Happy Thursday Everyone! Here’s Part 2 of the Special Royal Edition. Today’s newsletter: 1,291 words…4.8 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: Special Royal Edition: The Royal State Dinner, Melania, Kate, Scouts & Squirrels, Melania, Camilla & The Royal Doll House, Trump & Starmer At Chequers, Kimmel Suspended, Khalil Deported… & much more!
🚨 Watch For:
President Trump to address the United Nations General Assembly: Sep 23rd
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
👑 The Royal State Dinner
Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Hall morphed into the ultimate geopolitical runway last night, as Trump capped his second UK state visit with a 160 guest dinner banquet dripping in symbolism, glamour, and star power.
The setting:
155-foot sleek and polished table
1,452 pieces of cutlery
139 candles
5 drinking glasses per guest
More than 100 staff moved with military precision to serve every guest at the exact same time.
The power table: King Charles III, Queen Camilla, William & Kate, PM Keir Starmer, Trump, Melania, plus a VIP cast: Tim Cook, Sam Altman, Rupert Murdoch, Marco Rubio, and Tiffany Trump. Wall Street and Silicon Valley sat shoulder to shoulder with British Royalty.
The fashion game:
Catherine, Princess of Wales turned heads in her regal and glamourous cream silk Phillipa Lepley gown with gold Chantilly lace overlay, the iconic Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara (Princess Diana’s favorite).
First Lady Melania went with a bold canary-yellow Carolina Herrera, a color choice read as a power flex; and accessorized it with a statement belt
Queen Camilla played it steady in a royal blue silk marocain dress by Fiona Clare and paired it with a sapphire and diamond tiara.
The menu: Most ingredients for the meal were sourced from Royal estates and gardens.
Appetizers: Hampshire Watercress Panna Cotta on Parmesan shortbread, with quail egg salad.
Main: Organic Norfolk chicken ballotine wrapped in courgettes (zucchini), paired with thyme and savory-infused jus.
Dessert: Vanilla ice cream bombe filled with Kentish raspberry sorbet and lightly poached Victoria plums—a nod to Trump’s preference for ice cream.
Drinks: Drink offerings included vintage wines, a rare 1945 port commemorating Trump’s first term, a 1912 cognac honoring Trump's mother's birth year and more.
President Trump, known for abstaining from alcohol, was served soft drinks throughout.
The speeches: Trump called the alliance “beyond special,” Charles toasted history and shared values, Kate raised a glass—cue fanfares.
Bottom line: More than dinner—it was pageantry as policy, a soft-power spectacle doubling as a global networking summit.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
First Lady Melania really enjoying her public engagement events with HRH Catherine, Princess of Wales and Queen Camilla
🇬🇧 Chequers Summit: Deals, Drama & Discord
President Trump and UK PM Keir Starmer shifted from Windsor’s pageantry to policy at Chequers today.
The big win: A £31B ($42B) AI + nuclear tech pact backed by Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, and OpenAI. Trump bragged about $350B in total deals.
Tariff relief on UK’s steel and aluminum, stayed off the menu.
But the cracks showed—Starmer pushed him on Ukraine, Trump balked at UK moves toward Palestinian statehood and strongly advised Starmer to use the military to “stop the boats”, referring to the uncontrolled illegal migration causing nationwide unrest.
💡Bottom line: The “special relationship” got a cash boost, even as geopolitical frictions were impossible to hide. But when two leaders can argue about foreign policy and still sign billion-dollar deals, that's real diplomatic chemistry.
🐿 Melania & Kate: Scouts, Sincerity & Winning Hearts
In a first joint engagement, Melania and Kate teamed up at Frogmore Gardens with Squirrel Scouts (ages 4–6) for a royal engagement event during the First Lady’s historic 2-day second State Visit to the UK.
🐝 Nature Vibes: Arts, bug hotels, parachute games—capped by “Go Wild” badges and “Squirrels” patches. Kate even packed sandwiches with honey from her own beehives.
