The Fort Worth Botanic Garden, a 120-acre oasis in the heart of the bustling city, recently found itself mired in controversy after a far-right advocacy group booked the grounds for its 15th anniversary. 

The “birthday celebration” for the True Texas Project featured panels on Christian nationalism and the Great Replacement Theory, an antisemitic myth.

The Botanic Garden, whose website commemorates the indigenous peoples whose land it occupies, canceled the event after a Texas Tribune report revealed the far-right slate of speakers, including Kyle Rittenhouse and a Christian nationalist author who calls for blasphemy laws. 

But the Fort Worth mayor reinstated the event, bowing to a pressure campaign orchestrated on Facebook by the group’s CEO, according to emails obtained by the Daily Dot.

The True Texas Project is no stranger to controversy and extremist rhetoric. CEO Julie McCarty once expressed solidarity with the El Paso Walmart shooter who killed 23 in a 2019 attack targeting Latino immigrants.  

The sold-out event featured a Friday evening “birthday party” with cake and breakout sessions that included Rittenhouse and Wade Miller, who wrote a policy brief on the “demographic replacement of American citizens by the foreign-born.”

Attendees were greeted by a dozen or so protesters outside the venue the first day—a number that grew to almost 100 by the next—beating drums and holding signs like “TTP = KKK.”

McCarty did not respond to a request for comment. The mayor directed the Daily Dot to previous statements about the event. The Botanic Garden did not respond to a request for comment. 

True Texas Project started life as a local Tea Party, one of the many grassroots organizations that sprung up to oppose President Barack Obama. At the time, McCarty was a stay-at-home mom with no political experience. But it quickly exerted muscle in Texas politics, ousting elected leaders it deemed insufficiently conservative and recruiting ideological warriors to run for office. And like many on the right, it shifted from libertarian rebellion against Obama to outright Trumpian anti-immigrant nationalism. 

McCarty’s grassroots activism was instrumental in turning Tarrant County, where Forth Worth is located, into a “GOP stronghold.” 

“As Texas goes, so goes America and it is Tarrant County that holds Texas red,” McCarty said in a recent interview. 

That penchant for ideological warfare was on display in June. After the Tribune report dropped, McCarty claimed it boosted sales. 

“I hope the Trib keeps attacking because the support has been fantastic, and ticket sales keep coming in,” she wrote. 

But patrons of the garden, seeing the news, flocked to Facebook. A week-old post on the Botanic Garden’s page received intense pushback. Unlike the usual anodyne comments the garden generally draws, these were furious. 

“I will never visit this place again. They are hosting a white supremacy right wing event. Hosting a bunch of Nazis,” one commenter said. 

“Do not allow your facility to be used for hate,” another said. 

“[We] won't be setting foot in this garden again unless they cancel this hate group conference,” another comment said, “I still can hardly believe this is actually real.”

Within an hour of receiving angry engagement, the official Botanic Garden account spoke up.

“Please rest assured the True Texas Project event is not being held at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden," it wrote.

Behind the scenes, emails obtained by the Daily Dot show that the Garden's CEO announced the cancellation of the event to the Garden’s board as the comments swelled, mentioning that “questions and community protest” about the garden’s association with the extremist group had risen.

The Tribune report also caused a mini-rebellion on the right, with three planned speakers canceling their appearances. In a remarkable split, one of the group’s longtime allies, former Texas state senator Don Huffines, released a statement that directly called out antisemitism as his reason for dropping out. 

After the event, McCarty painted it all as a plot by members of the “Radical Left”—the Tribune and the Garden—conspiratorially joining forces to shut them down. 

But McCarty didn’t wait to fight back, urging her supporters to fill the mayor’s inbox with complaints. 

“The Gardens are city property,” McCarty said in the June 14 Facebook post. “They are not allowed to pick and choose which groups may use the facilities.”

According to emails obtained by the Daily Dot, her base responded instantly

“Once again the city of Fort Worth displays that they in fact hate Christian Conservative people,” one such email from a True Texas Project supporter said. 

