Politics

Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis and his team might wanna take things back to the drawing board because one anti-Trump Pride Month ad just didn't quite stick the way they had hoped.

A video shared by the official DeSantisWarRoom campaign account on Twitter with the caption, "To wrap up 'Pride Month,' let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…"

The video went on to show images of Trump posing with a rainbow flag, talking highly of his friend, Caitlyn Jenner, and vowing to protect the LGBTQ community.

Whether or not Trump has kept those promises is another discussion ... but Twitter users unleashed on the DeSantis campaign, confused about how they truly thought the whole thing would land.

Some of the most popular comments included, "Is Ron Desantis running for President of Iran?" "Lol bro this just made me like trump for 2 minutes." "This is the most Trump thing DeSantis has ever done ... keep it up" and "This might as well be a pro-Trump ad."

Barbie has gotten caught up in a global dispute, and as a result, her new, upcoming flick has been banned in Vietnam.

Here's the deal ... it's all over something called the "nine-dash line" -- carving out China's territorial claim. It's located near the South China Sea. Vietnam and other countries are vying for that same territory.

The movie apparently showcases a map that shows nine-dash line is part of China's territory, and that was enough for Vietnam to 86 the film, which is set to debut July 21st.

A rep for the Vietnam Cinema Department put it bluntly ... “We do not grant a license for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line.”

Michael Imperioli isn't happy with the Supreme Court's decision in further allowing business owners to turn away customers from the LGBTQ+ community ... making his outrage clear.

The former "Sopranos" star took to social media this weekend to blow off some steam over the mega-ruling that came down Friday -- with a majority of the justices siding with a web designer who refuses to work on a gay couples wedding sites on religious grounds.

In the end, they said she has every right to refuse gay couples her services ... on account of the First Amendment. Remember, another ruling for a wedding cake shop owner also seemed to back that up ... albeit in not nearly as clear terms as this one was. In any case, MI's pissed.

He posted a photo of the web designer in question with a headline attached, and then added this commentary ... "i’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching The Sopranos, The White Lotus, Goodfellas or any movie or tv show I’ve been in."

Mike adds, "Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA ! USA!" He went on to say hate and ignorance were not a legitimate POV ... and America was becoming dumber by the minute.

The response he's getting to this is interesting ... seems like a lot of people who agree with the high court's decision are not on board with his take, and many appear shocked he was this passionate about the topic.

Welp, Michael's made no bones about where he stands on this -- and considering that conservatives appear to be boycotting anything they consider "woke" ... ya gotta wonder if they'll take him up on his suggestion and stop watching his TV shows and movies.

Charles Barkley is doing his part in end-running the United States Supreme Court's decision outlawing affirmative action in college admissions ... he's amending his will to provide scholarships for Black students.

Barkley says he'll leave $5 million to his alma mater, Auburn, adding, “That’s just my way of trying to make sure Auburn stays diverse. After that ruling yesterday, my phone was blowing up. I was talking to my friends and said, ‘I need to make sure Black folks always have a place at Auburn.’”

Black students comprise just over 5% of Auburn's student body.

As you know, SCOTUS gutted affirmative action Thursday, ruling that using race as a factor in deciding who gets into a school violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The way the ruling is written ... it could have far-reaching implications, including in the area of employment.

France was roiled by riots for a fourth night Friday after police killed a 17-year-old as the country's leader, Emmanuel Macron, blasted the protesters.

Mobs of people went on an evening rampage through the streets of a Paris suburb, where the teen, identified as Nahel M, was fatally shot by cops during a traffic stop Tuesday.

The crowds expressed their fury over Nahel's death by smashing windows and setting cars and buildings ablaze. They also violently clashed with cops in riot gear as more than 1,300 demonstrators were arrested and detained overnight all across France.

France's Interior Ministry said 2,560 fires were reported on public roads, 1,350 cars were burned, and there were 234 incidents involving damaged or charred buildings.

