Curtis Means/ReutersDonald Trump may well have had the Republican nomination in the bag for weeks now, but legions of GOP voters are still apparently unable to stomach the idea of casting their ballots for him.The former president was given another reminder of the scale of his problem on Tuesday with the Pennsylvania primary. Nikki Haley, who axed her own campaign over a month ago, managed to take 16.5 percent of the vote.Trump, the only candidate still actually running, therefore easily won the primary with 83.5 percent, according to the Associated Press. But the problem for Trump is that Haley’s 16.5 percent amounts to more than 155,000 votes. In other words, 155,000 Republicans chose to support a defunct campaign instead of Trump in a key battleground state where, in 2016, he beat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 45,000 votes.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Curtis Means/ReutersDonald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan will be on hiatus Wednesday as Judge Juan Merchan takes the day to work on other cases—which is probably just as well, as it gives the public a chance to digest some of the most explosive claims made so far in the first trial ever of a former U.S. president. After just two days of testimony, prosecutors have already asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt for violating a gag order with a series of social media posts. While the judge has held off on ruling so far, he tore into Trump’s lead lawyer Tuesday in a scene that may spell trouble for the former president’s defense, telling attorney Todd Blanche: “Mr Blanche, you’re losing all credibility, I have to tell you right now.”When the trial resumes Thursday, we’ll be getting more from David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc. during the 2016 presidential election, was grilled for around two-and-a-half hours on Tuesday about how he offered to act as Trump’s “eyes and ears” during the Republican’s campaign, using his tabloids to buy the exclusive rights to potentially damaging stories about Trump in an effort to make sure they never saw the light of day—a practice known as “catch and kill.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Moscow City Court Press Office/Handout via Reuters Russia’s deputy defense minister was arrested Wednesday just hours after attending a meeting of top military brass, according to federal investigators. Timur Ivanov is officially charged with accepting a massive bribe—but some sources say that’s just for show.“The bribe–that’s for the public. So far they don’t want to talk publicly about treason, it’s a big scandal. After all, it’s the deputy minister of defense,” one unnamed source close to the Federal Security Service told the independent Russian news outlet iStories.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty ImagesThere were scenes of panic and confusion in central London on Wednesday morning after five horses belonging to a regiment closely associated with the king, the Household Cavalry, threw their riders off and bolted through the city, smashing into cars and buses, knocking down pedestrians and streaming with blood.The Daily Telegraph said the horses, which are kept in stables in Central London near Hyde Park, bolted at about 8:40 a.m. local time during a regular exercise session on Horseguards Parade in London’s civil service district, Whitehall.The Daily Mail said five people, including a serviceman, were injured in three separate incidents.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyDonald Trump’s legal payroll is easily the largest and most diverse of any political figure in modern U.S. history. But while most of the attorneys that Trump’s various fundraising committees have paid over the years are a matter of public record, one of the top recipients still poses a mystery—with more than $8 million in legal costs going to an unknown firm, or firms, through what appears to be a corporate intermediary.Legal experts told The Daily Beast that the arrangement masks the true recipients of a significant amount of Trump’s legal bills, depriving the public of that information while possibly running afoul of federal law. And the unprecedented structure of those payments, the experts said, potentially violates the ban on corporate contributions.For the last 15 months, five of Trump’s political committees, including his 2024 campaign, have paid about $8 million in combined legal costs to a curious recipient: Red Curve Solutions, the firm that handles their political accounting.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastDear (former, best ever) President Donald Trump,We’ve had our disagreements over the years, some of them pretty bigly. But if there’s one important lesson you’ve taught me, it’s that we should never let personal grievances, ethics, or the law stand in the way of a good business opportunity.As your legal fees continue to mount by the millions, your Truth Social stock tanks, and the bond for your $454 million judgment for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll is rejected (so unfair!)—now’s the perfect time to explore a new income stream that can capitalize on the attention you’re getting over rumors you’ve been audibly farting in the courtroom during your first-ever criminal trial.