Trump tries out new material

On Friday night, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner had its redo after the attempted shooting back in April. For the tens of people outside of DC who cared about this annual celebration of the First Amendment that devolved long before Trump was president, there were at least two newsworthy moments:

We’ll get to all that later in the newsletter. But first - break out the celebratory champagne or SPAM because Local News International turns one this week!

A year ago, Lauren, Micah and I made the big leap, jumping from the comfortable (albeit increasingly concerning) world of legacy journalism at The Washington Post, into uncertain independent journalism waters. On a Tuesday, this New York Times article came out, breaking the news to the rest of the world and asking Can the Washington Post’s TikTok Guy Make It Without The Washington Post? By the next day, it became quite clear that The Post did not necessarily want me around for my final two weeks, so I hit the ground running, posting our first video that day.

In the coming weeks, Micah dove into the business end, making our company official, working through the paperwork with our lawyers, ensuring we had our taxes figured out. We got a new account on Adobe so I could continue editing right away, secured a new music library with APM Music, so these videos can have that extra flair when needed. Lauren began building out the consulting side of LNI, while also continuing to fact-check my videos and maintain that high-quality consistency people came to expect in our previous six years making news TikToks.

Harry’s Razors became our first partner almost right away, and we began plotting the “Will Dave Shave?” series. I continued my partnership with Free the Facts, making a ton of videos about government policymaking. Lauren and Micah have secured additional partnerships and consultations with a bunch of newsrooms and nonprofits, and many more you’ll see in the coming months - all available to view here.

The numbers keep going up. I posted our subscriber count for our anniversary on the YouTube community page five days ago and already those numbers are inaccurate (they’re higher now!).

Here’s a snapshot, one year later:

This is all thanks to you and your support. Whether you found us on TikTok, YouTube or Micah’s relentless LinkedIn posts, you have made LNI a real, legitimate news source. In that same week a year ago that this all became official, beehiiv helped us get this newsletter ready from the jump, creating a landing page within a week, and adding us to the Media Collective. Many of you subscribed that day, including numerous annual paid subscribers. You gave us that leg up we desperately needed.

If you’ve ever considered becoming a paid member, there’s no better time than this week. Starting today we’re launching our anniversary sale! For one week only, we’re offering 25% off annual paid subscriptions on ALL TIERS. This is our best discount ever! All you need to do is visit our special offer page and claim your discount.

In addition to the current perks, like early access to this newsletter, quarterly stickers, and face-to-face Zoom town halls, you’ll get early access to our long-form show that launches this fall!

A few months ago, I admitted publicly in this newsletter, and privately to my wife, that she was right about getting an air fryer this whole time. Not unlike choosing to leave the security of my job at The Post, purchasing an air fryer has been a zero regret decision. Many of you sent in suggestions (phone lines remain open now at [email protected]) on what to make in an air fryer, and I’ve been slowly going through most of them. Even reheating leftover pizza was a magical experience.

The latest creation was based on this video on Instagram, a croissant filled with egg, ham and veggies. The actual recipe wasn’t available unless I purchased the whole cookbook (and maybe one day I will!), so I just winged it based on the video itself. It was a 10/10 creation. I feel like I’ve unlocked a Sim cheat code except this is for real life. I am a master chef now.

As I slowly trickle out more information on our upcoming long-form series, I also want to ask you, the audience, for advice. One aspect of this show could include people calling in, asking questions about any given news stories. It’s that classic radio show call-in genre which is now popular in podcasts today like Armchair Anonymous and We’re Here to Help. So here are the questions:

To give you a sense of the questions we’re looking for, we want to tackle stories that are mired in misinformation, or, at the very least, confusion. Questions like:

I know I ask so much of you, dear reader. I really love to ask for your thoughts on any given topic. This time, I really, really want your thoughts. So, shoot me an email at [email protected] with some answers to these questions, and maybe some questions you’d like me to answer.

At popular comedy spots like the Comedy Cellar in New York City on any given night, you may see a very famous comedian “testing out material.” This means they’re preparing their next hour-long special, slowly putting it together joke by joke.

So they try out the new stuff at these places, filled with audiences who are ready to laugh but also expecting really good material. This was the original premise of Mike Birbiglia’s podcast Working It Out. He just wanted someone to bounce ideas off of in real time. Still today, he will post new jokes he’s trying to his social media platforms:

For some time now, I’ve felt that this is exactly what President Trump does at his rallies, where he spends upwards of three hours going on a tangent of a tangent of a speech he’s misreading on a teleprompter. While he may speak at a fourth grade level, he is undeniably good at reading a crowd and workshopping his way through new material. When something hits, you know you’re going to hear it in the next speech. It’s how “lock her up” became so popular in 2016. Trump had no plans or desires to jail Hillary Clinton, but as it became clear that his base loved this chant, he adopted it quickly. He never did “lock her up,” but he did get elected in 2016 and 2024 after regurgitating the anger of his base.

Trump was not re-elected in 2020, but that hasn’t stopped him from insisting he won, which would make his current term the “third term.” So, on Friday night he “joked” that he would run in 2028 for a “fourth term.”

Unlike a rally, Trump tried out this new material (and the prop hat that came with it) to a mostly unfriendly crowd of journalists, who had just awarded their fellow journalists minutes earlier for their reporting on Trump’s ties to Epstein. Ironically, this event typically embraces humor and light jabs. It’s what the president’s role in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has become. But Trump’s threat to ignore the 22nd Amendment and crown himself king for a third term just isn’t funny.

Still, this ridiculous dinner is broadcast. So now, like a comedian on Instagram, Trump can slowly gauge the reaction of his base. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure but with fascism. Here’s how it works:

Trump says something outlandish, then either

If 2, Trump tends to drop it. He will say it was “just a joke” and accuse those who took it seriously of having Trump Derangement Syndrome. Though he may try floating it again to see if anyone bites.

If 1, Trump will double down. Congress might, too. Soon, this “joke” warps into a reality that everyone must buy into, including his increasingly obedient staff.

This is how early-stage fascism works. It’s not all laws and actions. It’s ideas. If the idea that elections may not be fair takes hold, people may not even bother voting. Low voter turnout works in Trump’s favor. He wouldn’t even have to take action, like sending ICE to polling stations (which he continues to float).

For the media, it’s a catch-22. We take something like this seriously and report on it, only for it to never take hold. Then, everyone is accused of having TDS and trust in media goes down, despite the good-faith intentions of reporters to inform people.

As Trump keeps making jokes about running again, we have no choice but to take it seriously. It’s a bit of a trope at this point but, seriously … imagine if Obama or Bush or Biden had said any of this shit. I wish I could laugh it off. I wish Trump was still just the host of The Apprentice and only existed as a racist grandpa caricature on Twitter. Instead, we have to take his new material on stage at its word, and continue to participate in our democracy in good faith.

I’m absolutely obsessed with this new song from comedian musician, Kyle Gordon aka “the Millennial Weird Al.” It plays off of previous classics like Toto’s Africa and an entire album Paul Simon wrote while in South Africa. On top of being solid satire, it’s an absolute banger.

I showed this to my family and they all thought I overhyped it. I think, nay, I know they are wrong. Gordon is a genius and this song deserves a Grammy.

You can watch the full video, in all its glory, here.