Category: Trending

Donald Trump has a reported net worth of over $2 billion. That’s more money than 99 percent of people will make in their life (“but at least we haven’t been indicted,” we say in the mirror to make ourselves feel better). But Trump used to be worth a lot more, until he hitched his wagon to a money-bleeding social media platform that’s mainly used as fodder for late-night hosts.

Forbes reports that the former president’s fortune has dropped from $3.2 billion last year to $2.5 billion today. “The fundamental problem is that barely anyone uses Truth Social. Before it launched, an investor presentation suggested the app would attract 81 million users by 2026,” it reads. “Now, over a year after going live, it has only an estimated 5 million.”

Given that Trump owns roughly 85 percent of the business, [the] former president’s stake probably adds up to about $180 million today. Even that might be too much. Truth Social is adding an estimated 100,000 users per month. If people continue to join at the current pace—and assuming that no one quits or dies—Truth Social will not hit its projected 81 million users until 2086. By that point, Trump would be 140 years old. A more likely outcome: Truth Social will join Trump Steaks, Trump University and GoTrump.com in the graveyard of failed Trump ventures.

“I’m proud of my net worth, I’ve done an amazing job,” Trump once said. “The total is $8,737,540,000.” Is he still proud now?

(Via Forbes)

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 will finally arrive from on May 5, and director-writer James Gunn is hoping Radiohead has the same effect on his film as the band’s 1997 deep-cut “Climbing Up The Walls” had on Yellowjackets.

“[The movie] doesn’t start with ‘Mr. Blue Sky,’” Gunn told Rolling Stone for a feature published today, April 3, that unpacks what can be expected from Vol. 3. “It doesn’t start with ‘Come and Get Your Love.’ It starts with Radiohead’s acoustic version of ‘Creep.’ And that’s just a much different tone from the beginning than the other two films.”

Per Rolling Stone‘s Brian Hiatt, “the idea is that songs are sourced from the Microsoft Zune Peter [Chris Pratt] got his hands on at the end of Guardians 2” for the third film’s soundtrack.

Gunn added, “It was very, very difficult. I felt very uncomfortable picking out songs and making sure that this was the right soundtrack. Do I move on to just all ’80s songs? Do I use all ’90s songs? Or do I do what a Zune would actually have — songs from different eras, which is what I ended up doing.”

Hiatt additionally revealed that the soundtrack will also include Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands,” The Replacements’ “I Will Dare,” Faith No More’s “We Care A Lot,” and Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize.”

The full Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 soundtrack can be found here.

If you spend any amount of time consuming sports news content — or are just a person who uses the internet — you’ve likely already seen the ongoing “debate” about the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Game. To be more accurately, you’ve probably seen the discussion of its aftermath, when LSU’s Angel Reese waved her hand in front of her face to taunt Iowa’s Caitlin Clark after LSU defeated Iowa 102-85.

Likewise, music Twitter was abuzz this weekend with reactions to the release of the debut album of Chloe Bailey, known mononymously as Chlöe, after a rollout that saw controversies over everything from Chlöe’s collaborators on the album to her barely-there sex scene from Janine Nabers’ Amazon Prime Stan satire Swarm.

These two discussions are separate, but related in that both center on young Black women and the American public’s reactions to them living their truths and, well, doing their jobs. But both incidents highlight the ways in which American audiences still haven’t figured out what to do with Black women who are public figures who refuse to “tone it down” for mainstream acceptance — or come to grips with just how rooted those standards for acceptance are in this country’s brutal, racist history.

None of this is new. Black women in public life have faced harsh criticism for any number of frankly dumb reasons for as long as they were allowed to participate in that public life — which has been less time than the current sitting president has been alive. Just look at one of the last First Ladies to hold residence in the White House. Michelle Obama was plagued by racist caricatures in the media and disgusting discourse online. She was called manly, angry, unpatriotic, and more over the course of her husband’s term in office.

That ugly “tradition” continues today. We see it in Fox News reports responding to Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B and even Beyoncé, whom that channel’s anchors criticize for expressing rather mundane sentiments and desires. For Beyoncé’s audacity to praise herself in song, embracing her “flaws” on “Heated,” the host of Fox & Friends called the singer “vile” and “X-rated.” When Lizzo fosters body positivity, she’s excoriated online for daring to be anything other than ashamed of her body.

And while these women’s white counterparts like Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift face similar condescension in the public eye, the intensity is turned up several notches when the women being derided are Black. We need to look no further for proof than the contrasting responses to two female basketball players performing the same gesture after their NCAA tournament wins, celebrating their own prowess, and showing the same competitive spark for which men are praised (even sometimes against their will).