“They host far Left groups happily,” wrote another, echoing McCarty’s language on her Facebook post verbatim. Despite that assertion, the vast majority of events the garden hosts tend to be apolitical sessions on nature and art.

But the wave of emails caught the attention of the mayor’s office. An aide compiled the responses in a heads-up, noting they all went the same way—in favor of reinstating the event. 

That email, sent by an assistant “for awareness,” came just three hours after McCarty launched her campaign.

It went to the Mayor Mattie Parker, the city attorney Leann Guzman, the mayor’s chief of staff, and a media relations professional. 

“Let me know how we want to proceed,” the email ends. 

Less than 15 minutes after the aide’s concerned email to the mayor, a letter from the city went out to the True Texas Project’s attorney.

“The City has notified [the Botanic Garden] that it must immediately reverse the cancellation of your client’s event and reinstate the reservation,” the letter said.

No reasons were given for the reinstatement in the letter. However, in emails obtained by the Daily Dot, a message from city attorney Guzman to the Botanic Garden CEO cites the First Amendment as the reason for reinstatement. “Facility rentals constitute a public forum,” the message says, thus, “the City cannot restrict access based solely on a potential renter's viewpoint.”

That point, though, highlights just how Fort Worth caved on the matter over far-right pressure. Guzman, who cited the rationale, raised no initial concerns when the event was first canceled despite being cc’ed on the decision. 

That’s likely because the city has a policy that allows it to deny the use of any facility to groups it deems discriminatory. 

Just three months prior, in April, the Fort Worth Parks and Recreation canceled another event they deemed discriminatory—an event on “The danger of transgenderism” hosted by Latinos United for Conservative Action. 

But the action campaign whipped up by McCarty in her case appears to have trumped Fort Worth’s own policy. 

A mere half an hour after the mayor’s aide flagged the campaign, McCarty celebrated online. 

“We won!” she wrote. 

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Yesterday, former President Donald Trump announced that his running mate in the 2024 presidential election is Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). Most cheered the selection, even as some of Trump's supporters weren't too happy about Vance once calling the former president "America's Hitler."

But among Trump's farthest right base, a different debate is playing out. Some are hesitant about Vance because his wife Usha is not white. But others are enthused because Trump did not pick one of the Black men potentially in the running.

Usha Vance is Indian, the daughter of immigrants, and a lawyer. She clerked for both Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And, like her husband, she is a Republican.

However, multiple prominent pro-Trump voices have made statements doubting Vance's commitment to their white nationalist project.

In an episode of his show "America First," prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes talked about how Vance's wife and children are not white and said Vance may not be able to support "white identity" should he be elected vice president.

"Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?" Fuentes said. "There's a white genocide going on in the world. White people are being systematically replaced in America and Europe through immigration and—to a much lesser extent—due to inter-marrying."

A clip of Fuentes' statement was posted on X by progressive podcast host Tony Michaels.

Others questioned Vance's views on immigration. He supports Trump's border wall and continuing construction of it, saying he would "oppose every attempt to grant amnesty" to illegal immigrants.

But Vance's wife's race left some not believing the sincerity of his immigration positions.

"I'm sure this guy is going to be great on immigration," Jaden McNeil tweeted alongside a photo of Vance, Usha, and their son Ewan. McNeil is a Trump supporter whose tweets about Republican politics regularly go mega-viral: His tweet about Vance and his family has been viewed almost 6 million times.

However, one prominent online racist and his following were motivated by the pick.

Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a far-right social media platform, tweeted that he is happy with Vance as Trump's running mate because Vance is white and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who is Black, was considered as Trump's pick.

Rep. Bryon Donalds (R-Fla.) and Ben Carson, two other Black Republicans, were also in the initial mix.

"Tim freaking Scott was on the table as an option and you guys are blackpilling about Vance," Torba tweeted yesterday, shortly after Trump's announcement, cajoling his followers to not be disappointed. "Lol. Come on now."

