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never waste an assassination attempt.
Trump has had more attempts on his life than Jason Bourne, and he’s determined to turn the latest into a major dub.
Following the recent assassination attempt in the Washington Hilton hotel, heated questions are raging about competence, systems, and how a man strapped to the hilt with guns made it to a checkpoint near the President and his officials. Trump is seemingly unbothered about that, though.
As Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, we were already hearing talk of how Trump wanted to revive his beloved ballroom project at the White House. The plans for the gaudy $300m venue re-emerged after years of being on the back burner, presumably due to private investment being tricky to come by.
Now, the latest sell is that the attack proves it should be built – and on taxpayers’ money at that – because 1, it’s a practical security necessity, and 2, it will sit on top of a Bruce Wayne-like bunker guaranteed to keep Trump and his entourage safe from extremist liberals. The idea entered a cocoon in October 2025 as a nice-to-have, and emerged over the weekend as a matter of national urgency. It’s a political violence property pitch.
It doesn’t quite live up to the mental 4Chan conspiracy theories that suggested Bush masterminded 9/11 to drum up national support for an Iraq invasion, but it does pang of the sort of Trumpy opportunistic narcissism we’ve seen before. If anything, it’s probably more comparable to Boris using tax pounds to sneakily paint the gaff while he lived at No 10, just considerably less lame.
Fast Company’s new article agrees that while security issues aren’t fabricated, Trump’s rationale that a gold-laden ballroom somehow doubles as essential national infrastructure is obviously bollocks. He’s more concerned with table formation and neoclassical dashes than ballistic steel walls. Forget the ‘hamburger pit’ (yes, seriously), where are the lasers and shit?
The wafer-thinly concealed truth is that Trump has tenuously dragged the ballroom plans into irrelevant conversations long before anyone shouted about emergency preparedness. The White House has hosted large, secure functions for 150 years. This is about Trump grifting to have his vanity project completed and the adulation it would bring from his peers.
Ultimately, we know how the bloke’s mind works. Seconds after having his ear nigh-on blown off by a rifle, he literally wriggled free of his security detail to auramax for the cameras. He had an election to win, after all.
👀 seeing things
Yalda Hakim on the collapse of ‘seeing is believing’ – reuters
Reuters has done a sharp piece on what it means to become the subject of a viral deepfake when your actual job depends on public trust. Sky News’ Yalda Hakim isn’t just some random broadcaster who got turned into AI sludge for a meme or cheap laugh, she’s someone whose role is tied to credibility and being a reliable voice in moments of genuine crisis. A doctored video of Hakim commenting on the India-Pakistan conflict was picked up by news outlets and her reputation was immediately tainted. We’ve all become a bit numb to AI being everywhere, constantly squinting at the feed and wondering what’s fake, but this is a reminder that deepfakes aren’t just embarrassing or stupid. In the wrong context, they can do real damage. Hakim is far more eloquent than I, so check it out.
Australia moves to tax Meta, Google and TikTok to fund newsrooms – the hill
If your mates aren’t blurting out ‘news’ they’ve heard on TikTok or Instagram with unwavering conviction, you’re one of the lucky ones. The genuine stories that are traceable to reliable outlets are increasingly being swallowed up by the same platforms that have spent years rinsing journalism for traffic. That’s why Australia’s latest move makes sense. The government wants Meta, Google, and TikTok to either strike proper funding deals with publishers or cough up a levy worth 2.25% of their local revenue, potentially funnelling $200 million to $250 million a year back into real journalism. It makes sense given how handsomely they profit from other people’s reporting while contributing sweet F all. I’m not bitter about it though.
🙅🏻♂️ trust issues
Facial verification on dating apps is failing miserably – thred
Our senior remote writer Annie has explained how online dating has become somehow even more jarring of late. It’s apparently a recurring theme to see weird AI bobbleheads or billboards chucked in amongst people’s photo carousels. She goes on to explain that much of this slop is symptomatic of failing facial recognition systems, intended to ensure people are who they claim to be. A single photo is sufficient to get through the door, and then anything that vaguely resembles that person – AI or not – is deemed good enough to go public. Annie points out that journalist Christophe Haubursin tested the digital loophole on Tinder and Hinge and got through repeatedly, while Bumble was the only app reliably binning off obviously dodgy uploads. Romance scams cost underserving folk £106 million in the UK in 2024. Surely it’s time to start taking this shit seriously.
Is dynamic pricing ruining the World Cup? – the new yorker
Football was originally dubbed the ‘working man’s game,’ so long as that working man has a spare $6,000 to chuck at a single stadium visit this summer. The World Cup is the latest major spectator event to opt for the soul destroying mechanics of dynamic pricing. The article points out that major inspirations for this model are the airline and ticketing industries, both of which have been absolutely caned in recent years for pricing out anyone who can’t afford to chuck thousands at non-essentials. In theory, allowing the market to run itself sounds like a good and just idea, but in reality it has proven to be the complete antithesis of ‘accessibility.’ You can just about get away with it if you’re flogging Oasis tickets, but it’s a shocking look for a tournament that markets itself as a global celebration. Absolute shambles.
