Michael Black

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Michael Daly |Michael Black |Janna Brancolini |Kenneal Patterson

The Trump administration’s five-page extortion letter threatening to withhold federal funding for Harvard if the university does not comply with onerous ideological demands was addressed to its president , Dr. Alan Garber. It was also addressed to the most senior member of its board of governors, Penny Pritzker. Pritzker is also widely viewed as the dominant member of the ultra-wealthy Pritzker family that was Donald Trump’s partner in his first big real estate deal in Manhattan back in 1975.

1 week ago | thedailybeast.com | Michael Black |Kali Holloway |Anthony Fisher |Lauren Lewis

Harvard said no. No to government minders, no to intellectual dishonesty, no to conservative DEI. In a forceful letter of rebuke to the Trump administration’s threat to withhold federal money from the university if it does not acquiesce to a series of “ham-handed” demands—including government audits to monitor “ideological capture”—Harvard president Alan M. Garber basically told the government to f--k all the way off. He said it in a more Harvard way, but that was the message.

2 weeks ago | thedailybeast.com | Michael Black

Welp, things are bad. It’s not a huge surprise. A lot of people said things were going to be bad if we elected this turd. We did it, anyway, and here we are. No reason to list all the bad things, as I have limited space and you have limited patience, but when the phrases “stock market crash” and “why did the DOGE bros fire grandma?” are in vogue, chances are high that things are not quite as sunny as we were promised they would be in this, our new golden age.

2 weeks ago | ca.news.yahoo.com | Michael Black

Welp, things are bad. It’s not a huge surprise. A lot of people said things were going to be bad if we elected this turd. We did it, anyway, and here we are. No reason to list all the bad things, as I have limited space and you have limited patience, but when the phrases “stock market crash” and “why did the DOGE bros fire grandma?” are in vogue, chances are high that things are not quite as sunny as we were promised they would be in this, our new golden age.

3 weeks ago | thedailybeast.com | David Gardner |Michael Black

Brandishing a board with a list of winners and losers, Donald Trump sold his Liberation Day tariff plan like a Hollywood game show host. The spray-tanned president, his hair lacquered into place, gesticulated and bragged as he unveiled the numbers matching his international contestants. Leaders from around the world watched along with the viewing public as Trump finally revealed the tariff percentages that he planned to use to enforce his trade revolution.