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Melania Trump Complains About Family Separation Backlash In Secret Audio

As you surely know by now, it’s a pretty big day in the news cycle.

Midway through the night, when most of us were sleeping or listening to the new 21 Savage and Metro Boomin album, Donald Trump announced that he and Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19. That’s been a major topic of conversation on social media all morning but it wasn’t all that came out regarding the Trumps.

Melania Trump, who is responsible for decorating the White House during the winter holiday season, was secretly recorded by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and senior advisor to the first lady, while she complained about how nobody cares about her Christmas decorations. During the leaked audio recording, she also frustratedly vents about the critics of Donald Trump’s family separation policy, which forced children to spend months away from their parents, effectively being treated like prisoners.

The White House via Getty Images

“They say I’m complicit. I’m the same like him, I support him. I don’t say enough I don’t do enough where I am,” says Melania in the tape. “I’m working … my ass off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?”

She continued, “OK, and then I do it and I say that I’m working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a fucking break. Where they were saying anything when Obama did that? I can not go, I was trying get the kid reunited with the mom. I didn’t have a chance — needs to go through the process and through the law.”

The audio was originally played on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 last night.

Other recordings were also released, where Melania speaks positively about the conditions that the children were forced to live in, stating that many were happy they got to sleep on a bed and store their clothing in dressers, painting an unrealistic picture of the actual conditions they were living in.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

“The kids, they say, ‘Wow I will have my own bed? I will sleep on the bed? I will have a cabinet for my clothes?’ It’s so sad to hear it but they didn’t have that in their own countries, they sleep on the floor,” said the first lady. “They are taken care of nicely there. But you know, yeah, they are not with parents, it’s sad. But when they come here alone or with coyotes or illegally, you know, you need to do something.”

What do you make of this?

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Entertainment

Snoop Dogg Wants To Pay Someone $10,000 A Month To Eat Ice Cream

Snoop Dogg in Hollywood, California, 2019

Photo: Glenn Francis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Snoop Dogg has had a lot of job titles over the years, but “official ice cream taster” wasn’t one of them until now — and he’s hiring someone else to fill it. His company Dr. Bombay just opened applications for the role, and it pays $10,000 a month.

The gig is fully remote and open to anyone on the planet, which Snoop announced himself in a video that’s exactly as laid-back as you’d expect. “I love the paper, but not the paperwork,” he said, explaining that HR firm Deel is handling the logistics while he handles, presumably, the ice cream.

The actual job is less “sit around and eat pints all day” and more part-time cultural scout. Whoever gets it will track flavor and food trends around the world, report back on what people are eating and talking about, and work directly with Dr. Bombay’s in-house flavor lead to help shape what the brand does next. It’s a three-month contractor role, and Snoop’s team says they’re actively looking outside the usual resume pile — creators and non-traditional applicants welcome.

Dr. Bombay itself leans nostalgic, with flavors like Long Beach Fruit Cart, Sticky Caramel Apple Pie, and Peanut Butter Jelly Time already sitting on shelves at Walmart and moving through DoorDash and Instacart. Somewhere out there is one very lucky applicant about to get paid five figures a month to have opinions about ice cream, and honestly, good for them.

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Ronan Furlong finds renewal in the sea with latest release “Splitting The Ash”

“Splitting The Ash” opens with a distinctly Celtic riff before Ronan Furlong moves into an energetic song influenced by ideas of healing, rebirth, and spiritual renewal. The title and subject of the song are based on an ancient Irish ritual in which an ash tree is split open, giving the song a strong link to tradition, while its message is firmly rooted in the present: finding strength, renewal, and inspiration when life puts barriers in your way.

The sea is central to the track’s feeling, a symbol of challenge and regeneration. Furlong links his power to the resilience that can develop from exceeding physical boundaries. The song’s backstory lends that notion further weight, penned during a swim in the Irish Sea in January. The music’s context of creation gives it a particularly direct relationship with endurance and the willingness to push beyond discomfort.

“Splitting The Ash” ultimately feels life-affirming but never loses sight of struggle. The Celtic opening of the song gives an immediate sense of place, while its focus on renewal keeps the message open and universal. Ronan Furlong uses an old image of healing to remind us that difficult experiences can also be a source of strength, inspiration, and a renewed connection to life.

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