"He could have picked a woman. He could have picked another boomer. He picked the White guy in his 30s," Torba added. "Calm down and have a little optimism. None of the choices were perfect. We’re playing the long game here and the board is starting to shift in our direction."

One of Torba's followers agreed, praising Trump for not making a diversity hire.

"Yes I was hoping for Ron DeSantis, but JD Vance is good. He is certainly not a DEI pick," they wrote.

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"A marriage made in hell" is one of the top reactions from far-right social media users this week after Huma Abedin, the former aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Alex Soros, son of progressive billionaire George Soros, announced their engagement.

In a statement to Vogue on Wednesday, the couple revealed that Soros had proposed to Abedin in New York in late May before heading to Italy to celebrate.

While the announcement has received minor fanfare online, right-wing users have exploded with disgust and outrage given the pair's political reputations.

Soros, who in 2023 took over as chairman of the Open Society Foundations, his father's $25 billion philanthropy empire, is reviled as a devious globalist hell-bent on destroying the American way of life.

Abedin may be even more disliked and has been the target of debunked and outlandish conspiracy theories that accuse her and Clinton of murdering and eating children.

So it is no surprise that tempers flared this week on Truth Social, former President Donald Trump's social media platform.

"A marriage made in hell," one top commenter wrote.

"Guess it's time to spawn the devil!" another said.

Among the comments, many of which were under a link about the engagement from the conspiratorial blog the Gateway Pundit, many wished for the couple to be "in prison" for unspecified and alleged crimes.

"Criminals stick together," one said.

"Slime attracts slime. They deserve one another," another said.

Numerous mentions were also made of Abedin's ex-husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who served 18 months in prison following a 2017 conviction for sending sexually explicit text messages to a minor.

"Wake up. The elites are all in bed together. She worked for Hillary," one user said. "Her husband was arrested for sending illicit photos to teenagers. And now she is marrying the son of the Devil."

Some even went as far as to suggest that the couple would soon be executed, presumably under a second term of former President Donald Trump, for alleged treason against the country.

"Enjoy it while it lasts your both traitors to this country and we all know what the penalty is for being a traitor Tic Tock," another Truth Social user said.

Numerous memes were also shared on sites such as X, where footage of hell from movies and TV shows was used to portray the pair's impending wedding. Others joked that the wedding would be filled with lizards, a reference to the conspiracy theory that claims the world's political elite are reptilian aliens.

This is far from the first time that the couple has garnered the ire of the far-right. In February when it was revealed that the pair were dating, similar outrage could be seen online.

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The hacking group SiegedSec released a chat log between one of its members and an employee with the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, just days after it leaked data from the conservative think tank.

The group announced shortly thereafter that it would officially disband as well.

In a post to the hackers' Telegram channel, SiegedSec shared its purported communications with Executive Director of the Heritage Oversight Project Mike Howell.

"it has been 28 hours since we released the database of the Heritage Foundation. first we'd just like to say, thank you all for the immense support. its greatly appreciated," the group wrote. "many articles, news stories, and social media posts about this breach have caught the attention of many people. one of these people happens to be the executive director of the Heritage Foundations Oversight Project, Mike Howell."

The breached data, as previously reported by the Daily Dot, appears to stem from the Heritage Foundation's media arm, the Daily Signal, where Howell is also a columnist. Though the breach has been widely covered, it does not appear to contain any sensitive data from the organization.

"Mike Howell reached out to us, at first to ask questions to understand our motives and why we breached his organisation. then, he proceeded to throw insults, threats, and claimed our existence was against nature," SiegedSec continued. "we tried answering things in a way to hopefully help him understand. but as his insults grew, so did our impatience. we are releasing all of our chat logs with Mike Howell, we have an extra surprise for him coming soon~."

The Daily Dot reached out to Howell over X and asked him to confirm the chat log's legitimacy. Howell, who falsely accused the Daily Dot of being involved in the hack itself, responded by confirming the post's accuracy.

"Yah that's me. For sure," Howell said, noting the conversation occurred today.

