State Champ Radio politics
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As politicians around the world continue to pursue anti-LGBTQ+ agendas, Cynthia Erivo has a simple message for queer people in 2025: Don’t let them win.
In her new Billboard cover story published Monday (June 2), Erivo opens up about her thoughts on the Trump administration’s continued attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. When asked by Billboard Pride editor Stephen Daw how she’s coping with the political chaos, the singer-actress shared that she’s focusing on trying to combat the vitriol with peace and calm.
“I’m trying to be a person you can get positive things from, because that is the only way you can balance this stuff,” she says. “Fear-mongering is very powerful, and the only thing that you can do in order to offset that is to feed it with light and positivity.”
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For her queer and trans fans, Erivo highlights the importance of staying true to yourself, even amid a scary political landscape. “I want to encourage people to not decide to just tuck away and start hiding and not being themselves anymore, because that is exactly what they want,” she says. “The more yourself you are, the more you are in front of people who don’t necessarily understand, the better understanding starts to happen.”
All-star songwriter Justin Tranter agrees, saying that Erivo herself has become a powerful symbol for the LGBTQ+ community since her public coming out in 2022. “Cynthia being Black and queer, and being one of the most famous people alive in this moment while our community is dealing with what we are dealing with, is no mistake,” they tell Billboard. “For someone as talented as her to be a beacon for young Black queer people all over the world … is no accident.”
Over the last few years, Erivo made a name for herself as one of the premiere performers at The Kennedy Center, where she’s performed her own solo concerts while also honoring legends such as Dionne Warwick, Dame Julie Andrews and Earth, Wind & Fire. But earlier in 2025, President Trump announced that he was naming himself as the chairman of the prestigious arts organization, replacing existing board members with his own allies and ceasing any and all drag performances hosted by the Center.
“I don’t know who gains what from that. I hope that it comes back,” Erivo says of Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center. “It’s really sad to have to watch this happen to it. The Kennedy Center is supposed to be a space of creativity and art and music for everyone.”
See Erivo on the cover of Billboard and check out photos from her cover shoot below:
President Donald Trump has demonstrated in times past that he is chronically online, as some have witnessed via his frequent posts on his social media network, Truth Social. Taking to his platform once more, President Donald Trump shared a post promoting a peculiar conspiracy theory alleging that former President Joe Biden was replaced by a clone.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social and reshared a post from a user that suggests that President Joe Biden was replaced by robotic clones in 2020. The post itself was replete with hashtags such as “#BlackMen,” “#Blackwomem, “#Blacks,” and “#Jews” along with mentions towards political groups and media outlets.
“There is no #JoeBiden – executed in 2020. #Biden clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. #Democrats dont know the difference,” read the leading portion of the brief post. The user, who has around 5,000 followers, had the good fortune of getting President Trump’s attention, who reshared the post to his millions of followers.
While there is no proof of this claim, it does appear to be a recent one. Biden has been a favorite target of Trump supporters and the MAGA faithful, who believe the former president’s performance in his first and final term as the nation’s leader left America in worse shape than Trump.
The Truth Social user also shared an article from The Babylon Bee, a fictional news outlet similar to The Onion, which leans into political satire and has fooled former politicians in the past into thinking it is a fact-based news organization.
President Trump and former President Biden have not made any comments about the theory, from what we’ve been able to assess.
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Photo: Anadolu / Getty
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With Pride Month 2025 coming amid dark times for the LGBTQ+ community, pop singer Reneé Rapp wants her fans to know there is still light in the dark — they just have to go looking for it. In a new cover story for Cosmopolitan on Monday (June 2), the “Leave Me Alone” singer shared a […]
Diddy is currently on trial in New York for sex trafficking and racketeering. While the trial is still in its early stages, President Donald Trump was asked about potentially pardoning the Bad Boy mogul, and Trump admitted it’s something he’d consider. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news During […]
What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez listen to when she’s fighting for change or passing legislation on Capitol Hill? A lot of Bad Bunny, as it turns out.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone published Friday (May 30), the politician opened up about policy, the Donald Trump administration and, of course, her favorite tunes. “I have had the Bad Bunny album on repeat,” she told the publication, referencing 2025’s four-week Billboard 200 chart-topper Debi Tirar Mas Fotos.
“As a Puerto Rican, the album is very cathartic, and it’s very political,” AOC continued. “It speaks to a lot of what’s happening to us and our people right now.”
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The New York native added that she loves how the rapper is “bringing salsa back.” “Rauw Alejandro is doing that, too,” she noted. “I’m a big salsa person. It’s such a nice outlet. I like it because the lyricism is so dramatic. Everyone’s breaking up, everyone’s got the love of their life. It’s so funny.”