In addition, police were attacked 58 times by militants and 79 officers suffered injuries. A total of 45,000 cops were dispatched Friday to quell the chaos in the Paris suburb and other towns and cities like Marseille.

President Macron condemned the combatants, accusing them of justifying their anarchy by "unacceptable exploitation of the adolescent's death."

Lil Baby seemingly has no problem paying his share to Uncle Sam ...  the Atlanta superstar dropped insightful bars about his A1 tax standing on both his features that dropped Friday.

On "False Idols," the newest entry in The Weeknd's playlist from his HBO series "The Idol," Baby flexes his number-crunching skills ..."The money keeps comin', the feelin' is great I pay eight-figure taxes/No more section eight/I was workin' my wrist tryna see what it take."

Baby's wealth of knowledge bled over to his artist Rylo Rodriguez's new "Been One" album via the track "Real Type" and he warned the streets about the IRS' wrath ... "Penny pinchin' peons, hope you n***** paid your taxes/You the type to never have it with you, really catfish!!!"

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson's is livid six justices have upended affirmative action in this country, saying Black people are getting screwed all over again.

The Vanderbilt University professor joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and ... excoriated Chief Justice John Robert's and the 5 justices who joined him, ruling affirmative action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

Dr. Dyson argues Black people have always been denied opportunities in America, specifically because of their race, so there's no way to right that wrong without taking race into consideration.

The impact of the SCOTUS decision is seismic ... private and public universities can no longer consider race as a factor in admissions. Many supporters of affirmative action fear white and Asian students will now be significantly favored in higher education, at the expense of other minority groups. The decision will clearly have repercussions in the workplace.

The Supreme Court just ruled that affirmative action in university admission violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.

All six Republican-appointed justices voted to strike down affirmative action. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority decision.

The impact of the decision is enormous ... no longer can private or public universities in the United States expressly consider race as a factor in admissions. Many supporters of affirmative action fear that higher education in America will now significantly favor white and Asian students, and largely exclude other minority groups.

The Court did say, however, that schools may still consider non-race-based factors such as socio-economic diversity and diversity of experiences, so it is unlikely universities will return to the days of old when they were the exclusive bastion of rich, white kids.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams is raising some eyebrows after comparing a citizen at a community meeting to a plantation owner ... this after the woman got aggressive in addressing Adams over recent rent hikes.

Mayor Adams and company were at Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics in Washington Heights Wednesday fielding questions on a broad array of topics.

Everything was cordial until one woman interrupted Adams, calling him out for raising the rent. Adams informed the woman he doesn't control the Rent Guidelines Board, but she continued to attack -- pointing her finger at the Mayor several times while addressing him.

Adams clearly had enough -- telling the woman she needed to show him some respect as the Mayor of NYC -- before saying, "I'm speaking to you as an adult. Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own."

Donald Trump is in deeper trouble than anyone could have imagined in his classified documents case ... this after CNN aired a bombshell audio of him showing classified material he never declassified ... showing it to people who had no business seeing it.

The 45th President was taped casually chatting with his staff about "highly confidential" documents at a July 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The get-together was supposed to be centered around a writer -- also in the room -- penning a memoir about Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, but it soon devolved into a conversation about a secret plan against Iran drawn up by Defense Department General Mark Milley.

The two-minute recording, featured Monday night on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," starts off with Trump purportedly grabbing the sensitive docs and rustling them in his hands.

Trump then says, "This thing just came up." This was [Milly]. This was the Defense Department and him."

He then points out the docs are "highly confidential, secret. This is secret information ... Isn't that incredible?"

Then Trump makes an incriminating admission, stating, "See, as president, I could have declassified it, but now I can't."

A woman in the room responds, "Now we have a problem," but she then starts laughing.

In another part of the recording, Trump makes fun of Hillary Clinton and her emails scandal. One of Trump's aides begins by saying Hillary would print out her private emails all the time.