In his back-and-forth with the SiegedSec member known as "vio," Howell began by asking the hackers what they were "seeking or threatening."

"we want to make a message and shine light on who exactly supports the heritage foundation, vio wrote. "we dont want anything more than that, not money and not fame. we're strongly against Project 2025 and everything the heritage foundation stands for."

Project 2025 is a multipronged initiative from the Heritage Foundation that's been described as the conservative blueprint for a potential second Donald Trump presidency, although the former president has pushed back on some of its policy recommendations.

The initiative stirred outrage among progressives primarily due to its policies regarding abortion, social issues, immigration, and other matters.

In response to vio, Howell argued that he was "in the process of identifying and outing" members of SiegedSec, who have referred to themselves as "gay furries" throughout their two-year-long hacking spree.

"Closeted Furries will be presented to the world for the degenerate perverts they are," Howell said. "You cannot hide. Your means are miniscule compared to mine. You now can either turn yourself in or you can cooperate."

However, vio expressed confidence that none of their members would be identified as a result of Howell's efforts.

"none of our members will be identified or outed by your organisation built on hatred. the only ones deserving of a destroyed life are those within your organisation," vio replied. "you want me to cooperate? with what, spreading misinformation and hatred? we wont turn against our own people."

After arguing that members of SiegedSec had "turned against nature," Howell went on to refer to members as perverted for their purported involvement in the furry community.

"God created nature, and nature's laws are vicious. It is why you have to put on a perverted animal costume to satisfy your sexual deviances," he said. "It is why you are forced to hide like a coward. You violated our rights and broke the law. You have no standing to discuss such matters."

The SiegedSec member responded with criticisms of the Heritage Foundation.

"the rights your org violates will be 10x worse than any crime ive committed. you do not follow god if you use religion as a crutch to hate people," vio added. "while i hide behind a screen to fight for my rights, you hide behind religion to attack the rights of others."

Despite efforts by Howell to arrange a meetup with the hacker, vio refused.

"Are you aware that you won't be able to wear a furry tiger costume when you're getting pounded in the ass in the federal prison I put you in next year?" Howell asked.

"Such unprofessional language from an executive director, would you mind if i shared this?" vio responded.

"Please share widely," Howell wrote back. He then tweeted a screenshot of the conversation with lyrics to an Eminem song.

Howell continued with numerous other attacks—including his offer of advice to the group to "get out of mommy's basement, iron your shirt, buy a girl a drink, and ask her out instead of googling new deviances for you to fixate on"—before alleging that the FBI would soon retrieve the hackers' data from social media companies.

You can read the full conversation here.

The group announced shortly after that it had planned to disband this week but opted to reveal the plan early "to avoid the eye of the FBI."

"i've been considering quitting cybercrime lately, and the other members have agreed its time to let SiegedSec rest for good," vio wrote on Telegram. "In the past, i have tried quitting cybercrime a few times, and ive always been unable to fully quit. this time, hopefully i am able to stay away from it for my own wellbeing. we may not be a cybercriminal group anymore, but we will always hackers and always fighting for the rights of others."

The announcement comes after numerous high-profile hacks from the group, which was known best for targeting NATO, religious groups, and domestic government entities.

Update 11:16am CT, July 11: In a statement to the Daily Dot, the Heritage Foundation criticized the framing of the data breach.

“The Heritage Foundation was not hacked. An organized group stumbled upon a two-year-old archive of The Daily Signal website that was available on a public-facing website owned by a contractor. The information obtained was limited to usernames, names, email addresses, and incomplete password information of both Heritage and non-Heritage content contributors, as well as article comments and the IP address of the commenter. No Heritage systems were breached at any time, and all Heritage databases and websites remain secure, including Project 2025. The data at issue has been taken down, and additional security steps have since been taken as a precaution."

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A very specific subset of X users has a very specific gripe.

That's about as funny as you can get.

Alt-right Roman Statue avatar guys, those who adore the Roman Empire for its virtuosity and lasting impact on Western civilization, think the most Roman of all Roman movie franchises, Gladiator, has fallen.

