
Trump comes for American lore with pop agenda
Why it matters: Trump's voracious appetite for generating attention and marketing his policies has bred ideas that inject the power of the presidency into deep recesses of American life and culture.
Driving the news: This past week, Trump announced that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in Coke. For decades, high-fructose corn syrup has sweetened the drink. (The company hasn't confirmed his claim.)
The topic has been steadily gaining attention in the U.S., with interest in Mexican Coke — which uses cane sugar — rising for years, according to Google Trends.
The big picture: We all know "kitchen-table issues," the topics shaped by decades of campaign trail debates. But these are "group-chat issues" — stuff you'd text your friends about that doesn't usually get picked apart by policy wonks.
Alcatraz: Trump stunned the country by announcing this spring that the notorious prison island — closed for more than 60 years — would be reopened. The move is inspired "more by symbolism than necessity," Axios' Marc Caputo reported.
The penny: The administration took action on the ultimate pocketbook issue by announcing plans to discontinue the 1-cent coin. While the move makes economic cents — pennies now cost more to make than they're worth — the bigger impact could the cultural ripple of an extinct piece of American iconography.
Gulf of America: Trump caught Americans off guard when he edited U.S. maps on his first week in office. The seemingly superficial move led to profound fallout over press freedom and geopolitics.
JFK files: He indulged a decades-long national fascination about the JFK assassination by releasing 63,000 pages of records — a topic that had largely been left to amateur sleuths and conspiracy theorists. While the records added color to the understanding of the event, there were no bombshells.
Reality check: Trump finds himself on the other side of a group-chat issue with his posture on the Jeffrey Epstein case.
He is fighting against the populist current demanding more information and transparency around Epstein's sex trafficking operation, while disavowing his supporters who continue to press him.
Zoom in: On some lesser-noticed, Seinfeldian issues, Trump addressed everyman gripes with the stroke of a pen.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Post
10 minutes ago
- New York Post
GOP blasts ‘fearmongering' Ocasio-Cortez for mocking Stefanik at North Country stop: ‘AOC is beyond parody'
PLATTSBURGH, NY – Republicans are accusing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of 'fearmongering' during a stop in Rep. Elise Stefanik's upstate district — where she said the congresswoman is 'not welcome here anymore.' The lefty Big Apple pol quickly jumped into politics at a Plattsburgh town-hall event advertised as a response to President Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' mocking Stefanik for taking a farewell tour of the district when she thought she was about to become the US ambassador to the United Nations. 4 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago at the United Center on August 19, 2024. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post Advertisement 'Elise did her farewell tour, and I think it's time to finish the job,' AOC yelled to a cheering crowd at the historic Strand Theater. 'Let's show her the door. She's not welcome here anymore,' AOC said on the stage nearly 300 miles away from her own district in The Bronx and Queens. Stefanik — whose ambassador nomination was yanked by President Trump because he was worried a Dem could fill her House seat — is now running for governor. Advertisement 4 Rep. Elise Stefanik leaving a House Republican Conference meeting with President Donald Trump on the budget reconciliation bill. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images 'AOC and [Dem North Country Rep.] Paul Tonko may love trying to tax and spend their own constituents to death, but that doesn't mean they should come to the North Country and peddle the same, tired failing Democrat agenda,' Plattsburgh state Sen. Dan Stec (R-Warren) told The Post. 'Rather than continuing to spread disinformation and fearmongering over President Trump's historically significant legislative achievement, they should be telling Kathy Hochul and legislative Democrats to rein in Albany's bloated state budget,' he said. Other top GOPers laughed off Ocasio-Cortez's visit. Advertisement 4 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a House Committee meeting on Capitol Hill on May 13, 2025. Getty Images 'As usual, AOC is beyond parody. Unlike AOC, a suburbanite cosplaying as a girl from The Bronx, Elise Stefanik is actually from her district,' a rep for the New York Republican Committee told The Post — taking a jab at Ocasio-Cortez for famously claiming to be a 'Bronx girl' in a recent spat with Trump even though she grew up in Westchester County. 'The North County is Elise Country, and it's Trump Country – and it'll stay that way,' the GOP representative said. AOC, dressed in a white button down shirt and black cuffed pants for the event, professed to love the Adirondacks and claimed she was an avid backpacker. Advertisement 4 Rep. Elise Stefanik speaking at a House Committee hearing at Capitol Hill on July 15, 2025. AP 'The Republican Party will never recover from this,' Erie County GOP Chair Michael Kracker quipped on X. A rep for Stefanik, asked by The Post if she had any response to AOC saying she's not welcome in her own district, said in a statement, 'Thank you for the political gift of a radical Far Left Socialist's visit to the North Country. 'It's like pouring jet fuel on Elise Stefanik's strong support in Upstate New York,' the statement read. The event was co-hosted by Tonko, who hailed his colleague 'Alex' as a figurehead of the Democratic party. 'They say, 'Well, she's the future of the party.' I say, 'She's the today of the party,' ' Tonko said.