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/HandoutLaura Benanti has been nominated for five Tony Awards (with one win) and appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies since making her Broadway debut at 19 years old as Maria in The Sound of Music. But as the title of her new solo stage show attests, she still reminds herself on a daily basis that “nobody cares” about her many accomplishments.In this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Benanti talks about mining her most embarrassing life stories for musical comedy in her new show, which returns to the New York stage and premieres on Audible next month. She also reveals how playing Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert finally made people take her “seriously” as a comedic actress and what she thinks is going through the former first lady’s head as her husband stands trial for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.When I ask Benanti about the bold decision to call her new show Nobody Cares, she admits it stems from a fear of indifference from the industry that has provided her livelihood for more than 25 years. “I know other actors who sort of feel similarly where you’re like, what else do I need to do before I am anointed? When do I get my fucking crown?” she says. “And it always feels like it’s just one rung up the ladder, and then I’m going to be there. And you get there, and you’re like, ‘What? The ladder got taller?!’”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Apple TV+When we last left the residents of Deerfield, the fictional Midwest town at the center of the strange occurrences in The Big Door Prize, everyone was zapped of energy—in some cases, quite literally. The Season 1 finale of Apple TV+’s existential comedy ended with a key character in the hospital after being electrocuted while trying to destroy a MORPHO machine, a photo booth-like contraption that tells you your life’s true potential. The rest of Deerfield’s population is just as exhausted (though, luckily, not under medical care) after spending the show’s first season comically upending their comfortable lives because the mysterious MORPHO spat out a little blue card with one vague word printed on it.The results of this small-town chaos yielded one of 2023’s most unexpectedly delightful new series, which had much more to say about adult life and the nuances of our neuroses than a certain sickeningly upbeat Apple TV+ show. Quirky Deerfield dwellers like Dusty (Chris O’Dowd), his plucky wife Cass (Gabrielle Dennis), Cass’ arrogant mother Izzy (Crystal R. Fox), and toupéed restaurateur Giorgio (Josh Segarra) struggled to understand what their MORPHO cards meant, often finding that one word could conjure endless potential outcomes. These bite-sized, intertwining character studies were a novel joy, albeit one that had limits. Even though last season’s finale packed more than a few twists, repeating the same storytelling pattern would create viewer fatigue fast. One can only watch so many scenes of self-discovery before a show starts dipping into sickeningly saccharine Ted Lesso territory.But The Big Door Prize was always smarter than most of its comedy contemporaries. Where Season 1 found unusual ways to balance its philosophical dissections of human life with intelligent, character-driven humor, Season 2—which premieres Apr. 24—expands its reach. The new batch of episodes brings Deerfield’s residents together after spending so much time solo, trying to figure out what their MORPHO cards meant. This season stresses the importance of community when we’re disoriented, and sharply dissects how humans use interpersonal relationships to grow alongside one another. It’s another blissful, perfectly paced 10 episodes that hit the hardest when you least expect them to, the kind of television that insists upon the intelligence of its viewer, rather than itself.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/MaxWhen We’re Here debuted in 2020, a global pandemic prematurely curtailed the first season. Now entering its fourth year, the HBO docuseries faces a different existential threat: anti-LGBTQ+ legislation impacting states like Tennessee and Oklahoma.Not only are four new hosts joining the We’re Here family, but they are venturing to only two places this season: Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Bakersville, Oklahoma (and their surrounding areas). The new line-up of Sasha Velour, Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Latrice Royale lead the show’s mission to spread a message of love and connection in divisive times. They are taking over from the three drag queens who hosted the previous seasons, Eureka, Bob the Drag Queen, and Shangela, who used the transformative power of drag to embolden queer people who live outside the big-city liberal bubble.While previous seasons of the series revealed the challenges of small-town living for members of the LGBT+ community, We’re Here has now changed its focus as the cultural landscape has become more dangerous. It is why spending three episodes in one place is so effective; the series is looking to the future.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Katie Yu/FXFX’s Shōgun, whose 10-episode season ended Wednesday night, is a remarkable adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel. In a landscape of remakes, franchise, and reboots, it is a series that feels remarkably fresh, despite being the fourth time the book has been adapted (including an ill-fated, yet Tony-nominated, 1990 musical). Yet, in a story told almost exclusively in Japanese, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Shōgun is how it ends: not with a riotous, prestige television bang, but with a quiet and considered conclusion.Over the course of its season, Shōgun’s action simmers under a calm exterior, erupting here and there in sudden bursts of energy. This isn’t a world of blood and gore, but one in which a conversation can be violence and death sudden and silent, as Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) connives his way to becoming shōgun—the de facto military dictator of Japan. As its palace intrigue intensifies, Shōgun is gentle yet decisive in ratcheting up the tension around Toranaga’s grand plan.It’s understandable, then, if viewers expect the release of that tension to be explosive. After all, so many characters reference that Toranaga is about to plunge Japan into war and even deep into the finale they talk about the battle to come. I admit, despite familiarity with the book, even I thought Shōgun would conclude with a battle—nor would I have blamed co-creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks for tossing one in.