"Thinly veiled anti-Western civilization nonsense," wrote an X user who cosplays as Imperator Claudius Gothicus Augustus online.

His comment came in response to Daily Roman Updates, who lamented the tone of the new trailer as compared (in his mind) to the previous version.

The trailer for the long-awaited sequel to director Ridley Scott's 2000 Oscar-winning film dropped on Tuesday.

High among the complaints from the Roman Statue avi crowd was the fact that although the film's score is composed by the legendary Hans Zimmer, the trailer uses the song "No Church in the Wild" by Jay-Z and Kanye West.

"They didn't have hip hop in ancient Rome," shared Daily Roman Updates.

Added another before the trailer launched, "Gladiator 2 panders to blacks: Emperor Septimus Severus will be played by Denzel Washington. Severus was half Punic (Semitic) and half Roman (Italic)."

The account turned out to be wrong, as Washington does not play an emperor.

But while the fascination with the Roman Empire has become a meme of late, Roman Statue avatar guys have been around for the past decade. Appearing on the scene around the same time as the alt-right, they use a professed love of Roman history to push "Western" ideals and aesthetics, thinly veiled cover for far-right and white nationalist views.

Or, to put it another way, one of their biggest fanboys is the site's owner: Elon Musk.

Musk responded repeatedly to some of the accounts, calling the complaints "100%" with an emoji. He also blamed the trailer on wokeness.

But as with much outrage on X, none of it made much sense.

While the first Gladiator has also become a right-wing obsession, it too was a critique of the Roman empire. Its main character, Maximus, leads a rebellion against it over its excesses.

And people seem to have forgotten even more about the original. The first trailer for the first movie had a similar score.

"I distinctly remember 'Bawitdaba' by Kid Rock being used for the trailer for the original…" one user replied.

And while Roman Statue Twitter adores the Roman Empire, it did have a much-publicized fall, which this sequel of Gladiator appears to explore.

Dramatizing that instead of romanticizing the earlier era seems to have struck a chord.

"We go from 'There once was a dream that was Rome.' And now we have 'Rome must fall. I just need only give it a push'," wrote Daily Roman Empire.

Their attitude was best exemplified by Malaysia-based right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong, who also said that the trailer was "woke" for focusing on the collapse of Rome.

"The message in Gladiator 2 seems to be that Rome is bad and must collapse. It seems like anti-Western, woke propaganda buried beneath a pseudo historical story," Cheong said. "It's also afflicted by the Jay-Z movie rap garbage that they ruin every trailer with. Rap is degenerate."

Yet once again, among the many supporters of Cheong's assessment were those who pushed back by noting that Rome did, in fact, fall.

"Rome fell, son. Movie looks pretty good by the trailer," user PimShimps replied.

And given the film's legacy, director, and cast, which includes Pedro Pascal and Washington, it's unlikely that complaints online will have much effect on the movie's success.

Gladiator 2 will be released in November.

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The Budget: 

Last week, California’s State Water Resources Control Board approved new water conservation regulations that aim to conserve almost 2 million acre feet of water by 2024, which could supply half of California’s population for a year. The regulations force over 400 Californian cities and water suppliers (not individuals) to cut back on the amount of water they use—unless they’re already utilizing a low amount—and are the first regulations of their kind in the U.S.

California’s Secretary for Environmental Protection Yana Garcia said in a statement that the regulations are a “definitive step toward ensuring California’s long-term resilience to the hotter, drier climate we all are experiencing.”

The Backlash: 

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has garnered right-wing backlash over the past year. They claim his “woke” policies have turned the state into a haven for poverty, crime, unemployment, and homelessness. Some see the water budget, which coincides with Newsom’s 2023 California Water Plan, as a further example of the governor's progressive influence on the state.

“Could you imagine Newsom running the country,” one X user posted about the water budget. “Every state would be implementing stupid woke policies to hide the fact that they mismanaged their budget.”

