#ProudBlue
My grandsons got to participate in the Egg Roll when President Obama was in office
They enjoyed this event so much and I’m so glad they will always have the memories of participating when it was an amazing event for Children not Corporate Donors.
www.cnn.com/2025/03/23/p…— cathyfl7 (@cathyfl7.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 4:20 PM
A Harbinger, indeed. Per CNN, “‘This is not your grandmother’s Easter Egg Roll’: White House seeks corporate sponsorships for Easter event”:
The White House, through an outside event production company called Harbinger, is soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s Easter Egg Roll, which is prompting major concerns from ethics experts and shock from former White House officials from both parties.
The sponsorship offers range from $75,000 to $200,000, with the promise of logo and branding opportunities, according to a nine-page document sent to potential sponsors and obtained by CNN.
The Egg Roll, which began during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration in 1878, has long been privately funded without taxpayer dollars, largely through the American Egg Board, which also provides tens of thousands of eggs for the occasion. And all money raised by Harbinger will go to the White House Historical Association.
“This is an enterprise. This is not your grandmother’s Easter Egg Roll where people lined up outside the gate and go and roll an egg and get a little gift bag and walk out,” said a former official involved in planning the event, which has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.
The pitch document laying out sponsorship opportunities includes logos for both the White House and Harbinger, which previously produced the event during President Donald Trump’s first term and is offering “initial planning” and “event day execution” for sponsors that sign on. It features imagery of Trump, first lady Melania Trump, members of the Trump family, the Easter Bunny, and the White House press corps, including CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins…
Among the offerings for prospective sponsors: “Naming rights for key areas or elements,” “Sponsor logos featured on event signage,” “Custom-branded baskets, snacks/beverages, or souvenirs,” “Mentions in official event communications and social media posts,” “Acknowledgment in printed or digital event programs,” and “Inclusion in press releases and media interviews.” Sponsors can also gain access to an “invite-only brunch hosted inside the White House by FLOTUS,” tickets to the event, and a private White House tour.
Upon viewing the pitch document, Richard Painter, who served in the White House Counsel’s Office under President George W. Bush, told CNN that it “wouldn’t have gotten through Counsel’s Office.”
“That would have been vetoed in about 30 seconds in my day,” he said. “We’re not running this like a football stadium where you get all logos all over the place for kicking in money.” …
It’s not unusual for a production company like Harbinger to be involved. The company, founded by former Mitt Romney campaign staffers in 2013, has produced large-scale corporate and government events, including Egg Rolls during Trump’s first term, March for Our Lives, media spin rooms at presidential debates, and Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to the US.
Private contributions cover activity booths, artists, music, vendors, staging, equipment and décor, said a source familiar with the planning who was granted anonymity to detail specifics of the funding mechanisms. Any excess funding raised, that source said, will go toward other similar White House events, such as Halloween festivities and the Fourth of July. So far, one sponsor has been identified for the April 21 event, with other “successful conversations” underway, according to the source, who noted that the National Park Service, which oversees White House grounds, will be responsible for vetting prospective donors before gifts are accepted…
Painter argued the move runs counter to free enterprise. The Trump administration, he said, “just have a different attitude… that ‘America First’ somehow requires the United States to pick winners and losers in the private sector.”
Donald Sherman, the chief counsel and executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said he had “never seen anything like this before” associated with a White House.
“I understand that there are corporate sponsors for the Easter Egg Roll,” Sherman told CNN. “What I have not seen before is sort of the outright solicitation and the use of the imprimatur of the White House to give corporate sponsorship.”…
Grifters gonna grift, idiot voters gonna idiot…
Local Voters Puzzled After Being Burned Second Time by Hot Stove – "Why Would the Stove Do This?" https://t.co/NYdcS5hpoS
— Fentanyl Tsar ?????? (@canderaid) March 21, 2025
Don’t Like This? Do Something About It!
mapaghimagsik
That is some tacky-assed shit.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Butbutbutbut, I’m constantly told bycertain media outfits that Hair Furor’s actually popular, at least in that his approval rating isn’t below zero.
