Politics
America’s oldest ally isn’t done yet
Morocco’s win is perhaps fitting for Independence Day. The country was the first to formally recognize American sovereignty all the way back in 1777, more than a half-decade before the end of the Revolutionary War. On Saturday, they took down Canada by a 3-0 scoreline, with goals from Azzedine Ounahi and Soufiane Rahimi.
After months of media speculation, buzz about the guest list and the closure of numerous Manhattan streets on a sweltering holiday weekend, Taylor Alison Swift married Travis Michael Kelce Friday night at Madison Square Garden. While some thought the rumors involving MSG had to be an elaborate ruse, the ultra-famous pop star and the Super Bowl-winning NFL player actually tied the knot at one of the world’s most famous arenas in one of the world’s most famous cities, with NDAs and tents ensuring that the only images the rest of us see from these nuptials are the ones Swift (and, presumably, her husband) approves.
Some concrete information emerged shortly after the ceremony, courtesy of Swift’s longtime publicist. The bride and groom wore Christian Diordesigned by Jonathan Anderson, a statement confirmed. Swift’s brother, Austin, served as the bride’s “man of honor,” and Jason Kelce, the groom’s brother and podcast co-host, was his best man; and the ceremony was officiated by Adam Sandler. Because the wedding singer absolutely should anoint the marriage of the most famous pop singer in the world.
If there is one thing that people have more opinions about than Taylor Swift, it’s other people’s weddings.
As has been the case amid all the media hype preceding this event, every new detail continues to give the public yet another opportunity to deliver their verdict on Taylor Swift, Public Figure. Because if there is one thing that people have more opinions about than Taylor Swift, it’s other people’s weddings. Pretty much every wedding in human history has been deemed wanting by judgmental aunties or guests who found the bride’s dress too revealing or the first dance tacky because it was to Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It.” Combine Taylor Swift, a wedding and the internet, and you’ve got a recipe for basically everyone, everywhere, to have opinions about what was right or wrong, even if most people are disinclined to publicly criticize Swift for fear they will be attacked by an angry mob of Swifties.
So let’s start with MSG. It was an unconventional choice for a wedding — partly because most people could not afford to rent out a venue that seats around 20,000, but also because the ideal Swift wedding venue seemingly would be a magical gazebo illuminated by fireflies and populated by thousands of whimsical fairies dressed in cardigan sweaters. Yet MSG is also the rare venue that’s very secure, one that allows celebrities to get in and out largely undetected and whose structure could protect Swift and Kelce from paparazzi helicopters or drones. Vulture recently argued this was basically the only option for a celebrity of Swift’s caliber, who has hundreds of famous friends and wants to get married with whatever modicum of privacy she can manage.
“I’d wager that there are two events sitting back of mind as the couple plans the wedding: the thwarted terrorist plot on the European leg of the Eras Tour and the mess of crowds at Jack Antonoff’s wedding in 2023,” wrote Fran Hoepffner, referring to the pandemonium that ensued when Swift, a guest at Antonoff’s marriage to Margaret Qualley, was spotted at the rehearsal dinner. Hoepffner argued that safety had to be the No. 1 priority and that Madison Square Garden is the closest thing that exists to a Wedding Fort Knox. That is a fair point.
And yet I can’t shake the feeling that Swift and Kelce must have had other options, one of which would have been to plan a small wedding and reception in a private location that didn’t involve getting permits to shut down some of Manhattan’s busiest streets. An extremely successful and famous pop star who has a thing for numerology and a deep commitment to managing her image did exactly that in 2008. You may have heard of her. Her name is Beyoncé.
An extremely successful and famous pop star who has a thing for numerology and a deep commitment to managing her image had a private wedding in 2008. You may have heard of her. Her name is Beyoncé.
She and Jay-Z tied the knot on April 4, 2008a date they reportedly chose because of the significance of the number four (her birthday is Sept. 4; his is Dec. 4.). They invited just 40 guests and held the ceremony in Jay-Z’s Manhattan penthouse apartment. They didn’t release any video footage from the event until six years later, when they included snippets in their “On the Run” tour.
Admittedly, 2026 is a vastly different world than 2008. Then, social media was still in its relative infancy; Twitter had been born only two years earlier. While fans certainly had parasocial relationships with Beyoncé back then, the intensity of fandoms, especially Swift’s, has grown significantly. People not only want to see what Taylor Swift’s wedding looks like, they feel entitled to that imagery, in part because the Instagram industrial complex regularly serves such intimate, exhaustive accounts of wedding days, both celebrity and not. The hunger for any glimpse of this affair invited not just the mainstream and pop culture media to pay attention but also every influencer or amateur celebrity tracker with a cellphone.
Still, other modern celebrities have figured out how to navigate this admittedly absurd landscape. Tom Holland and Zendaya, arguably Hollywood’s biggest power couple at the moment, got married without any fanfare at all. They didn’t officially confirm they had a wedding until Holland acknowledged it in a recent Esquire interview. We still don’t know exactly when it happened or where. And we’ve seen no photos other than fake AI ones, which obviously don’t count. They kept everything locked down tight.