On Wednesday, during the final moments of Iowa’s 97-83 victory over South Carolina in the quarterfinals of the tournament, Iowa’s hot-shooting point guard Caitlin Clark threw up the “you can’t see me” gesture after knocking down yet another ridiculously long-range jumper, prompting a timeout from Louisville’s coach. (And hey, fun fact, did you know that prior to WWE wrestler John Cena popularizing the gesture, it was first debuted in Tony Yayo’s “So Seductive” video? It’s almost like Black people really do be inventing everything without getting credit for it!)

So, when Angel Reese pulled the same move at Clark after winning the national championship, it wasn’t just an A1 example of some of the best non-verbal trash talk we’ve seen in women’s sports, it was also a direct reference to Clark herself taunting a prior opponent. Reese certainly had plenty of reason for the competitive fire. This is a pretty unscientific survey, but over the course of the tournament, I’m pretty sure I heard Clark’s name mentioned every 10 minutes during pre-and-post-game broadcasts and it’s pretty clear that the media was pulling for Iowa from the start.

This is certainly understandable; Clark is doing things on an individual level we’ve never seen a women’s player do before. She’s knocking down shots from Steph Curry/Dame Lillard range; she’s raking in triple-doubles like MVP season Russell Westbrook. But she’s one player, and the tournament featured a number of historic feats. Until Iowa defeated South Carolina in the semifinals, South Carolina — led by center Aliyah Boston — was undefeated on the season. LSU went in just two years from a 9-13 record to winning it all. These are accomplishments worth celebrating!

Reese, affectionately known as “Bayou Barbie” by fans, has earned the right to talk a little smack. And there’s no smack talk greater than throwing an opponent’s taunts back in their faces. Yet, when Clark does it, she’s praised and celebrated, or at the very least, little mention is made in the mainstream media. When Reese did it, it seemed that even those media personalities normally totally uninvested in women’s hoop rushed to comment and deplore her “classless” behavior, like Keith Olbermann.

Looking at Chlöe, a similar phenomenon emerges. Her recruitment of notorious R&B bad boy Chris Brown to guest on her album In Pieces drew heavy criticism from fans and even media outlets like Rolling Stone. The week of Chloe’s release, the legacy publication published a lengthy piece about Brown’s troubling omnipresence in the industry, but with the peg of the Chlöe collaboration, doing as much damage to the Beyoncé protege as the person who should have been in their sights for years. The piece raised many essential points about Brown, but where was the same condemnation for Jack Harlow, the white, male rapper whose most recent album also featured a duet with Brown and saw him on an RS cover for the release without a mention of Brown? Hell, a quick glance at Brown’s discography presents any number of potential collaborators from just the last three years to damn, from Drake to Metro Boomin to Afrobeats stars Davido and Rema, with none sparking the same ire.

Then there’s Chlöe’s sex scene in Swarm, which opens the first episode and lasts all of twenty seconds, showing no more skin than her videos for “Have Mercy” and “Treat Me.” Yet, from the way that fans on Twitter responded, you’d think she’d converted to full-blown porn. Incidentally, many responded the same way to the aforementioned music videos, as well, shooting Chlöe down for the sin of just growing up. Visibility is a two-edged sword for Black women; as much as many yearn to be seen, to be acknowledged, to not simply be the matron or the maid, the instant they get it, they’re raked over the coals for simply being themselves.

Or at least, for not being white women. You see it in office and school dress codes that forbade them from wearing their natural hair until literal laws had to be written to protect them. You see it in the dearth of Academy Award and Grammy winners from the near-100-year histories of both institutions. It’s in news coverage. It’s in media representation. It’s in the backlash to Chlöe’s sister Halle landing the role of The Little Mermaid only to have legions of self-declared “fans” castigate her casting without even seeing the movie (and Black women in the cosplay community can attest this behavior isn’t even confined to official castings).

America, on the whole, doesn’t seem to want to see Black women — especially not successful, multi-dimensional ones — because, for much of America, the idea that Black women are or could be anything other than the help is still new… and thus, frightening. Because Black women’s existences have been suppressed for so long, to see them in any role that wasn’t one carved out for them 100 years ago is still a shock to a large portion of the population.

The solution isn’t to go back, though. That never works and the Black women who’ve conformed have just been confronted with moving goalposts and just as much derision as if they didn’t. If they straighten their hair to follow the dress code, they’re criticized just as much, while also being forced to spend time, money, and effort on even more maintenance. It’s a catch-22. The only way to make it right is to embrace change, to welcome the new and different instead of regarding it with fear and anger. It’s to praise the mavericks and outliers.

