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John Oliver Tears Apart GOP’s Most Unhinged 2024 Candidate

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John Oliver Tears Apart GOP’s Most Unhinged 2024 Candidate

John Oliver slammed North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson on Sunday night, outing the 55-year-old–who won the GOP nomination Tuesday for the state’s upcoming gubernatorial election–as a prime example of how Republicans have radicalized over social media.

“It was just a matter of time before online trolls crossed over from ranting about policy to writing it,” Oliver said on Last Week Tonight.

Oliver pointed out that Donald Trump boosted Robinson’s political ambitions by calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids” at a rally earlier this month. The former president also described him as “Martin Luther King times two” and decided that Robinson “should like” the comparison. “Do you know how racist you have to be to give a Black person a compliment that starts by quantifying their human value, and then ends with a demand?” Oliver said Sunday in response. “It’s a lot.”

Oliver had nothing complimentary to offer about Robinson, noting that his “own feelings on MLK are at best, complicated,” after the politician expressed skepticism about the aims of the civil rights movement.

“That’s genuinely shocking. Not so much that someone is making controversial, inaccurate claims about the civil rights movement on a podcast, but that it’s happening without Joe Rogan occasionally popping in to say ‘That’s wild, bro’ before pivoting to an ad for a protein supplement that promises to make your dick veinier,” Oliver said.

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Robinson’s position that the sit-in protests at a Greensboro lunch counter in 1960 were counterproductive to free-market capitalism “is not just the argument of an asshole, but an asshole on steroids,” Oliver said. “An asshole times two.”

Oliver also criticized Robinson for supporting book bans and his outspoken opposition to gay rights, as seen in a 2021 speech at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, where Robinson claimed that schools shouldn’t recognize gay rights because there “ain’t but two genders.” He added: “Two plus two don’t equal transgender. It equals four.”

Oliver countered: “It’s actually a great discursive tactic. Finish an incomprehensibly offensive rant with one incontrovertible fact.”

On other issues, Robinson has supported an abortion ban at six weeks, and told at least one audience that our culture tells women to have sex and get an abortion to get out of trouble. “It’s all right to murder someone to get out of it,” he said in 2021. “Once you make a baby, it’s not your body anymore. It’s y’all’s body.”

To which Oliver replied: “I will say, if the women of this country do think it’s all right to murder someone to get out of trouble, they are currently showing incredible restraint.”

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Restraint that Robinson apparently lacks, Oliver learned, after digging into Robinson’s 2022 memoir, We Are The Majority!.

Oliver discovered that the current lieutenant governor joined Facebook in 2007 solely intending to write about pro wrestling, only to find that, much like pro wrestling, people feed off of outrage and fake drama. As Robinson wrote: “I wanted people to read my page and go, ‘What did he say? Did he really say that?’ And that’s what happened.”

Cut to last year, where Raleigh TV station WRAL uncovered Robinson’s Facebook statements about Jewish people, which he subsequently walked back by calling them “poorly worded.”

“Poorly worded is something like, ‘You have been broken up with by me,’” Oliver replied.

“I think the main issue there was his flagrant antisemitism being worded at all. This guy clearly isn’t Martin Luther King on steroids. If anything, he’s much more like your shittiest uncle on Ambien.”

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Pride celebrations struggle as corporate sponsorships dry up

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Pride celebrations struggle as corporate sponsorships dry up

Lyndsey Sickler, one of Pittsburgh Pride organizers.

Hannah Frances Johansson


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Hannah Frances Johansson

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Pride celebrations across the country continue to lose out on large sponsorships as corporations, a key source of funding, shrink their affiliation with diversity causes and LGBTQ+ events.

Corporate sponsorships of celebrations in several cities, including New York City, Salt Lake City, Louisville, St. Louis, Orlando, and Pittsburgh are down from previous years, organizers said.

Jordan Braxton, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, which supports Pride celebrations nationwide, said that while some smaller Prides have seen a growth in sponsorships, a majority have seen a reduction.

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She said the Trump administration’s dismantling of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, has scared corporations away from sponsoring Pride celebrations. “I think that’s why some of the corporations have pulled back, because they don’t want that government scrutiny,” she said.

In his first days in office in 2025, Trump issued presidential actions targeting DEI within the federal government and encouraging the private sector to end what the administration considers “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

In Pittsburgh, Pride organizers are trying to make up for lost sponsorships in time for their festival and parade in early June.

“It takes a lot of money to do this,” said Dena Stanley, director of Pittsburgh Pride. “Permittings costs, security costs, headliners costs, staging costs, cleaning crew costs, insurance costs, all of these are expenses.”

Pittsburgh Pride organizers think it will secure 30-40% of the sponsorship dollars they were able to fundraise a few years ago.

