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Good morning,
Welcome to MS NOW’s Sunday Spotlight, where you can find a selection of the week’s most interesting and important stories. President Donald Trump’s ban on three news outlets, including MS NOW, clarifies what fights over White House access have always been about. Meanwhile, the president’s claims about the economy are falling flat, he’s unlikely to face consequences if he tears down a beloved Washington landmark, and the House of Representatives isn’t working very hard. Plus, a controversial ad accomplished exactly what it set out to do.
Don’t forget to check out more top columns and videos from the week below.
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Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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On Saturday, journalists from MS NOW and two other outlets were blocked from entering the White House after Trump followed through on a threat he himself referred to as a “ban on the free press.” “That bluntness is what sets this moment apart,” writes Eugene Daniels. “It removes any doubt that the president is using access to the White House to punish speech he dislikes.” This is about much more than ego or prestige. Reporting from a distance can carry a cost, and much of that cost falls on the public. Read more.
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Trump keeps insisting that he’s overseeing “the greatest economy in history,” while telling voters to pretend that he’s on the ballot. That doesn’t seem to be working, as a new Fox News poll found two-thirds of voters said his administration has made the economy worse, argues Hayes Brown. That’s not what Republicans wanted to hear six weeks from Election Day, especially as it’s not hard to connect Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran to continued inflation and higher interest rates. Read more.
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After Trump said the Kennedy Center might “end up being ripped down,” he was photographed looking at a placard that appeared to be about its demolition, writes Lisa Rubin. A federal judge ordered Trump and his co-defendants in an ongoing case over the Kennedy Center’s renaming and closure to notify him more than 30 days before demolishing anything. But there’s little reason to believe that the president or other officials will be held in contempt of court if they ignore the order. Read more.
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On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House until after the midterm elections. It was a fitting end for what has been the most ineffective, underperforming and borderline useless Congress in American history, argues Michael A. Cohen. It is on pace to pass fewer laws than any Congress since the Civil War, averaging about 48 hours in session per month. Its biggest achievement was the “big beautiful bill” that cut taxes and slashed Medicaid and remains deeply unpopular with Americans. Read more.
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Sydney Sweeney is gaining attention again for something other than her acting. This time, it’s for posing nearly nude in ads for a sports prediction market. Olympic and collegiate athletes responded with a flood of social media posts showing “what a woman in sports looks like.” But the controversy is the point, as Sweeney has found before, argues Hannah Holland. Rage bait, hot takes and spectacle work in an era where algorithms reward engagement, not decency, morality or kindness. Read more.
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Anna Lefkowitz / MS NOW; Getty Images
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Vice President JD Vance wrote in 2021 that “normal Americans” don’t want to send their kids into “crap daycare” just so they can work. He’s now looking to turn that into action, championing a policy that would give thousands of dollars a year to stay-at-home parents whose spouse works full time. But while the $9,000 a year the plan proposes would help those parents, it would come at the expense of unmarried mothers, argues sociologist Jessica Calarco. Instead of new spending, the plan would reallocate federal subsidies for low-wage working parents who need childcare. This is just a new iteration of the “Mommy Wars” of decades past that pitted stay-at-home mothers against those with jobs, putting the government’s thumb on the scale. Read the column here.
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Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart explores the reality of raising children and teenagers in today’s political, cultural and digital landscape through discussions with experts, parents and special guests. Submit for your questions for Dr. Lockhart to answer in a future episode of MS NOW’s Member-exclusive series, “The Parenting Shift.”
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