Reuters did a good piece on this a month ago showing relative stuff dating back to his first term:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-approval-rating-slips-americans-worry-about-economy-2025-02-19/
And just a week ago, his approval rating was only at -1% according to NBC:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/poll-trump-faces-early-challenges-economy-united-gop-backs-big-change-rcna195860
I think I’m reading those graphs right.
WaterGirl
@mapaghimagsik:
It totally is. If he had any shame, he would die of it. And oh my god that post on truth social today? He sounds totally unhinged.
Martin
Next year is going to end up being the 2026 Taco Bell Mountain Dew State of the Union, Do the Dew!
WaterGirl
@Martin: I feel kind of bad for laughing, but it really is that bad.
Martin
Welcome to the 2025 9/11 Memorial and Remembrance, brought to you by American Airlines – fly the friendly skies of American!
HopefullyNotcassandra
@WaterGirl: but…. You don’t agree he’s excellent!!!!!!!!!!! ?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
@WaterGirl:
“Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!”
Ryan
Why aren’t the DOG-E savings covering this?
Jay
Hey, the White Supremacy Court ruled in Citizen’s United that Corporations and Billionaires can buy the House, the Senate and the White Supremacy House,
so it is only logical that the Office of the President can sell out.
Martin
This federal holiday marks the 160th Aunt Jemima Juneteenth remembrance – Aunt Jemima, what took you so long!
dmsilev
Well, with the price of eggs these days, I guess they had to do something.
(yes, sarcasm. )
Martin
@dmsilev: What’s funny is the egg roll was always sponsored by the US Egg Board – the industry group. They donated the eggs, and all that. It was never taxpayer funded. And yet, that wasn’t enough sponsorship, so now we’re going to have Smith & Wesson goodie bags for the kids – little plastic eggs full of ammunition.
dmsilev
@Martin: Bold of you to imagine that Juneteenth will be acknowledged under this administration, even as a grifting opportunity.
Suzanne
@Martin: Don’t forget Jack Daniel’s.
God, the end of the country is going to be trashy AF.
dmsilev
The makers of Pan’s Labyrinth were ahead of the curve in their sponsorship of one of Melania Trump’s Christmas displays.
Martin
Can we get Hugo Boss to sponsor Veterans Day?
Baud
@Martin:
The United Airlines States of America.
Suzanne
@dmsilev: Next Valentine’s Day can feature The Babadook.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
This result from NBC doesn’t make any sense to me:
I’m disgusted that so many apparently aprrove of Trump’s immigration and border security “policy”. I wonder how many are actually aware of all of the European, Canadian visitors being harassed and detained for no discernable legitimate reason. Or what happened to Mahmoud Khalil, those people sent to the gulag in El Salvador without due process, or the half million people legally (Cubans, Venezuelans, etc) here having their protected status yanked out from under them).
The only positive spin I can put on it is that these abuses have not pierced the public consciousness yet
Baud
@dmsilev:
He acknowledged Black History Month for whatever political reason.
Steve LaBonne
@mapaghimagsik: Surprising since Trump is normally so classy.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m guessing all most people know is that he’s being “tough.”
RevRick
@mapaghimagsik:
Fortunately, culture hasn’t entirely disappeared, yet. MrsRev and I enjoyed a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Dvorak’s 7th Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was sublime.
Steve LaBonne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We hates furriners! They wants to steal the precious!
oldster
What a disgrace. What a betrayal of everything our parents and grandparents fought for. The land of the grift and the home of the craven.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Gee, I would think Black History Month was too (((woke))) for the Trumpites
Steve LaBonne
@oldster: As awful as he is Trump is still really a symptom. The disease is the pervasive rot in our society and culture which turned out to run even deeper than we wanted to believe.
JCJ
@dmsilev: last year Stephen Colbert kept making fun of a video clip of President Biden standing stiffly at the Juneteenth celebration while others nearby danced. It was so annoying for the reason you mentioned – I am skeptical that there would be any such celebrations during the Dump II reign. Also, I imagine if someone had filmed me at the Rage Against The Machine concert I went to in 2022 I would have looked very similar compared with some of the youngsters nearby
Baud
These aren’t numbers that the normie public will notice. All they see is right wing spin.
laura
Just a complete shakedown artist.
