‘South Park' creators double down on episode skewering Trump
'We're terribly sorry,' Parker said Thursday, holding a deadpan stare as the crowd at a panel at Comedy Central's Comic Con laughed.
The 'South Park' season premiere drew a response from the White House, which said in a statement to the Guardian that the show 'hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.'
'President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history — and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak,' spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the paper.
The premiere of the show's 27th season also skewered Paramount over its recent decision to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump for $16 million. Paramount received approval from Trump's Federal Communications Commission Thursday for an $8 billion merger agreement with Skydance.
The 'South Park' episode that provoked the White House's ire aired just days after Parker and Stone reached their own deal with Paramount for the rights to 'South Park,' reported by Variety as valued over $1 billion.
Parker and Stone said they were asked by their producers to blur out their depiction of Trump's genitalia — a request they declined. And with the show being put together week-to-week, they said they were initially not sure if their first episode was going to gain traction.
'Just three days ago, we were sitting there going, 'I don't know if people are going to like this,'' Parker said.
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USA Today
12 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump's mental decline is on vivid display as he rages about Epstein, windmills
He went on lengthy diatribes about windmills. He ranted about the ungratefulness of starving children. He forayed into nonsensical conspiracy theories regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. It was nice of Donald Trump to travel to Scotland and show our European allies firsthand that the United States is led by a self-absorbed and deeply weird man in obvious mental decline. Over the span of a weekend, the U.S. president's addled brain raced about like a dull-witted Labrador attempting to outsmart squirrels. He went on lengthy diatribes about windmills. He ranted about the ungratefulness of starving children. He forayed into nonsensical conspiracy theories regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal consuming his administration, while laughably saying upon arriving in Scotland on July 25: 'I'm not focused on conspiracy theories.' Trump's head, based on his overseas babbling, is 90% conspiracy theories and 10% brain cells. Coverage of Trump's Scotland trip doesn't show the extent of his rambling The trip was largely a taxpayer-funded chance for the grifter-in-chief to promote his Scottish golf properties, which in the realm of 'things Trump can do that no other president would ever get away with' barely registers as a blip. It was also a chance for him to talk 'deals' with the European Union and the United Kingdom, with a 'deal' being something resulting in trade tariffs that will negatively impact American consumers. Or as Trump likes to call it, 'Winning.' Opinion: MAGA is realizing Trump lies. How can they trust anything he says on Epstein? News coverage tends to trim Trump's voluminous prattling into digestible soundbites that sound vaguely sane. But if we care about a president's lack of mental acuity – and I've been told by many that we do – it's worth sticking your head in the high-pressure stream of nonsense that shoots out every time Trump opens his face hole. Trump shows he's laser-focused on the scourge of windmills On July 25, Trump deplaned in Scotland and immediately showed reporters he was armed with weapons-grade non sequiturs. 'This immigration is killing Europe,' he said, racistly. 'And the other thing, stop the windmills killing the beauty of your countries.' Two days later, he sat with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who looked like she would love to be elsewhere, and uncorked this: 'And the other thing I say to Europe, we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States, they're killing us. They're killing the beauty of our scenery, our valleys, our beautiful plains. And I'm not talking about airplanes, I'm talking about beautiful plains, beautiful areas of the United States, and you look up and you see windmills all over the place, it's a horrible thing. It's the most expensive form of energy; it's no good. They're made in China, almost all of them. When they start to rust and rot in eight years, you can't really turn them off, you can't bury them, they won't let you. But the propellers, the props, because they're a certain type of fiber that doesn't go well with the land, that's what they say. The environmentalists say you can't bury them because the fiber doesn't go well with the land; in other words, if you bury them, it will harm our soil. The whole thing is a con job.' OK. That was a thing nobody asked for. It's also filled with lies – wind isn't the most expensive form of energy, and windmills last far longer than eight years – but who would expect honesty from someone rambling like that? Again with the windmills? Heck, just let the old man cook. And Trump wasn't done with windmills. On July 28, during his meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the president said: 'It destroys the beauty of your fields, your plains, your waterways, and look out there – there's no windmills. But if you look in another direction, you see windmills.' Are the windmills in the room with us right now, Mr. President? Propose prosecuting Beyoncé? Check! Babble incoherently? Check! Trump did take a break from talking crazy over the weekend to post something crazy on social media, writing July 27 that Beyoncé should