“Water budgets. Read that again. California is rationing water. What kind of dystopian nightmare state is that?’” another X user said. “Yet politicians claim it is one of the ‘freest states.’ Hardly. This is a fundamental basic build block of life, and will be rationed by the government in California.”

The Background: 

California was in a drought between 2020 and 2022 and has been getting “increasingly” drier since 1895. 

Thus, State Water Board members say that their new water conservation regulations are vital for preserving California’s water security, or ensuring that the state has enough water to function.

In fact, the initial draft of the water regulations were much more severe—and some conservationists say that the approved version of the regulations won’t adequately prepare California for the next drought.

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” Heather Cooley, the director of research at the Pacific Institute, a global water think-tank, told CalMatters. “While surface reservoirs are full now, I think there’s a tendency to forget about water scarcity and drought.”

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In January, Oklahoma's Superintendent of Public Instruction appointed Chaya Raichik to the state Department of Education's Library Media Review Committee. Raichik is based in Florida and her X account, @LibsOfTikTok, doxes LGBTQ people. She has been connected to more than 20 bomb threats nationwide.

Now, Walters has appointed more right-wing media figures to his new Executive Review committee on the state's social studies standards, including Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and PragerU founder Dennis Prager.

The Heritage Foundation is the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, a set of right-wing policies and political strategies that conservative leaders hope to put into motion should former President Donald Trump be re-elected.

PragerU is an education and media non-profit that creates videos and other content founded on conservative values and thought. Recent PragerU videos discuss how feminism harms women, the importance of patriotism, and whether the "LGBTQ movement" has "gone too far."

It's unclear what, if any, ties Prager and Roberts have to Oklahoma. Prager lives in Los Angeles, according to his X bio. Roberts is based in Washington, D.C.

As announced in a press release, Walters' new social studies standards will "eliminate" diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—which the right has criticized at in recent months—and "indoctrination."

Walters has made his name as an opponent of what he calls "woke indoctrination" and is currently in the middle of suing President Joe Biden's administration for its updated Title IX Rules that protect LGBTQ students from “severe or pervasive” harassment.

In addition to Roberts and Prager, Walters appointed conservative radio host Steve Deace and David Barton, a Christian nationalist who doesn't believe in the separation of church and state.

"We need to return to more rigorous social studies standards that emphasize the unique and exceptional nature of the American republic, promote a proper understanding of the nation's founding, and instill pride in our civic traditions and Oklahoma heritage," Walters said.

Part of Walters' new standards includes teaching Oklahoma public school students the Bible, which Walters directed all public schools to implement last month.

"Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom," the New York Times reported Walters said about his new directive.

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White supremacist group Patriot Front held a march in downtown Nashville, Tennessee over the weekend, wearing the group's signature masks and waving Confederate flags.

Members of the group arrived in Nashville via a U-Haul truck, a tactic that previously led to dozens of the group's members being charged for attempting to cause a riot in Idaho.

Patriot Front was founded in 2017 after the "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The group believes that the U.S. belongs to "the founding stock," or white people part of "the European diaspora."

However, Patriot Front's public marches, where members don't show their faces, have led to numerous accusations the organization is nothing more than an entrapment effort by the government.

On Saturday, Patriot Front members marched to the Tennessee State Capitol and vandalized one of the city's bridges with their logo. Group members held Confederate, American, and upside-down American flags and signs that said "Reclaim America."

According to a video posted on TikTok, Patriot Front arrived in Nashville via a U-Haul. In it, group members are seen holding megaphones and descending from the moving truck. All the members are wearing masks, khaki pants, and navy shirts—outfits Patriot Front members have worn during other group demonstrations.

As shown in the video, Patriot Front also gave out flyers to those nearby that said the organization "believes in the ethnic interest of Americans as those descendant from the original European settlers of this land."

@d33ray60 Once again in Nashville. Why hide your face? Be a man about it. Not my video. #nashville #downtownnashville #trending ♬ original sound - D33Ray

The video was posted by TikTok user @d33ray60, who said the video was not his own.