Ohio Mom
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The inexplicable thing to me is that Biden was deporting immigrants all the time, just on the down low: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna195605
Why was Biden so secretive about this? He just handed Trump and the republicans this issue o the proverbial silver platter.
ETA: I see Baud got there first.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
I agree.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
33% of US Registered voters voted for the 34 Felony Convicted Rapist who tried to keep power in a violent Coup. A common theme at R/Leopards Eating Faces is “yeah, well I know he said it during the campaign, but I didn’t think he would do it”.
32% made the sane choice.
36% were, meh, I can’t be arrsed enough to vote.
Nothing much makes any sense.
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
Obama was crucified by his party for deporting people. Biden surely understood that would happen if he tried to be tough on immigration.
Baud
@Jay:
Congrats on election season. I hope Trump gives the good guys a fighting chance.
Jay
@Baud:
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It was celebrated as Erase Black History (Month)*,
and women, LBGTQA2S.
scav
Bold of them to highlight to the nation that only multinationals and billionaires can now afford eggs.
Ohio Mom
@Baud: So Biden was between a rock and a hard place — publicize the deportations, Democrats get mad, keep them quiet, give MAGA the talking point about Biden opening our borders to criminals.
Jay
@Baud:
Con’s have dropped in just over a month from +20 to +3.
But that’s not predictive, as the share of the popular vote nationwide doesn’t matter, it’s the share of the popular vote, riding by riding.
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
I think so.
Quick Google search
Nukular Biskits
Good afternoon/evenin’, y’all!
eclare
Tornado sirens going off here. Looks like it’s well north of me.
Sirens off.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ohio Mom:
According to the article, it mentions that part of the reason for Biden’s higher numbers last year was that there were more migrants seeking entry, both illegally and legally.
For my part, I didn’t like how immigration started to turn into this big issue at the time. I thought it was a bullshit nothing burger distraction that only benefited Trump. If he had tried to get “tough” on immigration I would’ve been mad. Gaza was bad enough.
eclare
Damn. Sirens on again.
Nukular Biskits
@eclare:
Trying to remember … where do you live?
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
Memphis.
JPL
@eclare: My previous mutt would hear the sirens and head to the closet. The one I have now, ignores them.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ohio Mom:
@Baud:
Two things I’ll never understand was Biden’s inability/unwillingness to get rid of DeJoy, who was clearly damaging the Postal Service with his “reforms”, and the fact that Shogan was literally censoring American history, like the internment of Japanese-Americans, that was not so rosy at the Archives for over a year and that the WH did absolutely nothing, that we know of, to stop her. She wasn’t even an archivist, but a political science grad. All of that obeying in advance and she got shitcanned by Trump anyway lol.
For clarity about the US Postal Service, I’ll quote a comment I made in February about it:
RaflW
I remember when a president eating arugula was a ‘scandal’.
What a fucking awful plummet in to end-state capitalism this all is.
Nukular Biskits
@eclare:
Yeah, I see the T-storm rolling through there on radar.
Update: And a really nasty-looking one NE of Tupelo about to head into AL.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
As good an explanation as any
@Steve LaBonne:
“They’re stealing our jerbs!”
Automation and “AI” is a-okay tho. It’s OK when billionaires and corporations do it. It’s just called “job elimination
Another Scott
Has anyone asked why the WHHA suddenly needs a dramatic increase in income??
Has anyone asked the WHHA Board of Directors what they think of this??
Their website says they are a non-profit.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors is John F.W. Rogers, executive VP at Goldman Sachs. Presumably he can find money in his sofa cushions, or among his MotU friends, if the WHHA needs more funding.
This has the same stench as former Governor Bob McDonnell effectively selling out the Governor’s mansion for his friends and donors. “Hang out with me and support me and we’ll put your logo on stuff and give you all kinds of great publicity. Plus, you’ll get a tax deduction! And you’ll have direct contact with folks on my team for other donation opportunities. Plus, it will outrage the Democrats but there’s nothing they can do about it!! HaHa!”
