Is the MAGA exodus actually happening?

📄 What I’m reading: Claude Mythos Preview

🇮🇹 Where I’m going: Italy!

🍿 What I’m eating: Buncha Crunch popcorn

👀 What I’m watching: The Drama

﹖ What I’m wondering: Are people really leaving MAGA?

Do you ever just want to transport to a Waffle House and pretend everything is normal? Well, we don’t all have a FEMA official’s super powers. Instead, we have to confront our reality, which currently involves failed peace talks with Iran, ‘warflation’, and even MAGA media, including (pause for effect …) Alex Jones, doing a 180 on President Trump.

I’ll be tackling that in this week’s newsletter. But first, a quick summary of the rest of my week and what’s coming. And if you haven’t already, please help us beat Brian Tyler Cohen in the Webby category for ‘General Creator - News & Politics.’ He seems like a nice guy but we must defeat him. Vote here and confirm your vote via email!

On Friday, I made a video explaining why Anthropic has been very publicly freaked out by its own latest AI creation. Claude Mythos was designed to detect weaknesses in cybersecurity and help fix them. Predictably, it’s doing that and more - finding its way to the internet without permission while its testers eat sandwiches in the park. It’s so good at what it does, it may actually be a problem. Many commenters astutely compared this to the plot of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Other commenters went a different direction, pointing out that this could very well be a marketing ploy, something tech companies - especially AI companies - are often guilty of doing. They don’t necessarily care if a product works, they’re just trying to hype their company up.

But everything I’ve read about this, including Anthropic’s own report, suggests otherwise. The New York Times interviewed many experts who all but confirmed this concern is legitimate and not a play for attention:

I also think it would be strange to make this claim while also sending out Mythos to other tech companies to test - companies that have also confirmed this tech could be dangerous. It would be a bit of a 4D chess marketing play to basically ask your competitors to critique your product.

Maybe the truth is not black and white. It could be both marketing and a legitimate concern from what is sometimes considered the more “moral” AI company. Whatever the case, I think erring on the side of caution is wise here.

I also think the many, many comments in our video on this that “it’s marketing” raise a tiny red flag in the back of my head. Dismissing these concerns altogether feels more like a coping strategy. We see it all the time, and it’s how misinformation spreads so easily. Maybe Trump went to war for some bigger reason we just don’t know about! There’s going to be a secret ninth Stranger Things episode that will explain all the plot holes! The sexual assault accusations against Eric Swalwell can’t be true - he was so outspoken during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings! And he’s a Democrat!

Sometimes it’s easier to avoid what is likely the truth so that we don’t have to admit to an awful reality.

Many professions have conferences in hotels, sometimes run by the companies themselves or a mysterious third party. As a rule, I’ve found that only one of these statements can be true, per conference:

Somehow, the International Journalism Festival breaks the rules*. I’ve attended IJF once before, in 2023, and was blown away. The festival is contained to the town of Perugia, Italy. Journalists from all over the world descend upon this beautiful Italian town to have meaningful discussions, panels and meetings about the current state of journalism. Attendees are not all put in one giant Marriott hotel, but in several small, chic Italian hotels scattered throughout the city. Local restaurants open their doors to attendees, who are all given meal vouchers. The talks are open to the public, not just paying festival attendees.

This week, Lauren, Micah and I will head to Perugia for the conference, where I will speak on several panels and eat several plates of pasta. This time, I’m not going as a Washington Post reporter, but as a Local News International co-founder, ready to make waves locally and internationally. Don’t be surprised if a video this week unnecessarily includes gelato.

*please note that the conference rule is a joke. I just really love IJF in Perugia.

Italy has captured my heart, but it has also captured the rights to my favorite movie theater candy. Buncha Crunch, along with several other Nestlé products, was sold to Ferrero Italia back in 2018. Luckily, this did not disrupt the candy’s presence in basically every movie theater in the U.S.

Last night, I continued my time-honored tradition of pouring the Buncha Crunch over my comically large bowl of popcorn. Before the internet, I thought this was an original concept I had developed in the mid-2000s while watching Superbad. But there are no original experiences, and I’ve seen talk of this method online since.

What’s your favorite movie snack hack (besides buying the Buncha Crunch at CVS and sneaking it in)? Let me know at [email protected].

Because movies don’t start until a half hour after they were scheduled to start, I had completely obliterated the popcorn and Buncha Crunch before The Drama had even begun. But this turned out to be a non-issue. I feasted instead on this amazing, second-hand-embarrassment-inducing black comedy for just under two hours.

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are two of the best working actors in the world right now. Putting them together on screen for this perfectly written, directed and edited film feels like a special treat. Not to be dramatic, but I just kept thinking, “how lucky are we?” that they were both cast in The Drama.

I went in mostly blind, so I don’t want to to spoil any big moments here. Instead I’ll leave you with two thoughts. This might be one of the best edited films I’ve ever seen. Any movie that causes the audience to ask their fellow movie-watchers “what would you do?” during the movie is doing something right. It’s just so engaging from beginning to end.

Final thought: bonus points for Alana Haim (from Licorice Pizza and, you know, HAIM). Her character is so awful and realistic, I’m going to need to watch her in something else just to separate the exceptional performance from the actress.

Candace Owens and Alex Jones have called for President Trump to be removed from office. And not just for some random conspiracy theory (Trump is not turning the freaking frogs gay), but because he has started a war without a clear plan or goal (a totally legitimate reason!).

Here in our little 2026 Earth multiverse timeline, Owens and Jones are in line with Democrats and some Republicans. They may not explicitly say that, but they are saying the same things. If we take a small step to the left (and I mean a small step), there’s Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, publicly and passionately speaking out against President Trump. To quote Donald Trump Jr., the president was triggered:

As it stands, Trump’s approval rating is currently floating around -19 points.

But with Republicans, it’s still quite high, around 80%. If we put on my “logical-and-void-of-emotion” hat, which I throw on when I’m not donning my “how funny can I make this news story” hat … is this current in-fighting significant? Or is just not manufactured drama? Has MAGA found the “bar” I joked about last November, or will they get back in lockstep by midterms?

I’m not sure. I don’t have a crystal ball. But I think if these right-wing forces continue to be critical of the president, and this isn’t a blip, it will be very bad for Trump (and he probably knows it).

If, for the first time, the majority of popular MAGA podcast hosts don’t let up on their criticism, it would be hard for their loyal listeners to turn anywhere else. As a result, I feel like I’ve seen more “why I left MAGA” videos on my social feeds lately:

Have you noticed an increase in these videos, or in posts from your friends and family? Or is this all imagined? I’m very curious and may use it for a video. Let me know at [email protected].