Trump answers, "No, she'd send it to Anthony Weiner." He then called Weiner a pervert, causing everyone to chuckle. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman, was convicted of transferring obscene material to a minor and sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.

Ice Cube says he is not part of the elite Hollywood "club" that so many others apparently are -- and he's airing some grievances about challenges he says he faces because of it.

The rapper posted an ominous video Sunday where he's talking directly to the camera ... and the dude goes on this long rant about being on the outs with the elites and "gatekeepers" in showbiz and sports ... at least that's what it sounds like he's referring to.

Ice says flatly ... he's not part of that crowd, nor does he want to be -- and goes on to say that that fact actually makes folk on the inside angry, 'cause he's resisting a mainstream thing for someone in his position.

It also seems Cube might be talking politics here too ... 'cause he references his contract with Black America -- something he put forth ahead of the 2020 presidential race, and which he said he felt Donald Trump actually appeared to take more seriously than Joe Biden.

In the wake of that, IC says certain groups have been "f***ing" with him -- and the way he's describing it ... it sounds like he believes certain hurdles have been thrown up around as backlash to his stance. Cube says he doesn't care though, 'cause he vows to overcome.

He mentions his Big3 league ... and says it's grown prosperous despite what he characterizes as getting the cold shoulder from powerful institutions -- like the NBA, for example.

Cube also says he's planning to do a massive podcast tour in the near future where he talks to "everybody" -- and he makes it seem like that itself is going to ruffle feathers as well.

Lance Armstrong wants to have his say on the transgender sports debate -- and he's partnering with Caitlyn Jenner to do it ... but people online are telling him to shut it.

The former champion cyclist -- whose accolades were, by and large, rescinded after he was found to have been doping through a decent amount of his career -- teased a new project he appears to have in the works ... one in which he's getting into the polarizing topic.

His key subject, it seems, is going to be Caitlyn ... who's been very outspoken on having trans women competing in women's sports, and who's obviously transgender herself.

Right off the bat, LA's tone to this whole thing has turned people off. He writes, "Have we really come to a time and place where spirited debate is not only frowned upon but feared? Where people’s greatest concern is being fired, shamed, or canceled? As someone all too familiar with this phenomenon, I feel I'm uniquely positioned to have these conversations."

He followed up with more tweets, sorta answering his own Q ... and plugging this new series he's got coming out. One tweet that's got a lot of reaction reads, "Is there, not a world in which one can be supportive of the transgender community and curious about the fairness of Trans athletes in sport yet not be labeled a transphobe or a bigot as we ask questions?

He continues, "Do we yet know the answers? And do we even want to know the answers?"

Now, Lance is trending on the Bird app ... for all the wrong reasons. You can hop into the trend to see what people are saying for yourself -- but it essentially boils down to ... dude, you're the last person who should be commenting on fairness in sports. Like, c'mon.

Of course, they're referring to his PED scandal in the early 2010s ... which he denied for a long time -- but ultimately confessed to. As most of us know, a majority of his titles between '99 and 2005 were stripped ... and his legacy as an inspirational winner was dinged.

A train derailed in Montana this weekend, causing a bridge over a river to collapse ... which now has officials worried that a hazardous spill is in making its way through the water.

The accident happened early Saturday morning, when a freight train went crashing into the Yellowstone River ... for reasons that have yet to be determined. Several rail cars are partially submerged in the water -- and word is, some of them are carrying toxic materials.

One of those chemicals is reported to stem from petroleum products -- some have said it's actually asphalt and other slow-moving liquids that have yet to be identified. The authorities have said they fear some of that may have started to seep into the river -- which feeds into the water supply for nearby residents. A full assessment is currently underway.

While there's no official word on a bona fide threat ... some citizens in Yellowstone/Stillwater Counties have reportedly been told to limit their water usage for the time being.

