Ari Emanuel, talent agent and brother of Democratic strategist Rahm Emanuel, defended his relationship with Elon Musk on Monday, even when confronted with the “unbelievably heartless” actions taken by DOGE.

The New Yorker’s David Remnick asked Emanuel on his podcast why Musk was “still kosher” after the DOGE debacle.

“I was surprised that you befriended, and I don’t know what your relationship is now with Elon Musk, who, at one point — and talk about people changing — this was a guy whose general image out in the world was of tremendous innovation,” Remnick said.

“But I would also argue that what happened during the DOGE period, and his funding of Trump, and now his funding of the midterm elections, and most of all, the unbelievably heartless action about our global health program in which people estimate that as many as 700,000 people are are going to die as the result of what happened to our global health program. And that’s — there’s no backsies to that. That’s going to happen,” Remnick said.

“Are you sure that’s going to happen? Do we have all the facts?” Emanuel asked.

“We absolutely do, and the reporting reveals that,” Remnick said.

“I have not seen that,” Emanuel said about DOGE cutting the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Well, I think he’s moved humanity forward in incredible ways,” Emanuel continued. “I think he’s one of the greatest innovators of our time. I think what he has done cutting off the Russians and Starlink has been important for that war. There has been a ledger of pros and cons. I have not seen the facts that you talk about.”

“You didn’t think DOGE did a tremendous amount of damage?” Remnick asked.

“I have not seen all the facts. Here’s what I do think. DOGE pointed to issues that I thought as I said to you, there’s a numerator and a denominator,” Emanuel said of the “waste, fraud, and abuse” DOGE made its mission to cut.

“Would I have gone about it with a chainsaw? I think when you talk to Elon, and I have about that, he would admit that was not great,” Emanuel said. “His politics is his politics. He and I discuss his politics. I disagree with him on a lot of his issues. As it relates to this specific issue, I don’t have the facts. I just don’t. Now, after this, I’ll have a conversation with my brother Zeke. I’ll have a conversation with my brother Rahm, and say, “Hey, is this true or not true?” I’m not sure it’s true.”

“I worry about your Elon relationship,” Remnick said.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Emanuel shot back. “And I’m happy that he and I have a relationship. He and I argue. He and I agree on certain things. That’s a healthy relationship.”

“He’s not healthy,” Remnick said, citing Musk’s vast conspiracy theories about “the end of civilization.”

“I can argue with him. Yeah. Because I disagree with a lot of conspiracy, but it’s okay to disagree with people. Just don’t be disagreeable,” Emanuel said.

The post Ari Emanuel Clashes With The New Yorker’s David Remnick Over Superagent’s Buddy Elon Musk: ‘He’s Not Healthy’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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I'm sticking to my marathon training schedule, nor'easter be damned. Normally, that means I'd come home with soaked shoes, prop them in front of a fan, and hope they dry out overnight. And normally, that means I head out with still-damp shoes the next day. Not only is this uncomfortable, but it makes my home smell like a locker room.

This weekend I had two training runs back to back in the rain, which meant my shoes had to be ready to go again almost immediately. This week's upgrade is the gadget that made it work: this Hedgehog Hanger.

Hedgehog Hanger Shoe Dryer and Deodorizer for Sneakers, Gloves & Mittens – Rapid 4 Pair Shoes Dryer with Ionic i3 Turbo Technology, Turbocharged Drying, Silent & Tornado Mode, Adjustable Heat, Black

$179.00 at Amazon

Shop Now

Shop Now

$179.00 at Amazon

The Hedgehog Hanger is my upgrade of the week

The Hedgehog Hanger is a hanging shoe and glove dryer. You can easily hang it in a closet or wardrobe (there's a stainless steel hook), plug it in, and slide your shoes onto its arms. Instead of just warming the air, it pushes airflow through the shoes. The brand says the patented turbine technology moves humidity out of the fabric, and that a pair of shoes or gloves dries in about 15 to 30 minutes.

I really like the control it gives you. The heat is adjustable, from room temperature up through a few warm settings, including lower ones meant for leather and more sensitive materials. That matters if you don't want to blast a nice pair of shoes at full heat. There are five speed settings, and it goes up to a "tornado" mode for the fastest drying when you're in a hurry.

The controls on the Hedgehog Dryer. Credit: Meredith Dietz

After my first run in the rain this weekend, I hung my wet shoes on the Hedgehog and let it do its thing. By the time I was ready for the next session, they were dry, fresh, and ready to wear. I didn't have to rotate to a backup pair—or lace up soggy shoes and hope for the best.

If you're a runner, hiker, or anyone who trains through bad weather, that turnaround time is the real selling point. Consistency is so much easier when wet gear isn't a reason to skip a session. That said, I do wish it were a little more affordable: If you only deal with wet shoes a few times a year, $199 is a bit steep.

Still, if you train in all weather, live somewhere rainy or snowy, or have kids constantly tracking in soaked shoes and gloves, you'll get a lot of use out of this gadget. Hey, even when it's not plugged in, I'm grateful for the extra storage by my shoe rack.