Arriving via U-Haul seems to be a Patriot Front tactic: In 2022, more than 30 Patriot Front members were arrested after they were found in a U-Haul on their way to protest an Idaho Pride parade.

A tipster told police that he'd seen a "little army" descending out of the back of a van.

According to U-Haul's policies, those who have reserved U-Hauls may not "congregate with others" inside the cargo compartment of the vehicle and the company strongly advises against allowing passengers to ride within the cargo compartment because doing so is "very dangerous."

In response to Patriot Front using U-Hauls—again—for transport, some online called out the brand.

"Hi @uhaul. The Patriot Front are violating your well-known rule that people cannot be transported in your moving vans," former Department of Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem tweeted. "Also, they are Nazis."

While some members were convicted on charges in Idaho, its leader, Thomas Rousseau, had the charges dismissed. No arrests have been reported since the Nashville march.

In a statement to the Daily Dot, a U-Haul spokesperson told the Daily Dot that the Patriot Front violated their U-Haul rental agreement by allowing passengers to ride in the cargo compartment of their rental.

They also said U-Haul rents to all individuals, regardless of their political affiliations or personal views.

“We rent moving equipment to individuals – not groups, organizations, etc.,” the spokesperson said. “We do not ask customers about their personal views, political affiliations, religious beliefs, voting history, income level, educational background, race, gender, or any other private information that is none of our business.”

This post has been updated with comment from U-Haul.

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The hot-button issues of conservative politics have been distilled into a new anti-woke sitcom called "The New Norm." The show, which stars conservative commentator Dave Rubin and radio host Larry Elder, jokes about gender, the Bud Light boycott, and LGBTQ officials in President Joe Biden's administration, among other topics.

"The New Norm" positions itself as an antidote to the "woke mind virus" and has already gone massively viral: Since premiering on X on Tuesday, the show's mini-pilot has been viewed over 22 million times.

But it's unclear if all those views are from fans.

During the approximately four-minute clip, viewers meet Norm, the father of a teenage girl. Norm is currently on house arrest for threatening his daughter's school after it taught her that "girls aren't girls and men aren't men," a tongue-in-cheek reference to actual violent threats sent to schools recently.

Then Norm's wife, Janice, brings home Chaz, a non-binary person who is required to teach Norm how not to be homophobic, transphobic, and racist as part of his parole. Norm and Charlie, Norm's best friend, refer to Chaz as "that."

Chaz is likely a play on the Seattle autonomous zone erected in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

Chaz struggles with how they're being treated by Norm and Charlie, so they call members of the Biden administration: Sam Brinton, a non-binary former Department of Energy official, Admiral Rachel Levine, who is trans and an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, and a man in a dog mask and fatigues, a reference to viral posts from military officials.

The animated version of Levine tells Chaz to "find a way to break" Norm in order to "fix the country."

In the end, Janice tells the group they're all going to Disney World where "it's a woke world after all."

The mini-pilot also included a shoutout to Elon Musk, the current CEO of X.

"Thank god for Elon Musk," the show's theme song states. "X is the home of free speech."

While some replied to the show's premiere saying that they hope more episodes come out, a majority of the responses were negative.

"This sucks," one X user tweeted. "It's like a cartoon designed for 50 year olds that revolves around a constant onslaught of Facebook tier cringe political references that are too explicitly obvious to be funny."

"Probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life," another person said.

Some even accused the show of using artificial intelligence to create its dialogue and theme song.

"The script is 100% AI generated," an X user wrote.

"Love how you can clearly tell the theme song was made with AI," another X user tweeted. "There wasn't a single country singer available?"

The show acknowledged the reception it received in a follow-up tweet.

"Thank you for the LOVE! (and Hate!)" the show's account tweeted yesterday. "THE NEW NORM is a 'safe space' for people on all sides to come together and laugh (or yell at each other). Like a family."

And though only the mini-pilot has been released, "The New Norm" show has tweeted out an image of all the characters at Disney World's "Hall of Presidents," and Norm near a debate stage ahead of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump's first debate Thursday evening.