AOC’s praise of the “Titi Me Pregunto” artist comes as he’s gearing up to tour the globe in support of his new album, traveling around Latin America, Asia, Australia and Europe. He’s also been breaking numerous sales records while he’s at it, from becoming the first Latin act to ever sell out a stadium concert in Australia to selling all-time high amounts of tickets in France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden for a Latin artist.
Other than his upcoming residency in Puerto Rico, however, Bunny is notably skipping the United States on his tour. When asked for her thoughts, Ocasio-Cortez told RS, “We just don’t have figures like that anymore.”
“I think about the Civil Rights Movement, and I think about people like Harry Belafonte and all of these artists who really did risk everything, risk their careers and their popularity in order to support and take part in people’s movements, and to use their art … it’s more rare now, or at least it feels that way,” she continued. “I wasn’t around then. The pressures of the industry are to be as broad as possible. When you have someone who does something gutsy like that, first of all, people come through for it, and it’s super compelling.”
To the representative’s point about Bunny being political, the three-time Grammy winner is also active in politics outside of his music. In the 2024 U.S. election, he supported Kamala Harris’ campaign for president, boosting her messaging about what was at stake for Puerto Rican voters.
Several other Latin stars — including Luis Fonsi, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin — also expressed support for Harris, though others backed Trump. In September, AOC dissed Nicky Jam and Anuel AA for endorsing the twice-impeached POTUS during a congressional hearing.
“I suppose that puts you and Nicky Jam and Anuel in the same boat,” she told Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the far-right Center for Immigration Studies, after he claimed not to remember Trump saying he wanted to “sell” Puerto Rico.
Source: The Washington Post / Getty / RFK Jr. / MAHA
This latest mess involving RFK Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” commission report highlights just how dysfunctional and stupid the Trump administration is.
We already know that RFK Jr. is a certified quack and conspiracy theorist who has no business being the head of Health and Human Services, and he continues to show us why.
The MAHA report, which is intended to address the reasons for the decline in US life expectancy, is currently being criticized because all signs indicate that it was generated using AI, specifically ChatGPT.
An investigation by NOTUS revealed that the MAHA report is marred by errors, including broken links, missing or incorrect authors, and incorrect issue numbers.
Other damning revelations highlighted by NOTUS included some studies in the report being misstated to support the report’s claims, as well as studies that didn’t exist.
NOTUS found that at least seven of the cited sources weren’t even real.
But Wait… There’s More
The Washington Post conducted its own investigation and found that 37 of the 522 citations appeared numerous times in the report. URLs in the report were found to contain “oaicite,” a marker used by OpenAI and applied to responses provided by AI models, such as ChatGPT, which is a strong indication that Kennedy and HHS used AI to make the report.
Another giveaway that the MAHA report is nothing more than the product of blatant AI use is the presence of “hallucinations” throughout it, a term used to describe the false information that artificial intelligence models tend to produce.
There is also the fact that RFK Jr. hasn’t been shy about what he describes as the “AI Revolution” and said during a House Committee meeting in May that HHS is “already using these new technologies to manage health care data more efficiently and securely.”
The White House Claims It Was Just “Formatting Issues”
When pressed on the report, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to the errors as “formatting issues,” while avoiding discussion of the use of AI tools.
Leavitt, who has put on a masterclass in lying like her boss since taking on the role of press secretary, also added that the MAHA report is “backed on good science that the federal government has never recognized.”
NOTUS: A NOTUS investigation found that the MAHA commission report cites studies that appear to not exist. Does the WH have confidence that the info coming from HHS can be trusted?
LEAVITT: Yes. I understand there were some formatting issues, but it does not negate the substance… pic.twitter.com/i1d5SMlGYy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2025
The Washington Post says the report has since been “updated” with some of the oaicite markers being removed and the nonexistent sources replaced with alternate citations.
In a statement sent to The Washington Post, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said “minor citation and formatting errors have been corrected, but the substance of the MAHA report remains the same — a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation’s children.”
Social media isn’t shocked by these developments because of RFK Jr.’s reputation for being a liar and a pusher of medical falsehoods. He also claimed he would find the cause of autism by September.
