GOOD EVENING!

This is OUT OF SCOPE, your weekly intel to fuel your water cooler conversations, delivered to your inbox every Monday. If someone forwarded you this email, be sure and subscribe here. 

LUNCH BREAK

five consumption recs for the time between meetings

1. NEVER SKIP LEAD DAY. You may be pumping iron – but your cardiovascular system is pumping lead.

2. DON'T CAMPAIGN ON MY PARADE. Parade rights activists are punching air.

3. APPLE TV MINUS PLUS. The streaming wars appear to have shifted focus from attracting and retaining subscribers to making the most trite branding shifts conceivable.

4. JUST AN OLD HOUSEWIVES’ TALE. A breakdown of the lies told on the Housewives franchise.

5. VS VS. THE CULTURE. Is Victoria’s Secret cut out for 2025 relevance?

is trump the people’s princess?

Brash honesty has long been a part of the Trump brand. His catty candor served him well as both a reality TV personality and as a political dark horse: The Donald’s “realness” gave him an edge among voters who were fed up with focus-grouped political polish.

But the firepower that makes Trump such a camera magnet on a debate stage is difficult to wield strategically, and – if not regularly diffused through petty feuds or alliterative nickname brainstorms – threatens to boil over in an all-time crashout. 

As dissent mounts, a crashout appears to be underway. Trump’s taking shitposting to new heights; he’s not sure about his heaven access; he’s grappling with body image on main. 

Some constituents are indignant, embarrassed, scared, or revisiting their plans to flee the country. But among the terminally online, the response is a resounding: #beenthere, brother.

Trump's recent escalations should, theoretically, be damaging. And they still could prove to be, politically speaking. But culturally, the spiral is almost working in his favor. Because in 2025, being unhinged is authentic – being measured is bot behavior. Trump’s never been afraid to call it how he sees it, and that’s not a quality that presidential prestige could quite buff out. And while contextualizing his escalating outbursts against his access to nuclear codes is unsettling, his reactions feel less aberrant in this moment than they would have a decade ago. 

The volatility that made Trump novel in 2016 is standard operating procedure now. Internet culture has evolved in parallel – fair to argue that Trump helped expedite that evolution. In another media environment, Trump's recent behavior would be disqualifying. But today, shitposting is standard practice – and the realest political move might just be posting through it.

TREND RAPPORT

viral vocab of the week 

CRASHOUT (n.) –  An emotional outburst or longer-burn meltdown characterized by heightened stress or anger. 

SHITPOST (n., v.) An absurd, incendiary, and/or low-quality post; or, as a verb, posting content that fits that criteria.

CHALANCE (n.) – The quality of being forthcoming with romantic enthusiasm.

SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY!

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