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
I live in Midtown, so it’s well north of me. But we have a watch til 11 pm.
eclare
@JPL:
Smart dog to head to the closet! Mine is snoozing and snoring next to me.
Baud
Via reddit
RandomMonster
Holy shit that is funny!
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We just had an election a few months ago, and he got just shy of 50% of the popular vote.
It would be news if he weren’t getting around 50% on nearly any issue of the day.
Nixon had 24% approval (with another 10% unsure) as he was getting on that Marine helicopter the last time in August 1974.
It takes a lot to get people to change their minds, so pubic opinion polling often lags quite a bit.
We’ll see what happens.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Baud: “Enforcement” may be doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Apparently Biden’s administration did a lot of “Administrative” arrests – more than Donnie.
No time to figure out the difference.
IANAL.
Bottom line – Remember dsquared’s One Minute MBA rules – Never give known liars the benefit of the doubt; good ideas don’t need to have lies told about them; the vital importance of audit; etc.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
ArchTeryx
Deleted (no longer applicable)
different-church-lady
Christ, what an asshole.
ascap_scab
This sounds like a job for the Saudi’s LIV Golf.
kalakal
I expect the biggest sponsers will be Rozneft, Gazprom, Mikoyan etc
YY_Sima Qian
The meeting will be interesting, whenever it happens
Normally, though, it would be SecState or the NSA playing the role of Presidential emissary.
pluky
@Another Scott: The thing to watch is just with whom the WHHA partners to
spendlaunder the ‘donations’.Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
HE IS TOTALLY UNHINGED.
There is no other way to say it, other than he’s actually been unhinged his entire life. He just taken the last few steps to TOTAL UNHINGED. I believe that phrase – last few steps is doing a lot of work because it really wasn’t more than 1 or 2 steps.
hells littlest angel
Eggs are so expensive, what government could afford to do this without corporate sponsorship?
Gvg
@Another Scott: could it have anything to do with an egg shortage in this country? Maybe the egg board isn’t getting industry donations for the event? They might even be mad at Trump for doing nothing to help while their flocks die, which leave them with a loss of income. Maybe they want to draw attention to their opinions.
different-church-lady
Wow, you think we’re having a rough time here? You should see the utter meltdown at LGM.
Jay
@hells littlest angel:
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ukraine, Britain, Germany and 115 others.
Citizen Alan
@Ruckus: as much as I hate donald trump, i have come to the realization that I don’t hate him as much as I hate the people who voted for him. Donald trump, in my opinion, suffers from profound mental illness and obvious dementia. He would be pitiable, except for the fact that 77+ million people are so full of bitterness and spite that they thought a deranged monster would be better as president than an accomplished black woman.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: The Campos “Frayed Nerves” thread?
I haven’t read much of anything there in ages. Lots and lots and lots of comments in that thread about who was ban-worthy and who wasn’t. Seems to be a lot of tip-toeing to poke at but not upset Loomis too much.
Strange place.
Oh well.
[eta:] – Maybe the Loomis thread with 525+ comments instead. No time (and insufficient interest at the moment) to read that one.
Best wishes,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Citizen Alan:
While Dumbfuck Hitler is indeed the symptom and not the disease, one should remember that he’s the one who told them bitterness and spite were virtuous qualities.
different-church-lady
@Another Scott: You gotta chase the responses to the responses back to the origin three days ago. Wheels within wheels.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: It’s worse than I thought.
Thanks for the warning. Glad I missed it.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
Sorry, got to say it,
The White Supremacy Court ruled that DJTdiot was “eggceptional”.
Groan all you want,………………………………
PatrickG
@different-church-lady:
Haha (but not a funny haha), I had the exact same thought.
i decided to check in on LGM because I hadn’t been there in a while. Those Farley threads are spirited to say the least.