If you know anything about RFK Jr the fact that he falsified the MAHA report should not surprise you in the least. pic.twitter.com/hNvIQHLC5M
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) May 30, 2025
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Welp
FRAUDULENT—RFK Jr’s report on “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) cited completely FAKE studies that do not even exist, & completely misinterprets others. Truly wild. This is the same guy who bypassed all CDC scientists to put out anti vax nonsense. https://t.co/kxdUbhJd2O pic.twitter.com/NvDXxNtv5l— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 29, 2025
2. Bruh
RFK Jr.’s ‘MAHA Report’ includes at least 7 cited sources that do not appear to exist.One scientist stated that “the paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” when informed of the report. pic.twitter.com/p45tYX8D9v— FactPost (@factpostnews) May 29, 2025
3. Make it, make sense
A 600 million dollar grant to research a vaccine for bird flu was canceled yesterday after RFK Jr turned in a HHS report that was riddled with untruths! Numerous studies in it were not correct and it’s said to have been made by using Chat GBT! 😡😡😡 pic.twitter.com/QtRBfScGO8— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) May 30, 2025
4. Exactly
RFK: journals are fraudulentMAHA report: AI generated without human review, uses studies that don’t exist and cites authors saying things they never said.This would be a career-ending scandal in any other universe. https://t.co/mc2qYdiu72— Tyler Black, MD (@tylerblack32) May 29, 2025
5.
The MAHA report, promoted by RFK Jr. as “gold-standard science,” is riddled with bogus citations:⭐️ 7 studies don’t exist — one author: “The paper cited is not a real paper.”⭐️ Key conclusions misquoted⭐️ One study exists only in the report⭐️ Dozens more have broken links or… pic.twitter.com/nohSQc7EDR— Carolyn Barber, MD (@cbarbermd) May 29, 2025
6.
I have just read the MAHA report in full.I want to make my position on this clear: The impact of this report, if actually taken seriously, will (on net) make America less healthy.Many have already pointed out that the report had erroneous citations. But this isn’t even the… pic.twitter.com/6L7C0w2tfK— Avi Bitterman, MD (@AviBittMD) May 29, 2025
7.
RFK Jr.’s MAHA report cited some studies that don’t exist to justify its recommendations for America’s 74 million children. The White House called it “formatting issues.” Anderson is Keeping Them Honest. pic.twitter.com/RuyMIUtNK0— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) May 30, 2025
8.
On @ac360, discussed how White House reports usually have dozens of people read and re-check every word and referenceReports are then run by real experts to make sure substance is rightMAHA Report appears to have done none of thatThe level of incompetence here is shocking https://t.co/qiJWjh5mhq— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) May 30, 2025
9.
Fabricated and Misleading Citations in the MAHA ReportThe “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) report claims to be grounded in science. But when you dig into the references—it starts to fall apart. Let’s take a look. 🔍👇 pic.twitter.com/zfDiX5Y0Oi— IntegralAnswers (@IntegralAnswers) May 29, 2025
10.
The academic fraud perpetuated by the MAHA report is extraordinary. There isn’t a student who wouldn’t fail and be subject to disciplinary action or an academic who wouldn’t lose their faculty position over something like this.— Michael Ostacher, MD, MPH (@RecoveryDoctor) May 29, 2025
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President Donald Trump has a penchant for using nicknames and hurling insults at folks, especially those who aren’t politically aligned with him or his administration. TACO, an acronym that stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” is gaining traction online, and as a result, TACO is getting the meme treatment across social media.
TACO, coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armsrong, made its way to the ears of President Trump during a press event on Wednesday (May 28). A reporter asked Trump about the acronym, sparking a furious reply from the president, who demanded that he never get asked about the acronym again.
Because of Trump’s visible distaste for the acronym, savvy social media users and those who oppose President Trump seized upon the opportunity to dig in their heels with jokes, commentary, and memes as mentioned above.
In an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens, Armstrong was asked if it were a dream that the acronym got floated during the midweek press event at the White House.
From CBC:
It’s not the dream, it’s the nightmare. The thing about Trump chickening out is that it’s good.
Trump’s tariff policies are very bad and destructive, right? When I talk about TACO and Trump chickening out, I’m like, “There’s this good thing happening where he doesn’t follow through on these bad ideas.”
I don’t think this is gonna happen, but I have this slight worry that now he knows the phrase, and it’s banging around in his head, he’ll stop chickening out, which is exactly the outcome I don’t want.
As it stands, TACO is growing legs, especially on social media apps like X and Blue Sky. We’ve got some of those memes listed below.
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Photo: The Washington Post / Getty
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Source: Getty Images / Stephen Miller / Katie Miller / Elon Musk
According to X, formerly Twitter, Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff and known hater of immigrants, Stephen Miller, might have lost his wife to the richest immigrant on the planet.
Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, is reportedly following Elon Musk out of the White House, starting rumours that there is trouble in racist paradise, aka the Trump White House.
Three sources familiar with the matter told CNN Katie Miller, who had been working as a top adviser and spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency, is joining Musk in the private sector.
Like Musk, Katie Miller was employed as a special government employee since Felon 47’s unfortunate return to the White House while previously being paid by the Republican consulting firm P2 Public Affairs in an advisory capacity for private clients, including Apple, before deciding to work with DOGE.