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NetflixI love watching The Circle. The Netflix reality competition series—about a group of people who communicate exclusively through the titular social media app—is a fascinating look at how our lives revolve around and often depend on social media. But while the show’s concept is solid and its contestants are larger than life, it sometimes struggles to keep my interest. Watching people talk to a screen can only be so riveting. Thankfully, this season The Circle recognizes its own limitations, and in the latest batch of episodes, delivers a massive twist that shakes up the competition.(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)A shake-up like the one revealed in the new episodes isn’t always a guaranteed success—like the AI reveal from earlier this season that went nowhere. But in Episode 7, there is a “ride or die” twist that takes the show’s drama to a whole new, exciting level. It’s the best twist in The Circle’s history.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Comedy CentralOn Tuesday, former National Enquirer chief David Pecker testified for the second day in a row as the first witness in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial. While the headlines practically write themselves, it turns out that having a Pecker on the stand wasn’t even the wildest part of this week so far.As The Daily Show correspondents and this week’s co-hosts Jordan Klepper and Ronnie Chieng made clear, the most ridiculously entertaining part of the trial’s proceedings so far was Jesse Watters’ inane claims on Monday that Trump is being subjected to “cruel and unusual” punishment by having to be present at his own trial.“Clearly Trump thinks he’s being treated unfairly in this trial,” explained Chieng on Tuesday, “and he’s not the only one.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Reuters/Curtis MeansAttorneys for Donald Trump’s co-defendants switched direction in a motion Tuesday, arguing that FBI agents weren’t thorough enough in their search of the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago estate when they retrieved top-secret documents from there in 2022.The abrupt about-face—after over a year of Trump and his allies decrying the search itself as “unconstitutional” and invasive—referred to the fact that federal investigators missed a “hidden room” near Trump’s bedroom and a locked closet during their search of the premises, both of which may have contained classified documents.Now, attorneys for Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta—and on behalf of Carlos De Oliveira and Trump himself—have demanded that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s cough up “records concerning the FBI’s apparent failure to search several areas of President Trump’s residence during their execution of a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

CNNSen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is no fan of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the far-right firebrand whose latest outrage is at House Speaker Mike Johnson for helping to shepherd military aid for Ukraine through the House.He told CNN Tuesday that she is “a total waste of time” and is “dragging our brand down.”“I think she is uninformed, she is a total waste of time, and I’m embarrassed to have actually lived geographically in her district at one time before she was there,” Tillis told CNN reporter Lauren Fox.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Reuters/Dado RuvicThe U.S. Senate voted in favor of a bill on Tuesday that will ban TikTok in the U.S. unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divests entirely from it. Voting was lopsided in favor of passing the bill, with just 17 senators voting against it. That vote comes on the heels of the legislation passing the House with a vote of 360-58 on Saturday. The legislation, if signed by Joe Biden, could mean TikTok’s days are limited in the U.S. as ByteDance has indicated it has no plans to remove itself from the social network it founded.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/BravoJax Taylor is one of the most nefarious men to ever appear on TV, in both reality and fiction. He’s a harrowing character, a man whose depraved nature knows no bounds, while simultaneously being a certified larger-than-life diva. He was simply made to be on TV, and tonight’s Vanderpump Rules is proof of that.It’s become long clear that some of the worst people in society make the best stars, a sad fact of life that has given fame to some truly obscene people. Jax is someone who just can’t help but soak up the scenery with his desire to start drama every chance he gets. Not only did Jax prove he still can stir it up with the best of them, he lit a fire under the entire cast that helped the show recover from a sluggish episode last week.Our episode opens on the return of Jax, who meets James and Ally at their apartment to discuss their upcoming event, the “Jax Taylor Saves Vanderpump Rules Party, featuring special guest & legend of the craft, Scheana Shay.” Jax’s real mission, though, isn’t to host an event with Los Angeles’ 76th most sought after DJ, but to settle the score with his list of foes.Read more at The Daily Beast.