be prosecuted for a nonexistent $11 million payment from Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. So that happened. And it's not ideal. On July 27, alongside von der Leyen, Trump was asked how he feels about the images of starving children in Gaza, to which he said: 'That whole place is a mess. The Gaza Strip, you know, was given many years ago, said that they could have peace. That didn't work out too well. When Israel gave that up, whoever was the prime minister at the time, who I know, who it was, but it was not exactly a very clever thing to do. Because that was given so that they finally have peace, but it's actually made the situation worse. But we'll see what happens. I think Iran is acting up. We have a lot of people acting, we have Venezuela acting up in a different way. They continue to send people that we rebuff at our border. They continue to send drugs into our country, Venezuela. They've been very nasty.' So when shown images of starving children in Gaza, Trump feels the place is a mess because an Israeli prime minister whose name he DEFINITELY knows but isn't going to say gave up the Gaza Strip so there could be peace but that made things worse and Iran is acting up and, hey, let me tell you about Venezuela, which is about 7,000 miles away from Gaza. Opinion: Trump is unpopular, polls show, and he's building an America most Americans hate Republicans would have impeached Biden if he talked like Trump Had former President Joe Biden said something like that, Republicans would have either impeached him or ordered him locked in a room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. It got worse when Trump was asked if Israel should be doing more to allow food into Gaza to help the aforementioned starving children. The president's few remaining brain cells decided to focus on how ungrateful all those starving people are: 'We gave $60 million two weeks ago, and nobody even acknowledged it, for food. It's terrible, you know, you really at least want to have somebody say thank you. No other country gave anything; we gave $60 million two weeks ago for food for Gaza. Nobody acknowledged it, nobody talks about it. And it makes you feel a little bad when you do that, and you have other countries not giving anything, none of the European countries, by the way, nobody gave but us, and nobody said, 'Gee, thank you very much,' and it would be nice to have at least a thank you.' During his meeting with Starmer, Trump apparently forgot he had been talking about the Gaza Strip the day before and said: 'We do have to take care of the humanitarian needs on what they used to call the Gaza Strip. You don't hear that line too much anymore. You don't hear the Gaza Strip. But it is the Gaza Strip. Amazing.' Yes. Amazing. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. Trump can't stop talking about the scandal. Trump's mental dullness led him to keep talking about the Epstein scandal he wants everyone to stop talking about, effectively telling the world the Epstein stuff is 'not a big thing,' but probably involves former Democratic President Bill Clinton and a former president of Harvard University and 'hedge fund guys' and was probably made up by Democrats who probably put fake stuff in the Epstein files but then, I guess, didn't use any damning information against Trump before the election. He also gave a third explanation for why he stopped being friends with Epstein and said of the convicted sex offender's notorious island: 'I never had the privilege of going to his island.' The privilege? Spoken like a man whose mind has turned to mush. So nice of Trump to share his cognitive decline with the world. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at
Boston Globe
12 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
US-China tariff talks may provide clues on a possible Trump-Xi meeting
Analysts say the talks could set the stage for a possible meeting between President Other issues on the agenda include access of American businesses to the Chinese market; Chinese investment in the United States; components of fentanyl made in China that reach US consumers; Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian oil; and American steps to limit exports of Western technology — like chips that help power artificial intelligence systems. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The talks ended for the day after nearly five hours on Monday, and were set to reconvene on Tuesday morning. Advertisement Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator and now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that Trump's team would face challenges from 'a large and confident partner that is more than willing to retaliate against US interests.' Rollover of tariff rates 'should be the easy part,' she said, warning that Beijing has learned lessons since the first Trump administration and 'will not buy into a one-sided deal this time around.' Advertisement 'Beijing is more prepared and will insist on movement on US tech export controls at a minimum — a difficult ask for Washington,' she said, adding that many conversations will take place in the lead-up to any Xi-Trump summit. 'Success is far from guaranteed,' Cutler said. 