President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he would like to buy American weapons during the communist politician’s three day trip to the States last week, according to U.S. Ambassador to China David Purdue.

The ambassador shared the surprising news during an interview on Fox News Sunday with anchor Shannon Bream.

“President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.’ He actually asked President Xi if he would like to buy some, at one point,” Purdue said.

The comment came as he defended Trump’s relationship with Taiwan, with Purdue arguing Trump has “already sold 50% more arms to Taiwan than any other president since 1979.” He said Trump’s support for an independent Taiwan should not be questioned, before saying the president is always in deal-making mode, even when it comes to potentially selling arms to America’s biggest rival.

There have been serious questions about China possibly assisting Iran in the ongoing conflict. Earlier this summer, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified before Congress that Russia and China were enabling Iran — which Trump later denied.

“I trust them,” Trump said of Xi and Vladimir Putin.

One hurdle to Trump potentially selling arms to China: it would violate U.S. law. China is one of a handful of countries the U.S. has an arms embargo against, with those restrictions ratcheted up following the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.

In related news, Purdue said there were three “huge” takeaways from Xi’s visit when it came to the Iran war. He said Xi supported “no nuclear weapon in Iran,” an open Strait of Hormuz, and no tolls for it to happen.

Following Xi boarding his flight back to China, the president celebrated the summit in a Truth Social post, saying it was “one of Friendship, Strength, and Success, for both China and the U.S.A.”

Watch above.

The post Trump Offered to Sell American Weapons to China’s Xi Jinping, US Ambassador Says first appeared on Mediaite.

(Sipa via AP Images)

A top Hamas bodyguard was secretly plotting a terror attack against European Jews from inside of the United Kingdom, right under the noses of British intelligence, The Sunday Times reported.

The operative, known in the article only as “Mr. X” for legal reasons, secured asylum and lived as a British citizen for more than a decade, where authorities say he plotted an attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, the report said.

Mr. X, a married father in his forties, was the former bodyguard to Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, who went on to become chairman of its political bureau.

“At the time he was awarded refugee status, it was public knowledge that he had worked for Haniyeh, was the son of another senior Hamas official, and had been arrested in Egypt for operating a tunnel allegedly used to smuggle firearms and gold into Gaza,” the report said. “Yet Mr. X was granted sanctuary and apparently able to operate under deep cover as an IT consultant living in the suburbs of a large English city.”

The Times reported that Mr. X “is not thought to have been a priority for the British security services as he began co-ordinating with Hamas terrorists on the Continent.”

“National Crime Agency (NCA) officers arrested Mr. X in central London last November after Mossad and Germany’s security and intelligence services learnt of the planned attack,” the report said. “Berlin worked with partners in Austria, Denmark and the UK to detain seven suspects and gather weapons including an AK47 assault rifle. Mr. X is accused of transporting weapons including handguns and live ammunition to a storage facility in Vienna, according to a German indictment.”

Mr. X now faces extradition to Germany “where he is accused of being a leading figure in a plot to attack Jewish community centres, Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel demonstrations there or in neighbouring Austria last October,” the report said.

The report added, “The Home Office, MI5 and MI6 are likely to face questions as to how Mr X was able to build his life in Britain, and whether his recent activities were being monitored.”

——

The post UK Gave Asylum to Hamas’s Top Guard Who Then Plotted a Terrorist Attack Against Jews — Shocking Report Says first appeared on Mediaite.

Sylvester Stallone revealed for the first time that he struggled with bulimia at the height of his ’80s action star fame, with the Rocky and Rambo star saying he was willing to torture himself to achieve the chiseled body he wanted to see on the silver screen.

The Hollywood legend was also candid about his use of steroids.

“It became an obsession,” Stallone said during the Saturday episode of The Interview podcast.  “Really bad, to the point where I became bulimic.”

He then noticed his admission surprised host Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “You didn’t know that? Oh, you heard it here first.”

Stallone said his fitness fixation got really bad in 1982 on the set of Rocky III, where marathon weightlifting, boxing, and swimming sessions — to go along with a very-low calorie diet — dropped his body fat percentage to 2.6%. He said it turned into an “obsessive body-worship kind of thing” where he did not want to lose the look he had worked so hard to obtain.

“I couldn’t hold anything down, or if I did, I didn’t want to keep it down, because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness,” Stallone said.

He then told Garcia-Navarro he used performance-enhancing drugs to push his body even further.

“Nobody does it without additives and drugs, period. I don’t care who, that’s bullsh*t. They have to,” Stallone said. “But then again, it isn’t as though you are a junkie. But if you’re going to work and try to stay in shape for six months straight, and you’re eating yogurt and pudding — it’s not happening.”

“So you’re taking steroids, is what you’re saying?” Garcia-Navarro jumped in and asked.

“Oh my God, you have to!” Stallone said. “But you do it in a sensible way, 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off. People go, ‘Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.’ No, you don’t, unless you’re just a freak of nature.”

Stallone has previously hinted at using PEDs to get in top shape.

