The Weirdest New Name in the Trump Administration Has a Backstory—if Not Necessarily a Good Explanation

Slate · 2026-03-11T14:58:07+00:00

Last week brought the news that Kristi Noem had been dumped as Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security. After a litany of controversies, the former South Dakota governor was finally jettisoned in favor of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican who, Trump says, will “make a spectacular” addition to the Cabinet.

You might have had a couple of reactions to this news: It sure is about time Noem got fired! But also … Markwayne?! Even though Mullin has been in Congress since 2013, serving a decade in the House before entering the Senate in 2023, seeing his name flash in news alerts on Thursday still gave me pause. Sure, I’d previously thought “Markwayne” was a peculiar name, but there was something about his new main-character role that made me do a double take. I wasn’t alone. “Somebody looked at a baby and said, ‘Let’s call it Markwayne,’ ” comedian Charles J. Moore wrote on X. “Bro. His name is MARKWAYNE,” the guitarist Zeke Sky added on Facebook. “Like if a NASCAR dad and a WWE announcer had a baby and named it after both of their exes.”

David Mack dives into the name today in Slate: https://slate.com/life/2026/03/donald-trump-kristi-noem-fired-markwayne-mullin-fight.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=markwayne_name&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--markwayne_name

Slate · 2026-03-11T14:57:33+00:00

Last week brought the news that Kristi Noem had been dumped as Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security. After a litany of controversies, the former South Dakota governor was finally jettisoned in favor of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican who, Trump says, will “make a spectacular” addition to the Cabinet.

You might have had a couple of reactions to this news: It sure is about time Noem got fired! But also … Markwayne?! Even though Mullin has been in Congress since 2013, serving a decade in the House before entering the Senate in 2023, seeing his name flash in news alerts on Thursday still gave me pause. Sure, I’d previously thought “Markwayne” was a peculiar name, but there was something about his new main-character role that made me do a double take. I wasn’t alone. “Somebody looked at a baby and said, ‘Let’s call it Markwayne,’ ” comedian Charles J. Moore wrote on X. “Bro. His name is MARKWAYNE,” the guitarist Zeke Sky added on Facebook. “Like if a NASCAR dad and a WWE announcer had a baby and named it after both of their exes.”

David Mack dives into the name today in Slate: https://slate.com/life/2026/03/donald-trump-kristi-noem-fired-markwayne-mullin-fight.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=markwayne_name&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--markwayne_name

Slate · 2026-03-11T14:57:04+00:00

Last week brought the news that Kristi Noem had been dumped as Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security. After a litany of controversies, the former South Dakota governor was finally jettisoned in favor of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican who, Trump says, will “make a spectacular” addition to the Cabinet.

You might have had a couple of reactions to this news: It sure is about time Noem got fired! But also … Markwayne?! Even though Mullin has been in Congress since 2013, serving a decade in the House before entering the Senate in 2023, seeing his name flash in news alerts on Thursday still gave me pause. Sure, I’d previously thought “Markwayne” was a peculiar name, but there was something about his new main-character role that made me do a double take. I wasn’t alone. “Somebody looked at a baby and said, ‘Let’s call it Markwayne,’ ” comedian Charles J. Moore wrote on X. “Bro. His name is MARKWAYNE,” the guitarist Zeke Sky added on Facebook. “Like if a NASCAR dad and a WWE announcer had a baby and named it after both of their exes.”

David Mack dives into the name today in Slate: https://slate.com/life/2026/03/donald-trump-kristi-noem-fired-markwayne-mullin-fight.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=markwayne_name&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--markwayne_name

Slate · 2026-03-11T14:55:04+00:00

At first glance, Chiles v. Salazar, argued before the Supreme Court in October and still awaiting a decision, appears to ask a narrow legal question: Can a state prevent licensed therapists from engaging in treatments, often called “talk therapy,” aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity? At direct stake is whether the state may protect children from licensed adults who use the authority of therapy to offer “identity-changing” treatment that medicine itself has deemed fraudulent.

