michelle Obama is on this week’s episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler, and we all need/deserve that right now. ESPN is launching a women-led sports-focused show, proof that the execs there read Hot Tip!!!! Or at least, that’s what I am telling myself. And photographer Gillian Laub went “inside the living rooms of notable New Yorkers” for—appropriately, The New Yorker.
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you can only bring malibu barbies
Michelle Obama on Good Hang! I'm running to add this to my Spotify playlist right now.
Also seriously Trump can accept a whole ass plane and meanwhile I had to do my annual training reminding me I need to be careful to not accept expensive (like 100 dollar or something like that) gifts from clients at work because it can be bribery.