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MIKE HOGAN, EXECUTIVE DIGITAL DIRECTOR

Last month, our own Gabriel Sherman reported that the Trump II White House is operating under a “no-scalps policy” in which the president, who achieved mainstream celebrity by discharging errant “employees” on a reality-TV program, refuses to fire anyone in response to a scandal uncovered by journalists. That, you see, would amount to giving the Fake News Media a win, which obviously cannot happen. Sherman knows all too well how this stuff works. After all, he wrote the 2024 Oscar contender The Apprentice, which shows how Trump inherited his nihilistic MO (always deny, always attack, always claim victory) from the notorious fixer Roy Cohn. So only now that Signalgate has died down has national security adviser and famously clumsy iPhone user Mike Waltz been shown the door. What a country, huh? Open Road BY DAN ADLER If you haven’t heard of F1 Academy, a female-only racing series launched by Formula 1 in 2023, it’s time to start paying attention. While F1 may be the rare sport in which gender does not amount to a physical edge, it is rooted in long-running traditions that have largely kept women out of its uppermost ranks. But as the women’s league kicks off—amid new life brought to the sport by the Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive—the profile of what makes for a successful F1 driver has begun to shift. As it gears up for its third season, F1 Academy will attempt to tap into the entertainment space carved out by Drive to Survive,which put a Real Housewives sheen on the sport’s psychological aspects, ratcheting up its anxieties and rivalries. Reese Witherspoon’s production company trailed the drivers of F1 Academy during its second season, and a docuseries will premiere on Netflix later this year.

The academy’s up-and-coming athletes are keenly aware that success in their sport today relies on not only their performance on the track, but also their ability to build a compelling personal brand. “You also have to be dedicated,” says F1 Academy driver Lia Block. “It has to be something that you want so bad that you will do anything to get it.” Staff writer Dan Adler goes behind the scenes of a racing league aiming its drivers at the sport’s highest echelon. READ MORE

Read All About It ROYAL REGALIA A Close-Up Look at Some of the Most Spectacular Royal Fashion Plates BY HADLEY HALL MEARES From Princess Diana to Princess Grace to Marie Antoinette, certain royals have influenced fashion for the ages. READ MORE MESSAGE DELIVERED Michael Waltz Is Leaving the White House BY ISSIE LAPOWSKY The national security adviser and his deputy are reportedly leaving their posts, after the former accidentally invited a journalist to a secret government chat. Did Donald Trump finally bend to the public pressure? READ MORE UNPOPULISM Americans Are Rejecting Trumpism BY MOLLY JONG-FAST Donald Trump’s dismal recent numbers are a bright light in dark times, and point to a shifting tide. READ MORE

Buying Bulk How MAGA Got America Obsessed With Protein BY KEZIAH WEIR  For decades, an American protein mania has been building. This year, it may be hitting its peak. And it’s not only men who care about protein, but a mosey through recent history suggests a strong correlation between the rise of the likes of the men’s rights movement and our national lust for protein—which is how we got to the quagmire of contradiction wherein a “manosphere” helmed by the president (he of the diet dubbed by his own health secretary, the admittedly often incorrect Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be “really, like, bad”) has such a vocal contingent of intense protein-maxing “health” obsessives.  Was it correlation, coincidence, or some lean-meat canary in the proverbial coal mine that it was into this proteinous landscape that Donald Trump—burger loving, locker room talking, and all—announced his bid for the presidency?  VF’s Keziah Weir unpacks the MAGA-fication of our latest obsession. READ MORE