In This Issue

When President Trump won his second election, MAGA celebrated as much a cultural victory as a political one.

Right-wing glee was met with left-wing despondency — this moment couldn’t be considered as a fluke, a grievous mistake only recognized later by an unwitting populace. Trump was the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004; 49.8% of the country saw what this guy was offering and wanted more.

That feeling drove both sides to overinterpret Trump’s very narrow 2024 victory. The right’s decades of sneering at and secretly envying liberal cultural dominance — Hollywood! Fashion! Every musical artist, barring third-place American Idol contestants! — were over. Liberals mourned accordingly, and tech billionaires dutifully trooped to the inauguration, bearing their gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

But in the past two years, there has been no seismic shift in artistic talent to the MAGA camp. Performers cancelled their shows at the once vaunted Kennedy Center rather than be tainted by association to Trump. Prominent architects publicly shamed the firm leading the ballroom construction project. Twice as many Americans watched Bad Bunny’s halftime show as did the “All-American Halftime Show,” featuring luminaries Kid Rock and, uh, Brantley Gilbert. Popular artists frequently threaten legal action when the Trump campaign uses their music. Even podcasts, arguably the artform (I know, relax) where MAGA made the strongest inroads, have soured on the president as his popularity nosedived. 

A new slate of artists recoiled this week after their participation in a series of concerts for Trump’s celebration of the country’s 250th birthday was announced. Of the nine acts listed (most at least 20 years past their peak popularity in the first place), at least six have bowed out apologetically. 

“I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be a voice for those who have felt like they didn’t have one,” Martina McBride said in a statement. “It greatly upsets me that any fan who has been moved by my music may now feel like I’m abandoning the meaning behind those songs. I assure you, that is not the case.”

Fascism — with its demands of conformity, propaganda, devotion to authority — stands in direct opposition to art. It’s obsessed with aesthetics but violently opposed to creativity and experimentation.  

MAGA’s central tenets of excluding non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, non-male people and requiring blind loyalty to Trump inherently limit its cultural reach. That was true in the first term and remains true today.

[Rhapsody]

by Joe Ragazzo

I was in college during the Great Recession so I emerged unscathed. You cannot lose wealth you do not possess. While others were licking their wounds, I was reveling in the undeserved confidence I had that next time, not only would I not lose money, I would make money. Tons of money. If Michael Burry can do it, I can do it. I didn’t just watch The Big Short, folks, no I even read the book. I got myself a shiny internship at Bloomberg where I covered U.S. Treasuries and learned how to use a Bloomberg Terminal.

Somehow, even with all this training, I have a dilemma. I’m pretty sure the entire economy is on the verge of collapse, sort of like when Wile E. Coyote runs off a cliff but doesn’t fall until he actually looks down. When does America look down? And how do I make sure I’m rich as hell shortly after?

Here are some concerning facts:

• Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low
• Thirty-year treasuries hit their highest yield since right before the financial crisis. This means fewer people are buying 30-year U.S. treasury bonds. Why? Because people are concerned about inflation and seemingly not worried about stocks.
• Oil prices are still over $100. The national average for gas is hovering around $4.50
• The price-to-book ratio of the S&P 500 is at an all-time high. This means the ratio of the price of a stock relative to the value of company assets has never been higher since this data was reliably tracked in 1999.
  • But only 50% of the S&P is trading above its 200-day moving average. This means about half the stocks are trending down.
• The “bright spot” in the economy is AI, but it seems that all the AI spending is making inflation worse and inflation is clearly accelerating.
• As TPM’s Layla A. Jones reported, Black people in America did worse economically in 2025 than at any time since the Federal Reserve began its financial wellbeing survey in 2013. Typically, unemployment hits Black Americans first and hardest, and then comes for the rest of the country. 

It certainly seems like dark times are ahead. Economically, it feels pretty stagflationy. High inflation, low growth. If inflation keeps rising, then Trump’s new Fed Chair is going to have quite the predicament when setting interest rates. Any increase to rates to tame inflation would negatively affect investment. I’m glad I don’t have that job.

But what if we put our thinking caps on and devised a plan to get rich? One of you readers out there has to have a scheme in the works, why not share it? We can all make a buck together. TPM has always been a community. If we work together, maybe we can upgrade to a gated community? How does that sound?

[This Effing Guy]

Jared Polis was spotted showing off a new accessory this week. The Colorado governor has recently taken heat for his decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters, a former county clerk and staunch Big Lie proponent who is serving prison time for helping to compromise local election systems. Democrats in Congress and in his home state roundly criticized Polis for caving to pressure for President Trump and doing a favor for an election denier, with the Colorado Democratic Party voting to censure him. Per Colorado Sun reporter Jesse Aaron Paul, Polis responded by calling into a “private, internal party call” with black tape over his mouth. 

[Good Twetes]

[Words of Wisdom]

“To call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.” – Sen. Thom Tillis 

[In the Cafe]

Balls & Strikes’ Madiba K. Dennie observed that Republicans sound like they’re starting to get nervous about court expansion, holding congressional hearings on the dangers of court packing. As Dennie puts it, “Claims that Court expansion threatens the Court’s legitimacy presuppose that the Court has any legitimacy to threaten in the first place.”

[TPM Trivia]

1) What does Trump plan to put his likeness on despite an 1866 amendment that explicitly forbids it? 

2) What reason(s) did Republicans in South Carolina’s state senate give for again declining to move forward with redistricting ahead of the midterms?

3) Which U.S. Senator was pepper-sprayed by ICE agents during a protest outside a detention facility? 

Answers below

[TPM in the Wild]

Kate joined Edwin Eisendrath, host of “It’s The Democracy, Stupid” on Lincoln Square Media, to talk about her reporting on the corrupt Supreme Court and proposals for court reform currently being floated on the left.

Josh joined Ari Melber on MS Now to talk about former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s appearance before Congress.

Trivia Answers: 1) A $250 bill 2) It’s too late in the election cycle to change the maps 3) Andy Kim of New Jersey