Inside Don Jr.’s manly-man magazine
Field Ethos, a new hunting and outdoors magazine founded by the former president’s son, seems at first glance like a new project for Trump Jr. But it’s all an extension of his father’s political strategy.
Donald Trump Jr. isn’t just a meme-posting soldier in his father’s culture war; he’s also a print media man.
In 2021, Trump Jr., 46, started Field Ethos, a quarterly magazine, website and lifestyle brand that looks like Ernest Hemingway’s version of Goop. Focused on hunting and the outdoors for the “unapologetic man,” Field Ethos offers stunning landscape photography, stories of buffalo hunts and outdoorsy gear reviews. The brand’s travel agency features a “Cowboy Camp” for $3,600 per person. It promises “unlimited wild hogs.”
Field Ethos is “probably one of the least political things I do,” he tells writer Rosie Gray. But a deep dive into its pages reveals that the campaign trail runs right through the forest paths of its stories.
From podcast interviews with ultra-conservative darlings to publisher’s notes sounding the alarm about drag queens, MAGA politics undergirds the whole operation — “part of a bigger project that’s been ongoing on the American right of building a conservative parallel economy and bringing the culture wars of politics to consumer habits,” Gray writes.
“Rather than building and protecting an apolitical space with Field Ethos, if you look a bit closer, it’s clear that Trump Jr.’s magazine is an extension of his father’s political strategy to business and almost everything else.”
“I hope you guys are happy with this dismal performance and the 10 million dollars your futile Bull Shit cost the party. I look very much forward to seeing most of you lose due to your absolute hate filled campaign to remove me from Congress arbitrarily. Now go tell the Republicans Base what you fucking idiots did and good luck raising money next quarter.”
Can you guess who wrote this in a text to House GOP members from New York this week? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
Stop Protesting at Officials’ Homes … Protesters camped outside the home of Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently dumped fake blood in the street and yelled, “Your father is a baby killer!” as his children, ages 3 and 4, passed in a car. If the kids had a reaction, no one could tell. “But the fact that we even have to ponder the merits of strangers yelling at preschoolers is a sign of something troubling in our political culture,” writes Michael Schaffer in this week’s Capital City column. “It’s also a commentary on the questionable efficacy of this very 2024 variety of direct action. A cathartic thrill for the righteously indignant, showing up at the homes of Washington bigwigs also creates optics that turn demonstrators into bullies and their targets into victims, hardening the hearts of just about everyone in sight.”
Intelligence about nuclear threats from Russia in space roiled Capitol Hill this week. Confused about whether to duck-and-cover or yawn and say “we all knew Moscow had this kind of thing in the works?” Here are some talking points to navigate discussions. (From POLITICO’s Heidi Vogt)
— Don’t bother discussing the tech — there isn’t much detail available other than it involves nuclear technology and a weapon that can take out satellites. If you really want to sound in the know, explain that even if Russia manages to build an anti-satellite nuclear device, it probably doesn’t have the capability to successfully launch it into space.
— Focus on the politics. Why did House Intel Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) decide to issue his panic-inducing warning about a “national security threat” this week when he’d known about it for months? Is Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) right that it’s just him trying push through other priorities?
— Point out that this all about Section 702. When someone asks, “What’s Section 702?” roll your eyes and say, “You’ll know when the government comes for you because of that email you sent to your aunt in London.”
— Pivot to Jake Sullivan: “Did you hear that he was surprised by Turner’s statement? Isn’t he supposedly the one that’s always in the know?” Or you can argue that Sullivan should have expected something like this, given that Turner later said his committee had “worked in consultation with the Biden administration” on getting the intel widely distributed in Congress.
— Drop some nukes-in-space history. The U.S. actually detonated a nuclear bomb in space in 1962 in the Starfish Prime test. Guess what happened? By some estimates it destroyed roughly a third of the satellites in orbit.
Even Joe Biden Is on TikTok Now … Forget the Super Bowl — the most significant cultural event this past Sunday was Joe Biden’s campaign joining TikTok, an app he directed federal agencies to remove from their devices last year. His first post riffed on the conspiracy theory that he’d rigged the game for the Chiefs to score an endorsement from Taylor Swift. To some popular influencers on TikTok, it was a strong start. For others, it left much to be desired. With skepticism of Biden among young voters on the rise, youth politics reporter Rachel Janfaza spoke to top TikTokers about how the president could activate the app’s massive audience without becoming one big “how do you do, fellow kids?” meme.
7 Political Family Feuds … Some members of the Kennedy family did not appreciate RFK Jr.’s campaign ad during the Super Bowl, which featured images of beloved ancestors and even reprised the old “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy” jingle. But he’s hardly the first American politician to feud with his family. Peder Schaefer found seven political family fights that offer Kennedy an important lesson: When it comes to politics, you can’t trust anyone — especially kin.
**Who Dissed answer: Of course, it was disgraced former Rep. George Santos, who blew up at former colleagues after Democrat Tom Suozzi won the seat he vacated when expelled from Congress. “Sorry new phone, who dis?” wrote back Rep. Andrew Garbarino.