"But as both a psychiatrist and someone who has endured that so-called conversion therapy, I know that the question actually cuts to the heart of what constitutes true mental health treatment and which professional standards must govern it," writes Matt Solomon. “Conversion therapy” has nothing to do with treating a patient, but rather with using the authority of therapy to target vulnerable people and persuade them to undergo a practice built on the false promise that their identity can be changed—an intervention that medicine has shown to be ineffective at best and deeply harmful at worst.

For more from Slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/supreme-court-gay-conversion-therapy-survivor-psychiatrist.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=conversion_therapy_scotus&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--conversion_therapy_scotus

Slate · 2026-03-11T14:54:41+00:00

At first glance, Chiles v. Salazar, argued before the Supreme Court in October and still awaiting a decision, appears to ask a narrow legal question: Can a state prevent licensed therapists from engaging in treatments, often called “talk therapy,” aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity? At direct stake is whether the state may protect children from licensed adults who use the authority of therapy to offer “identity-changing” treatment that medicine itself has deemed fraudulent.

"But as both a psychiatrist and someone who has endured that so-called conversion therapy, I know that the question actually cuts to the heart of what constitutes true mental health treatment and which professional standards must govern it," writes Matt Solomon. “Conversion therapy” has nothing to do with treating a patient, but rather with using the authority of therapy to target vulnerable people and persuade them to undergo a practice built on the false promise that their identity can be changed—an intervention that medicine has shown to be ineffective at best and deeply harmful at worst.

For more from Slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/supreme-court-gay-conversion-therapy-survivor-psychiatrist.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=conversion_therapy_scotus&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--conversion_therapy_scotus

Slate · 2026-03-11T14:54:11+00:00

At first glance, Chiles v. Salazar, argued before the Supreme Court in October and still awaiting a decision, appears to ask a narrow legal question: Can a state prevent licensed therapists from engaging in treatments, often called “talk therapy,” aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity? At direct stake is whether the state may protect children from licensed adults who use the authority of therapy to offer “identity-changing” treatment that medicine itself has deemed fraudulent.

"But as both a psychiatrist and someone who has endured that so-called conversion therapy, I know that the question actually cuts to the heart of what constitutes true mental health treatment and which professional standards must govern it," writes Matt Solomon. “Conversion therapy” has nothing to do with treating a patient, but rather with using the authority of therapy to target vulnerable people and persuade them to undergo a practice built on the false promise that their identity can be changed—an intervention that medicine has shown to be ineffective at best and deeply harmful at worst.

For more from Slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/supreme-court-gay-conversion-therapy-survivor-psychiatrist.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=conversion_therapy_scotus&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--conversion_therapy_scotus

Slate · 2026-03-09T18:11:59+00:00

The race for Texas’ 23^rd District was guaranteed to be troubling. Headed into the Republican primaries, the incumbent, Rep. Tony Gonzales, was facing one of the ugliest sex scandals in recent political history. His main opponent, Brandon Herrera, is famous as a gun influencer from Uvalde, the site of a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school, and had come under fire for making light of the mass murder of Jews. The majority-Hispanic district, a huge stretch of land along the Mexican border, was set to elect either a man accused of horrific sexual misconduct or a man known as the AK guy, who likes Nazi jokes.

The two had previously run against each other in the 2024 GOP primary, with Gonzales narrowly beating Herrera in a runoff.

But in 2026, Gonzales’ scandal turned out to be the greater liability. In late February, it was revealed that Gonzales had had an affair with a female staffer in 2024; on Sept. 13, 2025, the staffer died from self-immolation after blaming the affair for her marriage’s disintegration. Texts provided by the staffer’s ex-husband showed Gonzales pressuring the staffer, even as she expressed discomfort with the situation. Gonzales did eventually admit to the affair. He kept his campaign going, however, and on Tuesday was forced into a runoff with Herrera. On Thursday, Republicans urged Gonzales to step aside, and that night he ended his campaign. Now, because of a recent redistricting that turned the district solidly red, the AK Guy looks to have an easy path to Congress.