MSNBCA pair of students in New York City took it upon themselves to attend the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president on Tuesday, with one telling MSNBC afterwards that it was especially “funny” to see Donald Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, get “annihilated” by Judge Juan Merchan.On Chris Jansing Reports, Hope Harrington and Owen Berenbom shared their experience in the courtroom. In addition to continued testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, Tuesday’s proceedings saw Merchan grill Blanche, who struggled to defend what prosecutors say were Trump’s repeated and willful violations of the gag order in the case. Merchan has not yet ruled on a potential punishment for Trump.Harrington in particular recalled the moment Merchan told Blanche that his discursive responses to his questions meant that he was losing all credibility” with the court.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scouted/The Daily Beast/Business Wire. Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.Fashionphiles (and Spice Girl enthusiasts) rejoice: Victoria Beckham’s highly-anticipated capsule collection in collaboration with Spanish high-street retailer Mango has finally dropped internationally in stores and online. The Victoria Beckham x Mango drop consists of 46 pieces, including apparel, footwear, handbags, and jewelry, embodying the British ready-to-wear designer’s signature knack for imbuing classic, supremely tailored wardrobe staples with unapologetic femininity and a distinctive contemporary flair.According to Mango, the collaboration’s overarching theme was inspired by swimming pools, and more specifically, as Beckham told Vogue, Jane Birkin’s character in the 1969 film La Piscine, which is abundantly clear in the collection’s slinky slip dresses and the form-fitting crochet maxi dress with sexy low-back cutout detail (my personal favorite!). But the collection is not just a mix of elevated resort wear pieces suited for your spring vacation; there are plenty of well-tailored yet deconstructed wardrobe essentials aligned with Beckham’s eponymous ready-to-wear line’s sartorial DNA, including structured blazers, classic striped button-downs with a cut-out collar and semi-sheer silk blouses.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe first person to testify in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president is the former publisher of the National Enquirer. But the supermarket tabloid might not have been around to “catch and kill” stories about Trump’s sexual liaisons if it were not for the early financial support of another notorious New York celebrity, the gangster Frank Costello.And while Trump is not known for his grasp of history, he’d do well to view Costello’s relationship with the Enquirer’s first publisher as a cautionary tale.In the 1940s, Frank Costello was known as the Prime Minister of the Underworld owing to his gentlemanly public manner, political connections, and patina of respectability. Costello used the mob’s Prohibition-era millions—and the money from its vast illegal gambling empire—to take control of Tammany Hall. This meant that while Costello was the head of what came to be known as the Genovese crime family, he also pretty much ran the Democratic party in New York.Read more at The Daily Beast.

ReutersBuckingham Palace announced Tuesday that King Charles had appointed Kate Middleton to a prestigious new title—one that’s a first in the history of the British royal family.Middleton, the Princess of Wales, was named Royal Companion of The Order of the Companions of Honour, which makes her the first ever Royal Companion named to that order. The official royal website says the Order of the Companions of Honour is “a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty ImagesIf ever there was a way to distract from Tesla’s lackluster corporate results on Tuesday, it was this: CEO Elon Musk declared during the company’s earnings call that he hopes to sell “sentient humanoid” robots by the end of next year.Before then, the robots known as “Optimus” will likely be used at Tesla’s factories sometime this year, he said. “I think Optimus will be more valuable than everything else [at Tesla] combined,” Musk boasted. “If you’ve got a sentient humanoid that is able to navigate reality and do tasks…there is no meaningful limit to the size of the economy.”Tesla is currently worth roughly half a trillion dollars.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York City is sure to draw out a cast of characters from Trumpland, from allies to ex-associates who’ve gone rogue on the former president.Jury selection wrapped last week, with prosecutors and defense attorneys combining to weed out potentially-biased jurors. In doing so, they put together a list of 41 potential witnesses who may be called on to testify.Below is a list of the most interesting names from that list—and how they may factor into the highly-anticipated trial. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn’t hesitate to fault talking head Tucker Carlson for spreading Russian propaganda that seriously hindered GOP support for Ukraine.Asked Tuesday why he thought it was taking so long to pass aid for the eastern European ally, McConnell didn’t waste time blaming the loudmouthed conservative media personality.