The Morning Sixpack - July 25, 2025

Trump blurs golf business with official presidential business; South Park belittles him; Bondi plays hookey; Musk cuts Ukraine Starlink; France backs Palestine; wealthy reject GOP tax breaks

Trump Turns Scottish Golf Trip Into Presidential Roadshow—And a Billboard for His Business

Donald Trump is using a taxpayer-funded trip to Scotland to promote his golf empire while cutting trade deals on the side.

Trump is heading to his prized Balmedie property for the Aug. 13 debut of what his company hypes as “the greatest 36 holes in golf.” He’s pairing the ribbon-cutting with talks alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer—meetings he’s hinted will happen “probably at one of my properties.” This isn’t diplomacy so much as a master class in how to turn public office into a grafting tour.

White House press secretary Taylor Rogers insists the Scotland visit is a “working trip,” but couldn’t resist pitching the product, praising Trump’s “world-class golf courses” and their appeal to “prestigious tournaments and elite players.” Those tee times aren’t free—they’re already up for sale, turning this jaunt into a live-action commercial.

The Aberdeen region already hosts one Trump course with a rocky history—one that bulldozed protected dunes, failed to turn a profit, and lost a legal fight over a wind farm. That course even figured into Trump’s $355 million civil fraud case, now ballooned to $510 million with interest as he appeals.

Now do you understand why Trump hates windmills? Says they cause cancer…

Critics say the president isn’t even pretending to separate statecraft from his side hustle. “We’re at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn’t seem to see much of a difference,” said Jordan Libowitz of the watchdog group CREW.

It’s hard to argue otherwise when Air Force One ($200,000 per flight hour) and Marine One (nearly $20,000 per hour) double as his personal PR convoy.

For Trump, golf isn’t just leisure—it’s brand building. He boasts a 2.5 handicap (a lie), touts his properties as “the best and most beautiful” (another lie), and happily folds official travel into his family’s business calendar. Presidents have played golf for centuries, but Trump has elevated it into something new: a taxpayer-funded marketing campaign dressed up as foreign policy.

Where’s DOGE when you need their “waste, fraud, and abuse” sleuthing? LOL

Source: AP News

South Park’s Season 27 Premiere Nukes Trump

Matt Stone and Trey Parker just dropped a season opener that shows Donald Trump naked, with a tiny penis, trying to seduce Satan.

Fresh off a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount Plus, South Park kicked off Season 27 by torching just about everything: Trump, corporate censorship, AI, religion in schools, and media crackdowns.

The episode, “Sermon on the Mount,” doesn’t just poke the bear—it tackles the bear, drags it through the mud, and hands out a PSA featuring a fully nude, AI-generated Trump wandering a desert with a “teeny tiny” member.

This chaos follows CBS’s eyebrow-raising move to axe The Late Show (Colbert’s gig for 10 years) in 2026—just days after Colbert shredded Paramount for settling with Trump. Paramount owns CBS and Comedy Central, so the optics here? About as subtle as Cartman in a church sermon.

Cartman, naturally, nails the sentiment as NPR gets the axe in the episode: “Who the hell does the president think he is? The government can’t cancel a show. I mean, what show are they going to cancel next?”

It’s classic South Park—on-the-nose, offensive, and hitting all the pressure points corporate media hates.

Stone and Parker, meanwhile, played nice off-screen, thanking Paramount execs for their partnership and promising “to bring championships to this city.” Translation: South Park will keep cashing checks while giving zero damns about blowing up the very network signing them.

Source: Rolling Stone

Pam Bondi Bows Out of Anti-Trafficking Summit as Epstein Report Rocks Trump White House

Pam Bondi abruptly canceled her headline appearance at a CPAC anti-trafficking summit—just hours after reports tied Trump to Epstein files.

The attorney general, already under fire over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein disclosures, skipped the summit, citing a torn cornea. Acting Assistant AG Matthew Galeotti read her note to a restless audience, saying, “I’m sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today… Unfortunately, I am recovering from a recently torn cornea, which is preventing me from being with you.” Scattered applause followed, with some attendees heading for the exits.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Bondi—or Trump. Hours before her no-show, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi privately briefed Trump in May, telling him his name appeared “multiple times” in the sealed Epstein records, far more than expected. That flatly contradicts Trump’s public denial on July 15, when he told reporters, “No, no,” claiming Bondi never raised the issue and accusing James Comey of fabricating details.

Bondi had already inflamed Trump’s MAGA base by delaying further Epstein file releases, citing “child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein” as grounds for withholding more documents. While that may sound reasonable, her Fox News promise of a “client list” on her desk—which never materialized—left Trump’s loyalists crying betrayal and conspiracy.