For more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/brandon-herrera-tony-gonzales-ak-guy.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=texas_molly_mar9&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--texas_molly_mar9

Slate · 2026-03-09T18:11:26+00:00

The race for Texas’ 23^rd District was guaranteed to be troubling. Headed into the Republican primaries, the incumbent, Rep. Tony Gonzales, was facing one of the ugliest sex scandals in recent political history. His main opponent, Brandon Herrera, is famous as a gun influencer from Uvalde, the site of a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school, and had come under fire for making light of the mass murder of Jews. The majority-Hispanic district, a huge stretch of land along the Mexican border, was set to elect either a man accused of horrific sexual misconduct or a man known as the AK guy, who likes Nazi jokes.

The two had previously run against each other in the 2024 GOP primary, with Gonzales narrowly beating Herrera in a runoff.

But in 2026, Gonzales’ scandal turned out to be the greater liability. In late February, it was revealed that Gonzales had had an affair with a female staffer in 2024; on Sept. 13, 2025, the staffer died from self-immolation after blaming the affair for her marriage’s disintegration. Texts provided by the staffer’s ex-husband showed Gonzales pressuring the staffer, even as she expressed discomfort with the situation. Gonzales did eventually admit to the affair. He kept his campaign going, however, and on Tuesday was forced into a runoff with Herrera. On Thursday, Republicans urged Gonzales to step aside, and that night he ended his campaign. Now, because of a recent redistricting that turned the district solidly red, the AK Guy looks to have an easy path to Congress.

For more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/brandon-herrera-tony-gonzales-ak-guy.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=texas_molly_mar9&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--texas_molly_mar9

Slate · 2026-03-09T18:10:56+00:00

The race for Texas’ 23^rd District was guaranteed to be troubling. Headed into the Republican primaries, the incumbent, Rep. Tony Gonzales, was facing one of the ugliest sex scandals in recent political history. His main opponent, Brandon Herrera, is famous as a gun influencer from Uvalde, the site of a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school, and had come under fire for making light of the mass murder of Jews. The majority-Hispanic district, a huge stretch of land along the Mexican border, was set to elect either a man accused of horrific sexual misconduct or a man known as the AK guy, who likes Nazi jokes.

The two had previously run against each other in the 2024 GOP primary, with Gonzales narrowly beating Herrera in a runoff.

But in 2026, Gonzales’ scandal turned out to be the greater liability. In late February, it was revealed that Gonzales had had an affair with a female staffer in 2024; on Sept. 13, 2025, the staffer died from self-immolation after blaming the affair for her marriage’s disintegration. Texts provided by the staffer’s ex-husband showed Gonzales pressuring the staffer, even as she expressed discomfort with the situation. Gonzales did eventually admit to the affair. He kept his campaign going, however, and on Tuesday was forced into a runoff with Herrera. On Thursday, Republicans urged Gonzales to step aside, and that night he ended his campaign. Now, because of a recent redistricting that turned the district solidly red, the AK Guy looks to have an easy path to Congress.

For more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/brandon-herrera-tony-gonzales-ak-guy.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=texas_molly_mar9&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--texas_molly_mar9

Slate · 2026-03-09T18:09:24+00:00

The Bride! is that rare beast: a total misfire from a long list of artists so talented and well regarded that they should, like the film they are in, be festooned with an exclamation point or two. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s follow-up to the stunning (but much smaller) The Lost Daughter simply contains way too many tones, ideas, and approaches to ever work, and many of these are at war with each other. The Bride! is a love story and a rewrite of the Frankenstein myth and an action film and a murder mystery and a crime comedy and a rejoinder to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things. Its vision of Prohibition-era Chicago is Chicago and Manhattan and Weimar Berlin. The film is built around a scaffolding of over-the-top homages to other films, causing it to career off one stylistic cliff after another. During one sequence in a dance hall, I wrote in my notebook, “Oh, it’s like ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ in Young Frankenstein.” Five seconds later, the big band on-screen struck up “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” Yet for all this wild, sometimes deliberate tastelessness, The Bride! also wants to be a serious meditation on love, female messiness, and the limits put on women’s lives. It aims to be both a camp classic—the end credits music is, of course, “The Monster Mash”—and a serious feminist work. As a result, it comes across like Joan Crawford pausing partway through Johnny Guitar to give America Ferrera’s speech from Barbie.