💬 Human Touch: Kate spoke about the outdoors aiding her cancer recovery; Melania joined in crafts, drawing a bear with the kids. A little Scout even asked Melania if she was “the next princess.”
🤝 Symbolism: Scout Chief Dwayne Fields called the duo “amazingly warm.” Kate and Melania swapped patches and gifts, sealing the moment with a shared scarf.
💡 Bottom Line: The sincerity with which they interacted with the Scouts, and the candid moments with the children drew widespread positive coverage from UK and US outlets.
🎎 Melania, Camilla & A Royal Doll House
Wrapping up the State Visit, Melania Trump toured Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House at Windsor Castle with Queen Camilla—a 1920s marvel complete with electricity, plumbing, Crown Jewels, and a wine cellar, all at 1:12 scale.
Queen Camilla guided the First Lady through the mini-library, showing off micro-books like Queen Elizabeth II’s Alice in Wonderland. They also viewed Charles I’s annotated Shakespeare and Elizabeth I’s poetry.
Local schoolkids added their own handmade books for the Dolls’ House library, aligning with Camilla’s literacy agenda.
💡Bottom line: Pageantry shrank to pint-size—this wasn’t just dolls and tiaras, but a diplomatic nod to heritage, literacy, and cultural diplomacy.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
📺 Kimmel Yanked Off Air
ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! “indefinitely” after the host’s monologue on Charlie Kirk’s assassination repeatedly implied the suspect might be tied to Trump supporters—a claim later contradicted by police.
Fallout: Nexstar and Sinclair affiliates refused to air the show. FCC Chair Brendan Carr warned ABC’s license was at risk.
Politics: Trump cheered the suspension as “Great News for America,” while Hollywood blasted it as censorship.
💡 Bottom line: Late-night just collided with state power—and free speech lawyers smell a fight.
👋👋Mahmoud Khalil to Be Deported
Palestinian/Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil — a former Columbia grad student — was ordered deported by a Louisiana judge for “willfully misrepresenting” his ties to groups like UNRWA, CUAD, WOL and SJP in his green card application.
All these groups are linked to Hamas.
He will be deported to either Syria (his birthplace) or Algeria (he is a citizen)
The Judge ruled him a national security risk
Khalil, who has a U.S. wife and infant son, plans to appeal, but Trump-era crackdowns on pro-Hamas activism give him little leeway.
💡Bottom Line: The case tests a core tension: do civil liberties and free speech rights extend to those who lie for a green card and have terrorist ties?
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
📱 ICE Drops $3M on Phone-Hacking Tech
Homeland Security Investigations just inked a $3M contract with Magnet Forensics for Graykey, a tool that cracks iPhones and Androids wide open.
This spending spree, part of a broader arsenal that includes Clearview AI and Palantir, supercharges ICE’s digital surveillance capabilities for its deportation campaign.
💡Bottom line: Your smartphone’s encryption is the new border wall, and the feds are buying the master key.
🚖 Uber Takes Drones for Round Two
Uber is relaunching drone deliveries for Uber Eats in select U.S. cities, teaming up with Israeli startup Flytrex (small equity stake included).
Uber first tried drones in 2019 but shelved the plan due to regulations. Now, looser rules + lessons from rivals like Zipline make sky-high delivery a real possibility.
Uber’s also rolling with Waymo self-driving cars and eyeing electric air taxis. Flytrex has already completed 200K+ U.S. deliveries, so the tech’s proven.
💡Bottom line: Food in the sky is back—Uber’s ready to make drones the next suburban essential.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Princess Elizabeth’s Gracious (& Cheeky) Reply
The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) met President Truman in Washington, D.C., during her first official overseas tour. At a state dinner, Truman was so starstruck he reportedly said, "Your Majesty, you look just like your mother!" The young Princess, ever gracious, replied with a smile, "Mr. President, you look just like your pictures!" It was her first White House visit, and she gifted him a signed photo of the royal family.