He pleaded guilty to bringing human growth hormone into Australia back in 2007, with Stallone telling NBC afterward it helped him recover from injuries quicker.

It “takes off the wear and tear that your body takes,” Stallone said at the time. “The power to recuperate is very, very limited. So all it does is expedite.”

He told Garcia-Navarro he eventually “broke the cycle” when he starred in Copland in 1997, which required him to pack on 40 pounds. But the eating disorder had taken a “terrible toll” on his body by that point, he said.

Watch above via The New York Times on YouTube.

The post Sylvester Stallone Reveals He Struggled With Bulimia and Steroids: ‘It Became an Obsession’ first appeared on Mediaite.

President Donald Trump declared Saturday that he loves women before slamming former President Barack Obama’s suggestion women be put in charge of governments to “make things better.”

Obama told an audience earlier this week, “Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasized about, if you put women in charge of every government for like two years, and then just kind of saw, all right, how are things going? I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect — but they’d be better. I’m confident about that.”

A reporter asked Trump during a Saturday gaggle, “Do you buy that?”

“That’s a ridiculous — I love women, I think they’re great. But what a ridiculous statement that is. Right? Even you would say that!” Trump answered.

Trump has repeatedly denigrated female reporters, as pointed out by Mediaite’s Ana Marie Cox in her new opinion piece:

Trump’s abuse of female journalists is so familiar that his most recent jab at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins hardly qualifies as a full verbal slap. Reminding Collins that CNN pledged to boycott the White House beat (“You said you weren’t going to cover me.”) is an air kiss compared to what he’s said about Collins and other women before: He called Maggie Haberman an “unattractive person both inside and out,” and called Rachel Scott of ABC a “horror show.” He asked CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes, rhetorically, “Are you stupid?” He told ABC’s Mary Bruce she was “horrible,” “insubordinate,” and “terrible.” And, of course, there was the time he cut off Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey with “quiet, piggy.”

Earlier this month, when Scott questioned Trump’s pledge to pay all Americans $5,000 if Republicans held on to Congress after the midterms, the president actually lunged at her while exclaiming, “Not you!” and telling her she was “the worst.”

The thrice-married Trump is also known for paying off a porn star to cover up an affair, and for famously telling TV show Access Hollywood, “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women] — I just start kissing them . . . And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything . . . Grab them by the p*ssy. You can do anything.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

The post Trump Declares ‘I Love Women’ While Slamming Barack Obama’s ‘Ridiculous’ Claim That They Should Run Governments first appeared on Mediaite.

(Photo credit: @TheSocialMovie on X)

Wait, is this supposed to make Mark Zuckerberg look good?

That’s what a whole lot of people thought after watching the latest trailer for The Social Reckoning on Thursday, which is built around a hyper-serious lecture about why the Facebook boss should have censored political ads before and after President Donald Trump won the 2016 election. The stern talking-to is delivered by a hysterical Bill Burr, who is playing the role of “Charlie,” a fake member of Zuckerberg’s legal team.

“You’re not fact checking politial ads?! ” Charlie whines as the ad kicks off.

“It’s a democracy. I believe in free speech,” Zuckerberg, played by ex-Succession star Jeremy Strong, responds stiffly.

“Yeah, everybody does. This can’t be your answer,” Charlie fires back. He then says, “You’re like a crossing guard standing out in front of a school, but you’re not doing anything with your arms. So the cars are just plowing down the children, because it’s a democracy.”

“The voters aren’t children. They don’t need to be told to eat their vegetables,” Zuckerberg retorts.

“And how about just telling us which ones are vegetables, and which ones are clumps of dirt in the shape of a carrot,” Charlie tells him, as dramatic music plays in the background.

If writer Aaron Sorkin was aiming to get people to hate Zuckerberg for it, it didn’t seem to work. Instead, many on X said the sequel to The Social Network makes it look like Zuckerberg is a “based” First Amendment warrior.

That’s obvious when checking out some of the reactions on X, where the new trailer has been viewed more than 7 million times by Friday afternoon.

“I wish Zuck DID say this fake speech because this fictional version of him is totally right!” Reporter Taylor Lorenz posted. “It’s not Meta or [Zuckerberg’s] job to police speech and decide what the facts are or who the public should be able to hear from.”

Left-leaning pundit Armand Domalewski wondered, “How did a ‘tech billionaire should decide what politicians are allowed to say to voters’ somehow become the left wing position in this argument”?

And plenty of others got a kick out of the trailer seeming to backfire and make Zuckerberg way more likable than Sorkin was intending.

On a similar note, Zuckerberg claimed last year ex-President Joe Biden’s administration “basically pushed” Meta to censor Covid-19 posts which went against the government’s suggestions. He also told Joe Rogan the third-party fact checkers the company had used were “too biased” — which ultimately led him to scrapping the whole operation.

The flick, if you’re itching to see it, even just for unintentional comedy purposes, comes out on Oct. 9.

The post The Social Reckoning Trailer Gets Totally Clowned for Absurdly Serious Pro-Censorship Speech: ‘Making Zuckerberg Sympathetic…’ first appeared on Mediaite.