Are you MAGA or in DRAG-A?

Trash talk

Who gets to call themselves MAGA these days, anyway? Politico Playbook declared this weekend that “MAGA is whatever Trump decides it will be” – the administration’s go-to defense when the President does something the further-right side of his base doesn’t care for, such as dispatching military support to Ukraine, say, or running interference for the Ghost of Jeffrey Epstein.

Heading into the midterms – and we’re past the halfway point of 2025, so we are heading into the midterms – Republican candidates up and down the country are already attempting to bill themselves as the most “MAGA” in the field, in hope of garnering a Trump endorsement that could see them win office.

Take Nate Morris, who is running for the US Senate seat set to be vacated by Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell. Morris is a garbage magnate – not an insult, his actual line of work as the founder of a waste management and recycling company. And Morris leans into his past in trash in a recent campaign ad, in which he mans a garbage truck, recycles a McConnell cardboard cutout and placards and describes himself as “a Trump America First conservative.” That’s opposed to his fellow contenders, Representative Andy Barr and Lieutenant Governor Daniel Cameron. “Unlike establishment politicians, Morris isn’t a controlled puppet of Mitch McConnell,” his campaign website declares.

Back in February, the Daily Caller reported how Morris had donated to McConnell and Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign – and appointed Obama advisor David Plouffe, who went on to run the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, to his company’s board. Federal donation records also show that Morris has donated to his opponent Barr, as well as Kentucky mavericks Senator Rand Paul and Representative Thomas Massie – neither of whom are on the President’s good side after the One Big, Beautiful Bill debacle. So is Morris MAGA or in DRAG-A?

In a second ad, Morris tells his life story as a ninth-generation Kentuckian, interspersed with shots of coal and miners. It’s an intriguing approach, given his background in recycling and the many ESG (environment, social and governance) initiatives with which he has publicly associated himself over the years. Morris has started to distance himself from ESG since exploring his run. Perhaps he’s hoping to channel the fortunes of another Appalachian with a history of being down on Trump: the current Vice President…

Maxwell power

“I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being,” Charlie Kirk, the gee-whiz media standard bearer for MAGA goodness, told his viewers yesterday. “I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration.” But people are still talking about Jeffrey Epstein, including Representative Hank Johnson, who tweeted a video of himself playing an Epstein-themed parody of Jason Isbell’s “Dreamsicle” on a guitar in his congressional office. “Epstein died by suicide,” he sang. “Believe that and you must be blind.” 

According to the Daily Mail, Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is ready to reveal the contents of her ex’s client list to Congress. It’s about time, says disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, who was himself suspected to be in the Epstein Files. “Release the Epstein files. All of them,” he posted this morning. “For those of us with nothing to fear, the truth can’t come soon enough.” Cockburn guesses that Charlie Kirk won’t be interviewing Spacey any time soon.

On Our Radar

FED DAWN Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the nomination of the next head of the Federal Reserve, after Jay Powell, is “President Trump’s decision and it’ll move at his speed.”

WE ALL SCREAM Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a joint initiative to remove petroleum-based dyes from ice cream.

SECOND TIME LUCKY Former national security advisor and congressman Mike Waltz is currently being grilled by the Senate Foreign Relations committee over his nomination for UN ambassador.

The AI girlfriend you never asked for

On Monday, Elon Musk announced the newest “cool feature” his team of world-class coders and engineers added to X. It’s called “Grok Companions.” As the name suggests, they’re supposed to be your artificial, er, confidants.

There are two companions to choose from. Your first option is a blonde, quadruple-D cup, itty-bitty-waist anime caricature named Ani who will undress down to lacy lingerie if you talk to her nicely. Your second option is a red panda wearing a short-sleeved sweatshirt and shorts (thank heavens they made him decently clothed). He is appropriately named Bad Rudy and will shower you with profanities and insults unprovoked.

One X user responded to Musk’s announcement, “Just wait till they throw her in an Optimus bot with a silicone skin to replicate her.” And Musk responded, “Inevitable.” As to be expected, two camps seem to be materializing after the Companions’ drop. One group wonders if it’s “possible to undress her even more?” and the other calls her “the extinction of the human species looking me in the eyes.” Another pundit wrote, of Musk, “Is it possible for someone to be more divorced?”

Cockburn remembers reading Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk last summer and feeling concerned for the billionaire when he would ask his romantic partners to insult him. Perhaps Musk simply didn’t realize this was an unhealthy desire before he mass-produced it for all of his subscribers paying $300/month. 

Feeling concerned? Be at ease, The Spectator just released all sorts of pieces related to AI in its August 2025 edition.  

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