Now, Bondi faces calls for her resignation from some pro-Trump influencers, with critics accusing her of running interference rather than delivering transparency. The White House’s failure to fulfill its long-touted promise of exposing Epstein’s network has turned into a political landmine, and Bondi’s sudden retreat—medical or not—only fuels the fire.

Source: MDGN

Elon Musk Pulled the Plug on Starlink Mid-Battle, Disrupting Ukraine’s Push to Retake Land from Russia

At a critical moment in Ukraine’s 2022 counteroffensive, Elon Musk ordered Starlink coverage cut off over key territories—throwing Ukrainian troops into chaos.

Three insiders tell Reuters that Musk directed SpaceX engineers to deactivate over a hundred Starlink terminals in areas like Kherson, just as Ukraine was trying to reclaim ground from Russia. The blackout left Ukrainian forces “blind,” grounding surveillance drones and stalling artillery strikes, resulting in a failed encirclement of Russian troops. This was the first known time Musk actively shut down battlefield connectivity, effectively inserting himself into the outcome of a war.

Musk’s decision reportedly stemmed from fears that Ukrainian advances could provoke nuclear retaliation from Russia. The outage caused panic among Ukrainian officials and soldiers, with little explanation from U.S. military or government agencies—highlighting just how much geopolitical power Musk now wields through Starlink’s global satellite network.

Critics warn this concentration of control in a private billionaire’s hands is a glaring example of “the dangers of concentrated power in unregulated domains,” as British parliamentarian Martha Lane Fox put it.

Musk’s tech empire, backed by massive U.S. government contracts, now blurs the line between private business and national security—raising serious questions about accountability when a single individual can flip the switch on a battlefield.

Despite this, Starlink remains vital to Ukraine’s defense, supporting everything from frontline communications to drone operations.

But the Kherson shutdown and other incidents reveal a fragile reliance on one man’s whims, proving that in modern warfare, satellites and billionaires may be as crucial as soldiers and generals.

Source: Reuters

France Takes a Stand: Macron to Recognize Palestine as a State Amid Gaza Crisis

In a decisive diplomatic move, French President Emmanuel Macron announced France will formally recognize Palestine as a state, ramping up pressure on Israel amid the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

Macron made the declaration on X and plans to make it official at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

“The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he said, underscoring the dire situation. This makes France the most significant Western power to recognize Palestine so far, potentially opening the door for others to follow suit.

Israel wasted no time condemning the announcement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the move as rewarding terror and warned it risks turning Palestine into “another Iranian proxy,” using Gaza as the example. On the other side, the Palestinian Authority warmly welcomed France’s stance as a commitment to international law and Palestinian self-determination.

Macron, balancing France’s historic support for Israel with mounting frustration over the Gaza conflict, reiterated his belief that “peace is possible” through a two-state solution. This announcement coincides with upcoming UN talks co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia aimed at pushing forward that very goal.

European leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer and Germany’s officials, are also ramping up calls for a ceasefire and humanitarian relief, framing Palestinian statehood as a necessary step toward lasting peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Source: PBS NewsHour

Steve, this one is for you :)

They’re rich, anti-Trump, and turning down a giant tax cut—because it just doesn’t feel right

Some of America’s wealthiest voters are rejecting GOP tax breaks that fatten their wallets, seeing them as unsustainable and unfair.

Kimberly Hoover and others like her, multimillionaires who rake in millions from real estate and investments, are actually pushing back against the very tax law that benefits them.

Hoover told lawmakers, “It starts to feel excessive… Imbalanced is really not good for anyone, even if you’re on the positive end.”

This isn’t just altruism—it’s a growing recognition that the current tax cuts worsen inequality and jeopardize the country’s future.

The irony? While these tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy—locking in billions in savings through lowered top rates, estate tax relief, and Opportunity Zone loopholes—many affluent voters have swung Democratic in recent years. More than half of households earning above $215,000 now lean left, breaking with past decades when rich voters reliably backed Republicans who delivered such tax perks.

Some experts say these wealthy Democrats understand that the tax breaks today may lead to bigger deficits and future hikes, making the short-term gains less sweet. As one financial adviser put it, many wealthy clients think, “While Rome is burning, at least I’ll save a few dollars in taxes.” But others are willing to pay more for the sake of a healthier society, even if it means fewer dollars in their pockets.

This shift highlights a political realignment where economic self-interest no longer dictates voting patterns as cleanly as before. If rich liberals reject their own tax breaks for the greater good, maybe conservatives should rethink the lazy assumption that voters always act purely out of financial gain. I mean, it’s CLEAR that they don’t in the Trump era.

Source: Washington Post (gift article)