President Trump’s attempts to emulate Barack Obama’s inaugurations largely fell flat.
He wanted record crowds, but was dwarfed by the Women’s March on Washington. He wanted A-list performers, but had to settle for Toby Keith. He wanted mass celebration, he got mass protests.
However, one thing he successfully borrowed from Obama was the former President’s incredible cake. Trump’s inauguration cake was an exact replica of the towering treat created by pastry chef Duff Goldman for Obama’s 2013 celebration. The only problem? Goldman didn’t make it.
The cake on the left is the one I made for President Obama's inauguration 4 years ago. The one on the right is Trumps. I didn't make it. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/qJXpCfPhii
Instead, Trump’s cake was crafted by D.C.’s Buttercream Bakeshop.
“They came to us a couple of weeks ago, which is pretty last minute, and said, ‘We have a photo that we would like to replicate,’” Tiffany MacIsaac, owner of the bakery, told the Washington Post.
She also revealed that, unlike Goldman’s creation, only the bottom layer — the one Trump is slicing into in the photo above — is edible. The rest of the cake is Styrofoam. (That Trump’s cake is all grandeur, no substance is somewhat fitting.)
While the nature of the cake’s creation is confusing, there is at least some good news: Donald Trump’s team has accidentally donated to an LGBT rights organization. In a post on Instagram, Buttercream Bakeshop revealed that the profits from the cake are being donated to the Human Rights Campaign.
“Because basic human rights are something every man, woman and child — straight, gay or the rainbow in between — deserve!” the bakery wrote.
The International Olympic Committee is reportedly preparing to ban transgender women from competing in all female-designated sports, according to a report by the U.K. newspaper The Times.
At present, each sport’s international federation sets its own rules on transgender eligibility, with some requiring athletes to undergo hormone therapy for a specific period before competing in the female category.
But IOC President Kirsty Coventry, elected earlier this year, has called for consistent standards across all sports. After taking office in June, she created four working groups to address key issues facing the IOC, including one focused on protecting women’s sports.
U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, one of several Democrats targeted in Texas's latest gerrymander, says she will seek reelection after a federal three-judge panel blocked a Republican-backed congressional map that would have drawn her out of her Dallas-area district for 2026.
The lesbian congresswoman is one of five Texas Democrats whose districts were reshaped to give Republicans a 2026 edge, and among several Democrats who were effectively drawn out of the seats they currently represent.
In Johnson's case, the proposed map would have stretched her Dallas-based 32nd District into Republican-leaning Rockwall County and rural East Texas, while shifting her hometown of Farmers Branch into GOP Rep. Beth Van Duyne's 24th District, a seat Trump won by 16 points in 2024.
The summer of 1985, I turned 16. In Belgium. While I lived primarily in rural, red Florida, summers sometimes had me staying with Dad's family. At the time, my Army father was assigned to the American embassy in Brussels. With $100 in American Express "travelers' cheques," our go-to global currency of the time, it was a thrilling summer.
In Florida, I would've spent those months mopping floors or working the grill at a mall job. Instead, I had urban mass transit and could drink in bars. Granted, my Euro '80s summer was more Depeche Mode than anything as explicit as Call Me By Your Name. Though virginal, at least I passed for something seedier one afternoon.
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