Earlier this year, Swift’s ex Harry Styles, also a globally famous pop star, proposed to actress Zoe Kravitz. Or so Page Six reportedbased on information from an unnamed source. Given that Kravitz has been spotted with a prominent ring on that finger, it seems likely they are engaged. But neither Styles nor Kravitz, the latter of whom attended the Swift/Kelce wedding, has spoken publicly about it. They also did not post photos on Instagram documenting the moment, a la Swift’s announcement that “your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
Swift’s success is at the root of her wedding conundrum: Her incredibly personal, confessional songwriting cultivated a fanbase deeply invested in her love life. Getting married without making her happy moment accessible could be viewed by some of her most devout followers as a betrayal. Hence, the Instagram post. But the most powerful thing Swift could have done for the wedding day itself was to draw a hard boundary.
Given this couple’s money and access, this wedding basically had no limits. But ultimately, the question is whether you want your wedding to be an object of public speculation or whether you want a truly private affair. Those options also represent the split between the two primary perceptions of Taylor Swift: She’s either an attention-seeking try-hard or the kind, modest, girl next door. Swift’s apparent preference for the latter view could be one reason why news leaked ahead of wedding-palooza that she and Kelce had donated $26 million to handpicked charitiesincluding several food banks, educational nonprofits and the ASPCA. Those who see Swift as more of a striver may view that incredibly generous gesture as a calculated effort to preempt inevitable criticism about the tone-deafness of having an enormously extravagant wedding on a Fourth of July weekend when many Americans are struggling.
The most powerful thing Swift could have done for the wedding day itself was to draw a hard boundary.
Like most people, Taylor Swift is more complicated than a simple binary. She may be humble and nice. But she also is often a little extra, as we see every time she dances so hard in the audience at practically every awards show. Swift doesn’t ask cameras to focus on her and pull attention from whatever is happening onstage. But she also has to know that is what always happens.
This many years into her extraordinary career, the pop megastar is still figuring out how to navigate her unique reality, and we are all watching. With the knot tied, it’s possible that interest in this couple could calm down. But it’s more likely that the countdowns to a pregnancy announcement have started, because that’s what happens when blurred personal and professional boundaries are a cornerstone of your brand. You feel obligated to share some semi-genuine version of your life for public consumption, as long as the public remains hungry for it.
Jen Chaney is a freelance TV and film critic whose work has been published in The New York Times, TV Guide and other outlets.
Paraguay has a tough fight against France today, which means President Santiago Peña may have to savor his last chance to wrap himself in the flag of Latin America’s most over-performing team.
Few of the world’s elected leaders have done as much as Peña to associate themselves with their country’s World Cup successes. He has traveled to the United States to watch his team in action, and declared a national holiday after it eliminated former World Cup champions Germany on penalty kicks.
“When Paraguay wins on the world stage like it did against Germany, it becomes clear cause for celebration,” said Greg Ross, a Paraguay specialist at the Washington-based consultancy McLarty Associates. “It also offers an opportunity to project a sense of national unity that is usually difficult to achieve in the day-to-day of Paraguayan politics.”
Peña, a conservative former central banker first elected in 2023, has savored the opportunity. He traveled to the United States for Paraguay’s first match, against the United States, where he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But after the team lost to the United States, some of his citizens suggested Peña’s presence might have jinxed the team’s performance. That may have discouraged Peña from attending the team’s second match, against Turkey near San Francisco, despite the fact that some were already working to arrange meetings with Silicon Valley tech leaders to help advance Peña’s agenda to make the energy-rich country a hub for U.S.-backed data centers.
He also skipped the first knockout match, against Germany, this time with a clear excuse. He said he had to remain in Asunción for a previously scheduled congressional address and summit for the Mercosur regional trade bloc, whose rotating presidency Peña now holds.
Peña released a picture on social media watching the Germany match from his living room, wearing the country’s red-and-white striped jersey — from which he scrawled his signature on the order declaring a national holiday. It was a reprise of an earlier Peña move to associate himself with the team’s successes, when he signed a similar order marking a national holiday after Paraguay clinched its World Cup spot in the tournament last September.
He said he intends to be back in the same spot when the team plays France in Philadelphia today.
“I’m going to watch it at home, just like I did last time,” Peña said, according to Paraguayan media. “I always receive invitations for every match as president, and I also have to say that, deep down, I’m a bit of a superstitious person, you know? So, I prefer to just watch from here.”
After 250 years, many Americans are disillusioned with their country due to its broken political and legal systems, declining faith, and tech-driven echo chambers that amplify fear and division…
Read More
- ‘Communist menace in our land’: Trump’s July 4 rallying cry to America
- I want America to go back to being the country I fought for
- The most confusing thing about Taylor Swift’s Madison Square Garden wedding spectacle
- The most superstitious man in Paraguayan politics
- The Great American Betrayal
- World leaders toast America on its 250th birthday
- Live updates: US celebrates 250 years despite heat dome; Trump set for ‘long’ speech
- Shapiro: Trump ‘corruption has been enabled’ by Supreme Court
- Allez les … eh, not us
- America’s oldest ally isn’t done yet
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship10 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words