Allowing these women to flourish in these opportunities allows them to provide more opportunities for others to flourish, not fewer. Look at Lizzo, putting on for the big girls. Look at Beyoncé, who passed the chances granted to her down to Chloe X Halle, and look at them, opening new doors for even more girls. From music stars to Angel Reese’s “can’t see me” moment, these women offer Black girls a chance to see themselves, to see different futures for themselves, and to believe that they too can be great. They deserve to be seen.

As Donald Trump prepared to make a private flight from Florida to New York, where he’ll reportedly surrender to authorities on Tuesday after being indicted on criminal characters, Fox News got way over-dramatic while covering the former president’s takeoff.

During a Monday afternoon broadcast, Harris Faulkner did her best to give otherwise mundane footage of Trump’s private jet taxiing to the runway a somber tone as she spoke of a showdown with “destiny” in a weird, overly reverent tone. It was a delivery more suited to watching the Titanic leave the dock for its ill-fated voyage, and less suited for Donald Trump presumably eating McDonald’s on a 90 minute flight.

“His plane is getting ready to take off now,” Harris narrated. “They are on the move on the tarmac, and this is what we have been watching for. And we don’t know what destiny looks like on the other side of this trip when he gets here in New York City.”

Naturally, Twitter users had a field day with the extremely odd footage. You can see some of the reactions below:

As for Trump’s chances in the 2024 presidential election now that he’s officially been indicted, well, that’s anyone’s guess. He raised a staggering amount of money following the announcement of the grand jury’s decision, which bodes well for Trump’s chances. However, Ron DeSantis saw a dramatic surge in polling, which is probably not great for Trump. There’s also the fact that no one knows the full breadth of the charges yet, and once those are made public, it could have a significant impact on Trump’s hold on the GOP.

Or not! The guy became president once already, which should have never happened and opened the door to anything happening at this point. Maybe a dog will run and win. Who honestly even knows anymore?

(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)

J. Cole hosted Dreamville Festival for yet another year at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend. The Dreamville boss reasserted his rap dominance as the co-headliner with Drake on Sunday, April 2, but his Cole’s otherwise pristine reputation as a hooper took a hit.

Summer Walker was not intimidated by Cole nor his presumed home-court advantage.

“[Cry-laughing emoji] ran it up at the Dave & Buster’s,” Walker captioned an Instagram reel. In it, Walker is coolly running up the score on the Pop-A-Shot. Cole stands beside her in amazement, putting his hands on his head and staring at her in disbelief.

An A&R consultant who was on hand confirmed that Walker actually beat Cole at the game.

Walker used her Sunday set at Dreamville Fest to confirm she’ll be dropping an EP, Clear 2: Soft Life, next month.

“Just wanted to let you guys know that I have an EP dropping May 19,” Walker said before finishing her set with “Insane,” a track from 2021’s Still Over It. “Go to my website if you wanna pre-order it. It’s a lil somethin’, somethin’. Clear. Y’all ready for some new music?”

Dreamville Festival also boasted Usher as the headliner on Saturday, April 1. Lil Durk, Ari Lennox, City Girls, Sean Paul, EarthGang, Jessie Reyez, Key Glock, Sir, Lute, Omen, Marqus Clae, Victony, JID, GloRilla, Bas, Waka Flocka Flame, Mario, Ayra Starr, Baby Tate, Cozz, Jordan Ward, Reuben Vincent, and Burna Boy rounded out the heavy-hitting lineup.

Clear 2: Soft Life is out 05/19 via LVRN/Interscope Records. Find more information here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As far as superhero franchises go… there have been a few “misses” lately. Yes, you can love Paul Rudd and also acknowledge that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a bit of a mess. Then there’s the DC side of things. Between the lackluster Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and the upcoming Flash movie with its questionable lead, it’s normal to feel a little burnt out over dudes in CGI suits. But DC wants you to know that they get it! They are tired, too. But that will not stop them.

James Gunn is starting to shuffle in the next generation of smart-mouthed, awkward teenage superheroes, and Blue Beetle is one of the first heroes on the docket. In the story, a teen named Jamie finds an alien scarab that attaches to him as host, making him the most powerful insect-adjacent superhero since Seth Rogen as Green Hornet.