'There are numerous trip wires that can throw a wrench in this preparatory process.' The US-China trade talks are the third this year, nearly four months after Trump upended global trade with his The Stockholm meeting, following similar talks in Geneva and London, is set to extend a 90-day pause on those tariffs. During the hiatus, US tariffs have been lowered to 30 percent on Chinese goods, and China set a 10 percent tariff on US products. The Trump administration, which just completed a China's Commerce Ministry said last week that the 'consultations' would raise shared concerns through the principles of 'mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.' The talks with Beijing are part of a flurry of US trade negotiations set off by Trump's arm-twisting 'Liberation Day' tariffs against Without an extension by Aug. 12, the tit-for-tat US-China tariffs could snap back to the triple-digit levels seen before the 90-day pause reached in Geneva. Many other countries — including some developing ones that depend on exports to the United States — face a deadline of Friday, as the Trump administration has said that letters will go out beforehand with set rates. Advertisement Critics say Trump's tariffs penalize Americans by forcing US importers to shoulder the costs or pass them on to consumers through higher prices. On Friday, Trump told reporters that 'we have the confines of a deal with China' — just two days after Bessent told MSNBC that a 'status quo' had been reached between the two sides. While the Chinese side has offered little guidance about the specifics of its aims in Stockholm, Bessent has suggested that the situation has stabilized to the point that China and the United States can start looking toward longer-term balance between their economies. For years, since China vaulted into the global trading system about two decades ago, the United States has sought to press leaders in Beijing to encourage more consumption in China and wrest greater market access to foreign-made — including American — goods. Other sticking points in the relationship include overcapacity in China — by far the world's largest manufacturer — and concerns about whether Beijing is doing enough to control chemicals used to make fentanyl, analysts say. In Stockholm, the Chinese will likely demand the removal of a Experts say long-term progress in the US-China trade relationship will hinge on structural changes. Those include increased manufacturing in the United States, which is part of Trump's ambition. On the Chinese side, that could involve a reduction of excess Chinese production in many industries, including electric vehicles and steel, and increased Chinese consumer spending to ease imbalances in China's export-driven economy. Advertisement Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, said the the talks in Stockholm offer an opportunity for the two governments to address structural reform issues. Businesses will watch for clues about a possible Trump-Xi summit, because any real deal will depend on a meeting between the pair, he said. A deal is possible because 'a lot of the things that the US wants, the Chinese want as well,' Stein said. China, for example, is interested in buying US soybeans, and aircraft and parts, and Chinese businesses are interested in investing in US manufacturing — which would help meet Trump's goal of reindustrialization. Bessent has also said the Stockholm talks could address Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian oil.
Boston Globe
12 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
France calls on the EU to pressure Israel to come to the table on Palestinian two-state solution
Barrot spoke on the first day of a high-level UN meeting on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is being cochaired by France and Saudi Arabia. The The aim of the conference, Barrot said, is 'to reverse the trend of what is happening in the region — mainly the erasure of the two-state solution, which has been for a long time the only solution that can bring peace and security in the region.' Advertisement He urged the EC to call on Israel to lift a financial blockade on $2.32 billion he says the Israeli government owes the Palestinian Authority, stop settlement building in the West Bank, which threatens the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state, and end the 'militarized' food delivery system in Gaza by the Israeli-backed US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has resulted in hundreds of killings. Advertisement Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds. The United States has echoed its sentiment and on Monday called the conference 'unproductive and ill-timed.' 'The United States will not participate in this insult but will continue to lead real-world efforts to end the fighting and deliver a permanent peace,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. 'Our focus remains on serious diplomacy: not stage-managed conferences designed to manufacture the appearance of relevance.' Ahead of the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would France is now the biggest Western power and the only member of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations to recognize the state of Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe. At the conference opening, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa called for all countries that have not yet recognized Palestine as a state to do so 'without delay.' 'The path to peace begins by recognizing the state of Palestine and preserving it from destruction,' he said. Advertisement The other issue being discussed at the conference is normalization between Israel and the Arab states in the region. Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, stressed that normalization of relations with Israel 'can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.' With global anger rising over desperately hungry people in Gaza starting to die from starvation. President Trump on Monday called for Both Barrot and Farhan said Monday the United States is an essential actor in the region and that it was the president in January who secured the only cease-fire in the 21-month war. 'I am firmly in the belief that Trump's engagement can be a catalyst for an end to the immediate crisis in Gaza and potentially a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the long term,' Farhan said.