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To narrow the gap, the group said they received a state grant and solicited individual donations.

Dena Stanley, director of Pittsburgh Pride.

Dena Stanley, director of Pittsburgh Pride.

Hannah Frances Johansson.


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Hannah Frances Johansson.

E Ciszek, who researches advertising and public relations at The University of Texas at Austin, said the downturn in corporate sponsorships is happening amid a movement against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the “attack on trans rights, in particular.”

“I think this is not just a matter of budget cuts, right?” Ciszek said. “It’s important to take a step back and see this more as a moment of risk, a moment of political pressure, and looking really at the limits of corporate allyship, particularly when LGBTQ visibility has become really politically costly.”

Corporations, she said, are calculating the risk of public support for Pride, which could expose them to litigation, political retaliation or consumer boycotts.

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“What once was [an] organizational asset, has now become an organizational risk,” Ciszek said.

Lyndsey Sickler, another Pittsburgh Pride organizer, described Pride celebrations as empowering for LGBTQ+ people who live in communities where they feel scrutinized for their identity.

For some people, it’s their first time being in, “a space that is actively, loudly celebrating everything that is us,” Sickler said. “Nothing else matters at that point.”

Less sponsorship money can also impact year-round events and resources for the LGBTQ+ community.

“People sometimes look at Pride festivals just as a big party, which they are, but they’re also resource fairs, job fairs, and we also use it as a fundraising event,” said Braxton of the United States Association of Prides.

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In Florida, Tampa Pride announced a one-year hiatus after a slew of corporations dropped their sponsorships, said Carrie West, who ran the organization.

“All of a sudden, bingo. Here you have no money, no grant money, no supporting money, to make operations, to plan, to get any kind of anything,” he said. “Oh my gosh, it was, it’s devastating.”

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Video: Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name From Kennedy Center

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Video: Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name From Kennedy Center

new video loaded: Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name From Kennedy Center

A federal judge in Washington on Friday ordered that President Trump’s name be removed from the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

By Jackeline Luna

May 29, 2026

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Trump’s doctor recommends he lose weight and exercise more but says he is in ‘excellent health’ | CNN Politics

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Trump’s doctor recommends he lose weight and exercise more but says he is in ‘excellent health’ | CNN Politics

The White House released the results of President Donald Trump’s May physical late Friday evening, sharing a memo from his physician recommending he lose weight and exercise more while noting he is in excellent health.

“President Trump remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function,” White House physician Dr. Sean Barbabella wrote in a letter. “Cognitive and physical performance are excellent. He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”

Barbabella wrote, “Preventive counseling was provided,” during the exam, “including guidance on diet, recommendation to take a low-dose aspirin, increased physical activity, and continued weight loss.”

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The doctor noted the president stands 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 238 pounds.

At his physical exam last April, Trump weighed 224 pounds.

His visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Tuesday marked the third time he’s visited the facility for a medical exam since becoming the oldest president ever inaugurated last year.

Prior to the visit, the White House said the check-up would include “routine annual dental and medical assessments,” despite him having already visited a dentist in Florida twice this year.

Immediately following the visit, Trump offered scant details on Truth Social, writing “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”

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Since returning to the White House in 2025, visible ailments and speculation over his health have prompted the White House to divulge new details of the president’s physical condition.

The White House said swelling in his legs and ankles that was revealed last summer​ was a result of chronic venous insufficiency, a condition in which valves inside certain veins don’t work the way they should, which can allow blood to pool or collect in the veins. Trump attempted wearing compression socks, but found them uncomfortable.

In Friday’s letter, the president’s doctor wrote that, during Tuesday’s physical, “Slight lower leg swelling was noted, with improvement from last year.”

The president has also developed noticeable bruising on his hands during his second term, which the White House has chalked up to frequent handshakes and attempted to cover up with concealer in photographs.

According to the doctor’s readout, Trump also submitted to a “comprehensive neurological exam,” which showed “normal mental status, intact cranial nerves, normal motor strength, sensation, reflexes, gait, and balance.”

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As for Trump’s heart health, the doctor said, “Al-enhanced electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis estimated his cardiac age…to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.”

Barbabella’s letter noted that Trump currently takes aspirin but didn’t give a dosage. When it’s used for preventive purposes, doctors generally advise taking 81 milligrams of aspirin per day, but Trump told the Wall Street Journal in January that he takes 325 milligrams, a dose that can raise the risk of bleeding.

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump told the WSJ. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. … They’d rather have me take the smaller one. I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is, it causes bruising.”

Trump again took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a 10-minute screening test used to detect mild cognitive impairment and early dementia. The doctor said the president scored 30 out of 30.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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