The first trailer for the upcoming flick was released today, and it seems like DC has taken a page out of Marvel’s book by adding in some slightly cringy one-liners, though there is one in particular that stood out in the trailer, and it just so happened to be said by George Lopez, known for his role as the Big Head in Sharkboy And Lavagirl. Jamie’s Uncle Rudy is played by Lopez, who seems to think that Batman is a bit of a fascist. A lot of people took this line and ran with it.

Some people liked it, some people really didn’t, but the real message here is that George Lopez should always be wearing a mullet paired with an impressively large beard. Does the line about a Batman being a fascist mean the movie will be any good? Not really, but it gives the movie what it wanted: a quick viral moment in order to get on your radar. Even if “Batman is a fascist” will probably become a TikTok sound over the next few days.

On Sunday night, the Country Music Television Awards included an ebullient performance by Kelsea Ballerini, who was joined by drag queens amid the proposed Tennessee drag-show ban, which was recently blocked by a judge for being “unconstitutionally vague.” If you guessed that Marjorie Taylor Greene — who received an earful on Super Bowl Sunday over Chris Stapleton’s “wokeness” (without realizing that Stapleton is an outspoken supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement) — was upset about over Ballerini’s CMT Awards performance, you would be correct. Greene did tweet her disapproval.

She wasn’t the only one. Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren was incensed over the jubilant performance (Ballerini was joined by Kennedy Davenport, Manila Luzon, Jan Sport, and Olivia Lux). Tomi had no joy and instead, she complained, “The country music INDUSTRY has gone full woke despite actual COUNTRY MUSIC FANS not buying into any of this mess. RIP CMT.”

She also ranted about the “rainbow mafia” and then floated a conspiracy theory about “big Pharma,” which of course is a dig at hormone therapy, which Lahren believes is a “a manipulative and sneaky way” for pharmaceutical companies “to have a lock on these people for the rest of their lives.”

Lahren didn’t mention Ballerini’s opening monologue, in which she paid tribute to the victims of Nashville’s recent school shooting, which the singer called out as a mere one of “the 130 mass shootings in the US this year alone.” Instead, the right-wing firebrand focused her anger upon a display of happiness, which sparked much laughter in her replies. A whole lot of “cry me a river” started to flow over Tomi’s dislike of anything “woke.”

The CMT Awards aired on CBS, and performances can be streamed on the CMT website.

In America, some people are consumed with medical debt, and while many people argue for universal health care, we have to live within the system that currently exists until something changes. This means many Americans live without adequate medical insurance and are saddled with astronomical medical bills. Since healthcare is tied to employment, people who are unemployed are likely disproportionately affected.

People living with severe mental illnesses are most likely to be unable to hold down employment to maintain medical insurance—the same medical insurance that provides mental health services and medication management needed to treat their mental illness. It’s a medical care quagmire, and one that retired Dodgers player Andrew Toles would’ve found himself in, had the Major League Baseball team ended his contract.

Toles signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016 and just two years later, the team placed him on the restricted list indefinitely, essentially retiring the player while he worked on his mental health.

During his absence from the game, Toles has continued to struggle with his mental health. In 2018 he was hospitalized for two weeks and diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. After he was found living behind the Key West International Airport in 2020, the baseball player’s father, Alvin Toles, former linebacker for the New Orleans Saints, gained guardianship and Toles has been with him since.

At this point, it’s been multiple years since Toles has played baseball professionally, but that hasn’t stopped the Dodgers from renewing his contract.

Every year, the baseball team renews Toles’s contract for $0 and keeps him on the reserves list so he can keep his health insurance through the team. Mental health care can be expensive, especially when you have severe mental illnesses that may require multiple hospital stays and trials of multiple medications to find the right balance. The Dodgers continually renewing the player’s contract is not only heartwarming but admirable.

According to an update in 2021 from Toles’ father, the player is still in active psychosis.

“We are having challenges, but nothing that God and I can’t handle. Schizophrenia, it’s just so tough. I mean, he can’t even watch TV. He hears voices and the TV at the same time, so it’s kind of confusing. I’ve seen him looking at some baseball games on his laptop, but I don’t think he really understands what’s going on,” Alvin told USA Today at the time.

The Dodgers keeping Toles on their roster proves to the family that they’re not alone. Even if the embattled player doesn’t remember his time as a star baseball player or understand the game anymore, his team still has his back.

“His name will pop up randomly in our clubhouse. He fit in with us so fondly and was so adored. It’s just sad to see what has transpired and knowing that a lot of it is out of his control,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told USA Today in 2021. “Man, I would love to see him. I’d love to put my arms around him. I miss him. I really miss him.’’