As you can imagine, emergency crews are on the scene and attempting to clean up what they can. Federal and state lawmakers are also responding en masse -- saying they're monitoring the situation and working with the appropriate experts to get it under control.

Of course, this is far from the only train derailment that's made news in the past year or so -- the one that went down earlier this year in East Palestine turned out to be a disaster.

Naturally, the issue of crumbling bridges and shoddy train tracks has been questioned of late ... especially across party lines. Some are wondering where the recent federal infrastructure bill money is going ... and why these incidents appear to be happening more regularly.

Prince Harry had high aspirations for his now-defunct Spotify podcast ... he reportedly wanted to interview Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin about what he claims was their traumatic upbringings -- but nothing ever materialized.

Harry had convos with several producers about potential guests to appear on his "Archetypes" podcast with wife/host Meghan Markle ... according to Bloomberg.

The outlet says Harry floated a bunch of ideas for shows -- one of which was about childhood trauma -- and the Prince thought he could get Trump, Putin and Mark Zuckerberg to sit down with him for separate chats on that topic.

Harry's goal, according to Bloomberg, was to discuss their lives growing up and how their experiences molded them into the people they are today.

The Duke of Sussex also believed he could land Pope Francis as a guest for another podcast episode about religion.

Of course, none of Harry's ideas ever materialized ... and the producers reportedly thought his concepts were impractical, especially the ones about Putin and Zuckerberg since the two almost never speak about their childhoods.

Aaron Rodgers made a huge push for the legalization of magical mushrooms and more on Wednesday night, insisting they have changed his life ... and could help alter many others too.

The New York Jets quarterback stumped for the hallucinogens for nearly an hour ... while giving a passionate speech on a stage at the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver.

He and his good pal Aubrey Marcus, who sat alongside the NFL star at the podium, glowed about their uses of psychedelics while addressing a big crowd ... and Rodgers repeated over and over again that everyone should have an open mind to the drugs.

"I know in Colorado that psilocybin has been decriminalized," Rodgers said. "Is it not ironic that the things that actually expand your mind are illegal and the things that keep you in the lower chakras and dumb you down have been legal for centuries?"

The 39-year-old -- who's been vocal in the past about his use of ayahuasca -- said, yet again, his trip on the psychedelic tea helped transform him from one of the league's best signal-callers back into an NFL MVP.

"It's going to be hard to cancel me," he said, "because, you know, the previous year, 26 touchdowns, four interceptions. We had a good season. Ayahuasca, 48 touchdowns five, interceptions, MVP. What are you going to say?"

Rodgers also ribbed his critics -- whom he referred to as "bums" -- saying they're the ones who need to try psychedelics the most.

As part of his speech, Rodgers also said he's heard from all kinds of athletes since he initially opened up about his ayahuasca use ... claiming everyone from basketball players to baseball players to surfers and entertainers have reached out to him to share their similar experiences.

Officials at the conference, meanwhile, praised Rodgers for showing up and speaking his mind ... with Rick Doblin, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies' founder, telling the New York Post he expects it to all have a "massive impact" on relieving the stigma surrounding the drugs.

Barack Obama is taking in one of the most hallowed sites in ancient Greece ... but he's clearly more impressed with his wife Michelle's rear end! Smart man.

The former President apparently couldn't resist playfully giving Michelle a helping hand Wednesday during a stop at the famous Acropolis in Athens, palming her booty as they walked up a staircase together at the venue.

As you can see, Barry O has his left hand on Michelle's right cheek as she climbs the stairs in front of him. Their daughters, Malia and Sasha, were nearby ... hopefully they didn't have to witness Dad's PDA play.

Barack, Michelle and the girls are in Greece for an Obama Foundation event ... and it looks like they took a little time out from their business trip to do the tourist thing.

Based on what we're seeing here, it seems Barack and Michelle still have that spark. They first met way back in the summer of 1989 when they worked at the same law firm, so this fire's been burning for decades.