Random thought: Wish I’d bookmarked it so could credit, but one commenter critiqued Farleys comparison of the impact of prejudice experienced by appalachian and black people as “apples and oranges but still fruit” with “but only one of those bore strange fruit”.
no clear points I’m trying to make here other than (a) an amazing turn of rhetorical phrase containing so much truth, and (b) that was a minor sub thread in a very heated community conflict around ban threats and inconsistent standards. I hope they can figure something else out.
Ben Cisco
@Jay: Oh I’m gonna LOL
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Something something we have always been at war with Eastasia.
(sigh)
All it would take would be about 4 people on the other side to act sensibly in the House, and about 20 in the Senate, and this particular set of nightmares would be over. Vance would also be a monster, but he doesn’t have the hold on the rest of them the way 47 does at the moment.
Less than 25 people have the future of the country in their hands. And they’re being stupid, cowardly, craven monsters about it.
Grr…
We need to do everything we can to vote the monsters out, everywhere we can.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@Another Scott:
While a few ReThugs might be able to shut aspects of DJTdiots and Project 2025 down,
In Canada, the general consensus in Canada is it will take 2 generations after relations return to a norm, before we forgive your betrayal, because you are one election away from electing your next felonious, treacherous DJTdiot.
If the US goes so far as to draw Canadian blood, it will take 150 years and a universal global threat that the US aligns to, to make common cause.
different-church-lady
@Jay: Does this mean you won’t be taking any of us as political refugees?
Jay
@different-church-lady:
Canada has always welcomed political refugees, from the US, as long as they weren’t from the Unions or Commies. That changed in the ’70’s.
From 1776 to 1941, American was a dirty, treasonous, treacherous, barbarian word, and for a bit after, 1942-43.
Jay
@Jay:
For those interested, Canada will end the F-35 contract at 6. The rest of air fighter purchases will be the French Rafele. About 106 airframes, manufactured in Canada with no US parts.
The next tanks, will be South Korean K2’s, again, no US parts. Having sent a significant number of Leopard 2’s and 1’s to Ukraine, we need about 90.
The M777 US and M109 155mm artillery will be replaced with South Korean K9’s, Swedish, Polish and Finnish units.
We have already switched to Australian BOH, (beyond the horizon) air and sea defense radar systems.
Our new 22 ship destroyer program is a British designed hull with French/British weapons and sensor systems.
Our small arms, from rifles to AT weapons, are Canadian made.
Pistols will still be the 9mm Belgian FN, because we still have 342,000 in stock from WWII buys.
Air defenses will range from the UK/French SAMPTS to Ukrainian SGMPS, along with German/French NAMS and NPTS, along with German Tarus ALCMs.
$964 billion in non-US weapons procurement over the next 5 years.
In 5 years, the only American weapons in Canadian hands will be what the gangbangers and drug dealers have smuggled in.
BTW, 1,144 kilo cocaine bust in Hamilton the other day, cut with 10% fentanyl, (deadly) shipped in from Michigan. That’s enough to keep DJTdiot Jr. high for a week.
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
That hate is realistic, all things considered.
However.
Hate almost never solves anything, and almost always makes things worse. However it is still a reasonable response to the situation at hand.
There are always going to be people that will vote for the worst of any 2 choices. It’s humanity at its finest. Or is that at its worst? It’s so hard to tell the difference. At least he’s not Hitler. IOW I have no rational answer for you. People seem to like shitforbrains. Or at least think he’d be the better whatever the hell he is. Which of course is not in any way good, decent, rational, competent and possibly not human. OK he’s human – in all it’s whatever the complete opposite of anything in any way good is.
Mike S
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): that was my first thought when I saw this today.
“I’m the Secretary of State, brought to you by Carl’s Jr.”
George Kennan Was Right
Hi, everybody, I’m Joe Buck.
And I’m Troy Aikman.
Ane welcome to the 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll, sponsored by Budweiser. When you’re out of Bud, you’re out of beer! And by Cologuard! Your noninvasive screening test just got better. Get Cologuard and get tested for colon cancer today!
It’s a beautiful day here outside the White House, Joe, and a beautiful day for a cold Budweiser and a test for colon cancer as we watch the parade of young Americans from all over the country get set to take part in this time-honored event and roll their eggs!