Toles has been living out his life in a home next door to his father in Georgia, where his dad works hauling chemicals and caring for his son. The Dodgers are hopeful that one day Toles will be well enough to attend a game when they’re playing in Atlanta, according to USA Today.

We toss around the philosophical question “What advice would you give to your younger self?” a lot. But what if we switched that around? What if our younger selves had just as much wisdom to share?

Back in 2016, 13-year-old Michelle Skidelsky used the website FutureMe.org to write her future self a pre-scheduled email. She picked a send date at random without looking, not knowing if it would find its way to her 50 years or five days from that moment.

Cut to the present—it’s 2023. Skidelsky is now a 20-year-old college student. Her message just arrived.

In a now-viral TikTok clip, Skidelsky shared the loving words sent by her teen self, and millions of people were moved by just how positive it was.

“Dear Future Me…Hi! Did you miss me? It’s me, you!” the letter began.

Teen Skidelsky asked “Do you still want to be a doctor like I do? A psychiatrist?”

Adult Skidelsky’s answer: “No, I’m a communications major now.” But it’s OK, apparently her younger self “knew deep down that we weren’t good at math.”

@michelleskidelsky

i used futureme.org to do this!! dont let this fool you 13 year old me was rlly annoying

♬ original sound – michelle

Offering some words of wisdom, Teen Skidelsky continued, “If your life has gone horribly wrong, I’m sorry. But your life was awesome at one point and don’t regret making your life horrible because at one point it was everything you wanted.”

She also offered some really sweet encouragement, “I hope you remember that you are beautiful and awesome and deserve lots of awesome things…I am proud of you, because I know we are capable of great things.”

Touching, right? There were also a few funny quips in there, like “You are smart, or you were, and you can be smart again.”

Towards the end of the email, Teen Skidelsky urged her future counterpart to treat herself to a donut. Adult Skidelsky explains the painful context surrounding that request, recalling that she had been battling an eating disorder during that time, and this was an attempt at giving her self-esteem some positive messaging.

And in case you’re wondering—yes, Adult Skidelsky got herself a donut. A vanilla one, to be exact.

@michelleskidelsky Replying to @thefairygrandmother ♬ original sound – michelle

Skidelsky also returned the favor by creating a TikTok carousel honoring her younger self, aka her “hero.”

Thirteen-year-old Skidelsky was a “strong, resilient and brave” young girl, whose “favorite color was white, though technically white wasn’t actually a color,” who “always chose navy blue ties for her braces,” who felt unrequited love for her best friend but would later find it elsewhere, who wanted to “prove to some unknown entity that she was smart.”

She loved books, music, weekend sleepovers, riding her bike around her hometown, spring, classroom games and making DIY room decor.

Yeah, young Skidelsky sounds pretty rad. And according to her older self, “things turned out better than she could ever imagine.”

It’s so common to think that a chapter in our life isn’t going the way it should be when we’re in the thick of it, only to look back with a renewed sense of appreciation of our former selves. How many times have you been baffled looking back at a photo of yourself you once thought was atrocious? Yes, me too. Perhaps one of the best ways we can perform self-love is to infuse our future with a sense of hope in whatever way we can.

And isn’t it just mind-boggling to think about how, in many ways, we’re never really just one person navigating through life? Our entire identity is basically an ensemble of different characters telling our story without ever really interacting with one another.

However, if you would like to engage with one of your co-stars from another time, you can write your own future self a letter here. Who knows, it might bring a smile to your face years from now.

BTS have become Billboard Hot 100 titans, landing six No. 1 songs on the chart: “Dynamite,” “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” with Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo, “Life Goes On,” “Butter,” “Permission To Dance,” and “My Universe” with Coldplay. The group is currently on hiatus, but that’s not stopping them from having a presence on the Hot 100: On the new chart dated April 8, “Like Crazy,” from Jimin’s new solo album Face, debuts at No. 1. It’s the first song from a BTS member, and from a South Korean solo artist overall, to reach the top of the chart.

Fellow BTS member J-Hope offered a congratulatory message shortly after the news broke.

As for Face, it did well on the new Billboard 200 albums chart, too. That was revealed yesterday (April 2) and Face debuted at No. 2, behind Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time. Worth noting is that individual track plays count towards album rankings, and while Wallen’s album has 36 songs, Jimin’s project features only six tracks.

Jimin has had a strong promotional push for his solo work in recent days: He dropped a “Like Crazy” video late last month and sat down with Jimmy Fallon for a Tonight Show interview, during which he spoke about being starstruck by Halsey.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.