New York Post
40 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump, Xi may meet ahead of or during APEC summit October: report
President Trump might visit China before going to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, or he could meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC event in South Korea, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday, citing multiple sources. The two countries have been trying to negotiate an end to an escalating tit-for-tat tariff war that has upended global trade and supply chains. The two sides have discussed a potential meeting between the leaders in the region this year, but they have not confirmed a date or location yet, according to a person familiar with the matter. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019. REUTERS Trump has sought to impose tariffs on US importers for virtually all foreign goods, which he says will stimulate domestic manufacturing and which critics say will make many consumer goods more expensive for Americans. He has called for a universal base tariff rate of 10% on goods imported from all countries, with higher rates for imports from the most 'problematic' ones, including China: imports from there now have the highest tariff rate of 55%. Trump has set a deadline of Aug. 12 for the US and China to reach a durable tariffs agreement. President Donald Trump has set a deadline of Aug. 12 for the US and China to reach a durable tariffs deal. Costfoto/NurPhoto/Shutterstock A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment about the reported plans for a meeting with Xi in the autumn. The two countries' most recent high-level meeting was on July 11, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had what both described as a productive and positive meeting in Malaysia about how trade negotiations should proceed. Rubio said then that Trump had been invited to China to meet with Xi, and said that both leaders 'want it to happen.' On Friday, China Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said China wants to bring its trade ties with the US back to a stable footing and that recent talks in Europe showed there was no need for a tariff war.


New York Post
40 minutes ago
- New York Post
‘Iraq Syndrome' is dead, why PBS & NPR had to go and other commentary
Foreign desk: 'Iraq Syndrome' Is Dead 'Fear of the expression of American military power has now dissolved,' cheers Commentary's Seth Mandel. In his first term, President Trump 'adopted a modified Murphy's Law that also governed his predecessor's foreign policy: Anything that can be Iraq, will be Iraq.' But that looks to have changed 'when President Trump ordered the successful strikes on Iran's nuclear program.' Notably, 'Ukraine is now benefiting from the Iran strikes because reality has dispelled the fog of Iraq Syndrome and the president is seeing more clearly.' Fact is, 'the 'just like Iraq' line of thinking isn't accurate, and now Trump realizes that.' How 'fitting that Donald Trump, who rode the effects of Iraq Syndrome all the way to the presidency (twice), would be the one to cure American politics of this malady.' Health beat: Med-Schools' Merit Malpractice 'The Supreme Court banned racial preferences in university admissions, but finding ways to maintain them has become a cottage industry in higher education,' blasts The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Medical schools are one of the worst abusers. A new study finds 'admitted black applicants had lower MCAT scores than admitted white and Asian applicants at 22 out of 23 schools.' At places like the University of Wisconsin, 'a black medical school applicant was about 10 times more likely to be admitted than white or Asian applicants with identical test scores and GPA.' 'In the admissions cycles since 2023, little has changed.' 'Preferences that elevate less qualified doctors won't reduce inequities in public health, but they will stigmatize successful minority applicants who excel.' 'Oh, and to remind, racial preferences are against the law.' Media watch: Why PBS & NPR Had To Go 'Let us call a spade a spade: NPR and PBS have earned the 'woke' label,' roars TIPP Insights' editorial board. That's why it's so great Congress just cut off federal funds. 'NPR is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It enjoys the tax-exempt privileges of a 501(c)(3) organization, yet operates as a de facto mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and progressive ideology.' Two GOP senators, Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), voted against the cuts, crying about the 'impact on rural and tribal communities.' 'It's a flimsy argument': Both 'stream through the internet and airwaves,' so 'even the most rural communities can access their content instantly.' As we've asked before,'In a world of endless streaming and podcasting, why are taxpayers still funding a media cocoon for coastal elites?' Spy world: Russia-Hoax Document Bonanza The 'floodgates' of 'long-classified information' about the Russia-hoax scandal may finally be opening, reports Paul Sperry at RealClearInvestigations. Documents include a secret audit revealing that an 'intelligence community assessment on Russia ordered by President Obama after the 2016 election' was framed to portray Trump as beholden to Putin. A US intelligence official 'alleged the outgoing administration weaponized' Russian intelligence 'to sabotage President-elect Trump.' The information could 'strengthen a criminal case' against Obama intelligence officials like former CIA chief John Brennan. Former FBI officials say prosecutors have 'sufficient grounds to charge Obama's FBI and CIA officials with criminal conspiracy.' Statistician: Medicaid Fearmongers' Bad Math Yale law professor Natasha Sarin's claim that 'at least 100,000 more' Americans will die over 'the next decade' due to Medicaid cuts 'reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of 'statistical lives saved,'' warns Aaron Brown at Reason. Sarin 'and several other prominent journalists misinterpreted a recent working paper' by economists Angela Wyse and Bruce D. Meyer, which estimated 'that the Medicaid expansion reduced mortality among eligible adults between 0.40% and 4.52% ,' or about 27,400 lives. But these are 'statistical lives,' and 'these same government programs also take many statistical lives.' 'Counting statistical lives' is 'a debased currency, because it counts each actual life multiple times. And citing only the good side of the ledger makes it impossible to evaluate.' — Compiled by The Post Editorial Page