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Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani disclosed that his consulting LLC took in just over $1,200 in May from 2020 election conspiracy impresario Mike Lindell’s company MyPillow, even after promoting the product every day on his YouTube and Rumble channels.

On the streaming sites, Giuliani produces hour-long episodes where he rants and raves about the hottest conservative topics of the day, almost always pausing—either at the beginning, middle, or end—to plug Lindell’s wares. 

On a recent episode, after discussing how Democratic "Marxism" is destroying American cities and people need to "rise up," Lindell hops on—in a prerecorded ad—to hype clearance sales like goose down comforters, "proprietary" kitchen towels, flannel sheets, and random items like flip flops and T-shirts, which all come at a steep discount thanks to the promo code "Rudy."

Giuliani’s been intertwined with Lindell ever since the far-right’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He’s been advertising MyPillow on X since as far back as 2021, when he called for people to stand with Lindell—and buy pillows—to prevent free speech from being “extinguished by Democrat and #BigTechCensorship.”

“Practical Advice,” Giuliani suggested in a tweet at the time, “Buy #MyPillow items and give them out as gifts so the attempted censorship will fail.”

Giuliani’s advertisements for the brand have shifted to streaming sites after getting booted from radio for repeating election conspiracies His “The Rudy Giuliani Show” debuted on YouTube this May after WABC kicked him off.

Also on the channel is his other stream, “America’s Mayor Live.” 

Giuliani has a decent audience on streaming sites. On YouTube, he over 500,000 subscribers. His hour-long streams averaged around 4,000 views, with a few of them maxing out at around 6,000. On Rumble, he has over 80,000 subscribers and does better viewership, frequently getting over 10,000 views.

But according to new files in Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, despite Giuliani’s ongoing promotion of the pillows every single day, Giuliani Communications LLC took in $1,227 in May from MyPillow Inc.

Giuliani filed for bankruptcy last December after he was found guilty of defamation for accusing two Georgia election workers of stealing votes in 2020. The two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, were awarded $148 million in damages against Giuliani.

It’s unclear if the money from MyPillow is from the ad spend, affiliate sales with his promo code, or both. 

Then again, Lindell’s company isn’t in a place to drop big bucks. His lawyers say he can no longer pay his legal bills, he owes $5 million to a random person who debunked one of his biggest conspiracies, and he’s still staring down billions in defamation charges from election companies. 

Last August, Lindell told Steve Bannon that the company was struggling to access credit from banks that no longer wish to work with him. In July, the Daily Dot reported that the company was auctioning over 850 items including shipping trucks, manufacturing equipment, and office furniture in an attempt to raise money.

However, the company has long partnered with conservative influencers on discount codes for its wares. 

It’s possible that, given the frequent advertising over the past few years, the market is saturated. 

MyPillow, though, was Giuliani’s lowest source of income in May. 

He pulled in $11,400 from Balance of Nature, a supplement company that has been subject to FDA warnings about the claims it makes being unreliable, $8,333 from Newsmax, and $15,486 from WABC for his canceled talk radio show.

He also pulled in $2,247 in payouts from Twitter, where he has 1.7 million followers.

Despite tens of thousands of dollars in income, Giuliani still managed to post a $36,573 loss for the month. That’s because of the $45,000 monthly salary he paid himself from his company, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in Amazon purchases and Netflix, Prime Video, Kindle, Paramount+, and Apple subscriptions and services.

While he promised to be a responsible steward of the estate, Giuliani spent $120,000 in January, and on March 3 racked up 28 Apple.com RECORD STORE charges worth hundreds of dollars.

Giuliani also spent $9.99 that month on a documentary called “Into The Light,” which takes viewers “through the fundamentals of change from bondage in sin to freedom in Christ,” according to the movie’s Vimeo page, the Daily Dot reported last month.

That movie is a “teaching documentary” that tries to show viewers how to break their addiction to pornography, and says that “nothing blocks missions, shatters ministries, and destroys families like pornography does,” promising to “help convict, inspire, and equip you to kill sin.”

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