Miller’s special government employee was set to expire on Friday, hitting the limit of 130 days of service, and according to Raw Story, has been helping Musk by setting up interviews for the Tesla chief not related to his “work” with the government.
In one of his most recent interviews, which many believe was the nail in the coffin for Trump and Musk’s MAGA bromance, Phony Stark was critical of the Orange Menace’s legislative centerpiece of his political agenda, his “big beautiful” budget bill.
Social Media Is Clowning Stephen Miller
When news of Katie Miller joining Musk hit the timelines, “throuple” began trending, with many clowning Stephen Miller, saying that he lost his wife to an immigrant.
Other posts joked about Miller being the next sucker to carry a child for the billionaire procreator. “extremely buried lede today is that Elon Musk probably seduced Stephen Miller’s wife to impregnate her with another test tube baby,” one user on X wrote.
While all of this is happening, Stephen Miller has been rage-tweeting about the fact that Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will explode the debt. He also had kind words to say about the “work” DOGE did, claiming it was just the start of things to come.
We won’t be shocked if he was typing that while grinding his white nationalist teeth.
He’s still gonna get these jokes though. We compiled the best ones in the gallery below.
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I recently had the opportunity to testify before Congress about the NO FAKES Act of 2025 — a landmark effort to protect human voices and likenesses from being cloned by artificial intelligence without consent.
I started singing when I was four years old and have used my voice throughout my career to amplify lyrics that I believe in. Each recording reflects pieces of my individuality and artistry that have evolved throughout my life.
My recordings reflect my human experience, and I am honored that they are a part of people’s lives — from wedding vows to breakups, to celebrating milestones and even the special relationship between a mother and daughter.
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But today, my voice and likeness, along with so many others, are at risk. AI technology is amazing and can be used for so many wonderful purposes. But like all great technologies, it can also be abused when it is harnessed to steal people’s voices and likenesses to defraud families, manipulate the images of young girls, impersonate government officials or pose as artists like me.
It’s mind-blowing that we must even question that our voices and likenesses should be our own to control. It’s scary and unquestionably wrong.
I was so gratified with the commitment of the bipartisan group of Senators I testified before last week in DC to deal with deepfake images by supporting the NO FAKES Act, which would prevent the theft of someone’s voice or likeness to harm, harass, bully or defraud them or others, and damage our careers, reputations and values.
The NO FAKES Act gives every person the power to say “yes” or “no” about how their most personal human attributes are used.
In Congress, I was asked about the impact of unauthorized deepfakes on the careers and livelihoods of young artists — and that impact can be immense. Every performer in our business must establish early in their career who they are and what they stand for, creatively, artistically and personally. That is how we build connections with our fans. But if bad actors can invade that artist-fan bond and distort the story a young artist tells the world about who they are, many careers could be lost before they truly get started. And that’s a problem that goes beyond the arts — unconsented deepfakes and voice clones rob every person of the ability to speak their own truth and tell their own story.
The NO FAKES Act also supports innovation by providing a roadmap for how these powerful tools can be developed responsibly. And it doesn’t stand in the way of protected uses like news, parodies, or criticism. Thanks to technology companies like OpenAI and Google who support this bill, as well as the legions of creators who have worked so hard to advocate for it (nearly 400 of us last week endorsed it here), and the child protection and anti-sex-trafficking and exploitation groups who support it and continue to fight for those who are most vulnerable, we have a real chance of it becoming law this year.
It has been a special honor to record songs that shine a light on the battles many women fight, especially domestic violence. Fans have shared with me that “Independence Day” has given them strength, and in some cases, the song has been the catalyst that has made them realize they need to leave an abusive situation.
Imagine the harm an AI deepfake could do breaching that trust, using my voice in songs that belittle or justify abuse. Or the devastation of a fan, scammed by a deepfake voice clone impersonating me or any artist they trust, into handing over their hard-earned money to a fraudster. Or my voice and/or likeness being used to promote a product that may be subpar at best, and harmful at worst. And while this isn’t the part that I am an expert on, knowing AI is being used to deepfake and manipulate young girls in ways that can devastate and ruin their lives is especially troubling. As a mother, an artist and a human being who cares about others — I ask you to join in the fight to stop that kind of betrayal.
Passing the NO FAKES Act will set us on the right path to develop the world’s best AI while preserving the sacred qualities that make our country so special — authenticity, integrity, humanity and our endlessly inspiring spirit.
Martina McBride is an award-winning country music singer who has charted seven top 10s on the Billboard 200 and landed 21 songs on the Hot 100 in her career, and been nominated for 14 Grammys. She’s also a four-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year and three-time ACM Top Female Vocalist winner, and in 2019 was honored with the ACM’s Icon Award.
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