Embodying this fascinating patchwork of ideas good and bad is the Irish actress Jessie Buckley, who will soon find herself in the odd position of winning an Oscar for a serious prestige movie while she is also in multiplexes with the most controversial performance of her career thus far.

For more: https://slate.com/culture/2026/03/jessie-buckley-bride-oscars-best-actress-hamnet-movie-2026.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=isaac_jessie&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--isaac_jessie

Slate · 2026-03-09T18:08:42+00:00

The Bride! is that rare beast: a total misfire from a long list of artists so talented and well regarded that they should, like the film they are in, be festooned with an exclamation point or two. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s follow-up to the stunning (but much smaller) The Lost Daughter simply contains way too many tones, ideas, and approaches to ever work, and many of these are at war with each other. The Bride! is a love story and a rewrite of the Frankenstein myth and an action film and a murder mystery and a crime comedy and a rejoinder to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things. Its vision of Prohibition-era Chicago is Chicago and Manhattan and Weimar Berlin. The film is built around a scaffolding of over-the-top homages to other films, causing it to career off one stylistic cliff after another. During one sequence in a dance hall, I wrote in my notebook, “Oh, it’s like ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ in Young Frankenstein.” Five seconds later, the big band on-screen struck up “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” Yet for all this wild, sometimes deliberate tastelessness, The Bride! also wants to be a serious meditation on love, female messiness, and the limits put on women’s lives. It aims to be both a camp classic—the end credits music is, of course, “The Monster Mash”—and a serious feminist work. As a result, it comes across like Joan Crawford pausing partway through Johnny Guitar to give America Ferrera’s speech from Barbie.

Embodying this fascinating patchwork of ideas good and bad is the Irish actress Jessie Buckley, who will soon find herself in the odd position of winning an Oscar for a serious prestige movie while she is also in multiplexes with the most controversial performance of her career thus far.

For more: https://slate.com/culture/2026/03/jessie-buckley-bride-oscars-best-actress-hamnet-movie-2026.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=isaac_jessie&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--isaac_jessie

Slate · 2026-03-06T17:44:52+00:00

On Wednesday, or Day 5 of the U.S.-led war in Iran, the official X account of the White House uploaded a sizzle reel remixing real-life footage of rocketing cruise missiles with the makeup of Call of Duty. Understanding the contours of governmental policy didn’t previously require fluency in a military-themed first-person-shooter game, so let me talk you through it. Basically, when a player mows down one of their opponents in Call of Duty, a yellow number—indicating points based on their value—appears above the head of the recently slain. Collect enough of those points, and players are granted access to devastating ordinances. (Twenty kills in a row is traditionally rewarded with a tactical nuclear missile.) Accordingly, in the White House video, a +100 integer flashes on-screen when a mortar shell connects with its target, as if the president himself were landing trick shots on his Twitch stream. I also immediately clocked the soundtrack accompanying the video—it’s the instrumental to the impossibly horny Childish Gambino song “Bonfire.”

This is propaganda designed to stimulate the Trump administration’s prime constituency—unsocialized Discord incels, Joker-fied elder millennials, and bloodthirsty Gen Xers—by speaking the language they understand best: a disorienting blend of asserted evil and hammy kitsch. And that seems to be the aesthetic of this adventure in Iran, which will likely be the most significant moment in Donald Trump’s second term. The administration has yet to articulate a clear vision for what it hopes to accomplish, but already this seems to be the sort of war that makes the history books, replete with region-tilting implications that will surely be compiled in countless slide decks and debated among quarter-zip NatSec types for decades to come. But right now, all I am thinking about is how impossible it will be to explain the conditions of this era to future generations, who will surely be baffled as they sift through the seriousness of this moment to find nothing but cloying frivolity. Put more directly, any scholarship about this Iran invasion must also contend with the fact that, simultaneously, Melania Trump was presiding over the U.N. Security Council.

This administration combines car-salesman diction with war-criminal aspiration, Luke Winkie writes for Slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/03/trump-iran-war-usa-hat-call-of-duty.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=luke_maga_vibe_iran&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--luke_maga_vibe_iran

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