“I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should’ve been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell said. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via ReutersThe Kremlin is reportedly scrambling to find a successor to Ramzan Kadyrov following reports that the Chechen leader has been diagnosed with necrotizing pancreatitis, a terminal illness, according to Russian media reports.Kadyrov, also known as “Putin's attack dog” or “Putin’s soldier” for his loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has visited Moscow Central Clinical Hospital regularly through the years to undergo procedures. He was allegedly diagnosed with the illness five years ago.Ukrainian intelligence last year pointed to Kadyrov’s ailing health, noting last year that he was in a coma.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Drew AngererDisgraced ex-Republican George Santos has killed his short-lived bid for a new seat in Congress, announcing his withdrawal from the race for New York’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday.“I have decided to withdraw from my independent run for #NY1,” Santos wrote on X. He added that he didn’t want his run to be portrayed as a “reprisal against” incumbent Nick LaLota, a fellow GOP rep Santos has said he personally dislikes. In an interview with The Daily Beast earlier this month, Santos vehemently denied his bid for LaLota’s seat was a “revenge run” against the ex-colleague he once called a “meathead.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Roberto Machado Noa/Getty ImagesA 10-year-old Oklahoma boy woke up alone on Monday morning and found himself the subject of a waking nightmare: while he was sleeping, his entire family had been slain by a father who then turned the gun on himself.According to a police report, the boy dialed 911 around 9:35 a.m. Monday morning. Responding cops found the bodies of his parents and three siblings upon arriving at the family home. All five of them had been shot to death, the report said.The boy, whose name has not been released, was unharmed.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Monroe County Sheriff's OfficeA Michigan woman is facing several charges after allegedly drunk driving into a building over the weekend—killing two young children and injuring 13 others.Marshella Chidester, 66, was charged with eight crimes—including second-degree murder and operating under the influence of alcohol causing death—after she allegedly plowed her SUV into the Swan Boat Club on Saturday afternoon.Authorities say that Chidester crashed into a children’s birthday party and killed 4-year-old Zayna Phillips and his 8-year-old sister, Alanah. Of the 13 others injured in the crash, nine were hospitalized and five remain in critical condition.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesWNBA star Kelsey Plum and New York Giants tight end Darren Waller have filed for divorce after one year of marriage, according to Clark County court records.The Las Vegas Aces point guard, 29, and the pro footballer, 31, filed a joint petition for divorce on Tuesday. The split came a little more than a year after they first tied the knot in March 2023. Plum had posted a somber Instagram story hinting that the marriage was over on Tuesday morning.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / GettyKaty Perry, respectfully, what the hell are you doing? Is it just me, or do we, as a society, collectively ask that question every three months or so? Whether she’s duking it out with some nuns over real estate, joining American Idol as a judge more than a decade after it was cool, releasing shoes that resemble blackface and minstrel make-up, or battling another old person for a different piece of real estate, Ms. Perry’s moves often feel out of step with what the public might want from a beloved celebrity. (That said, however, I will grant that when she somehow found a way to denounce feminism while accepting a Woman of the Year award in 2012, that was actually very on trend.) Now, the Left Shark of pop star PR moves is at it again, happily posing with a Cybertruck and thanking Elon Musk for sending her one just days after Tesla issued its biggest recall yet for that same vehicle. This apparently isn’t the first time she’s shilled for Tesla, either, which leads me to wonder what this company and its man-child of a founder actually have over her. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Yuki Iwamura/GettyFormer National Enquirer boss David Pecker testified on Tuesday that he agreed to be Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears” during the then-presidential candidate’s campaign for the White House, describing in detail a “highly, highly confidential” effort to bury bad stories about Trump and promote negative ones about his political rivals.The bombshell moment about the so-called catch-and-kill scheme came amid Pecker’s hours-long time on the stand, during which he explained the levers his tabloid pulled in helping get Trump elected.Pecker said it all began in mid-August 2015, when he attended a meeting at Trump Tower with Trump and his former personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen. According to Pecker, Cohen invited him there, saying “the boss” wanted to see him.Read more at The Daily Beast.