MACKLE-MORON: Backstabbing B-lister turns on Ed Sheeran after getting booted from tour for pro-Palestinian rant



Ed Sheeran invited Macklemore to open for him in front of tens of thousands of fans.

Macklemore returned the favor by giving him an unsolicited lesson in the political obligations of pop stardom.

'Free all people in America living in fear over this terrorist organization ICE.'

Tour bore

After being dropped from Sheeran’s stadium tour over his pro-Palestinian remarks, the rapper — real name Benjamin Haggerty — published a lengthy statement that managed to praise his friend of 13 years, reveal details of their private conversations, and suggest that Sheeran’s long-standing refusal to turn his concerts into political rallies was a moral failing.

“Ed was in a f**ked up position,” Macklemore wrote. “He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before.”

Macklemore says he hopes their friendship survives. But first, apparently, Sheeran has some things to learn.

Macklemore was scheduled to open eight of the remaining 10 U.S. dates on Sheeran’s Loop Tour.

During his performances at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium earlier this month, however, Macklemore used some of that time to deliver a series of political messages.

"Free Palestine," he told the crowd. “I want those words to be loud and clear so the people from Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them.”

He went on to call for a “free” Lebanon, Cuba, Congo, and Sudan before turning his attention to the United States.

“Free all people in America living in fear over this terrorist organization ICE.”

Macklemore also praised the “bravery” of Columbia University students who participated in pro-Palestinian encampments.

'The stage becomes resistance'

The "Thrift Store" rapper has made similar statements for years. But in his response to being dropped from the tour, Macklemore acknowledged what made these performances different: He was making them from somebody else’s much larger stage.

“What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years,” he wrote. “So why is it an issue now?”

“Because now I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America.”

And Macklemore appears to have understood Sheeran’s continued willingness to share that stage with him as an implicit political endorsement.

“If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next?” he wrote.

“The stage becomes resistance.”

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Nose for controversy

According to Macklemore, the arrangement became untenable after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft got involved. The Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where Sheeran is scheduled to perform September 25 and 26.

Macklemore said Sheeran told him that Kraft had called and made clear that the rapper would not be permitted to perform there. The Seattle rapper further claimed that Kraft had rallied other stadium owners and effectively presented the tour with an ultimatum: Drop Macklemore or lose the venues.

Tour promoter Messina Touring Group confirmed that multiple venues refused to host the concerts with Macklemore on the bill. Kraft confirmed his own decision to bar Macklemore from Gillette Stadium, although Macklemore's claim that Kraft personally rallied the other owners remains his account.

The Patriots owner, who founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019, said Macklemore's recent performances reflected what he described as “a broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”

“We determined that his participation in the September 25 and 26 concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line,” Kraft said.

Kraft also stressed that the decision was not intended to dismiss Palestinian suffering and said he would be willing to sit down with Macklemore.

Macklemore rejected Kraft's characterization of his statements.

“Antisemitism is real,” he wrote, before arguing that accusations of anti-Semitism are being “weaponized” to silence criticism of Israel.

This was not the first time Macklemore has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. In 2014, he performed in Seattle wearing a black wig, beard, and large hooked prosthetic nose — an outfit critics said resembled an anti-Semitic caricature.

Macklemore apologized, saying the resemblance was unintentional and that he had assembled the disguise randomly. “I acknowledge how the costume could, within a context of stereotyping, be ascribed to a Jewish caricature,” he wrote at the time. “It was absolutely not my intention.”

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Rap session

After stressing that he wasn't trying to "tear down [Sheeran's] character," Macklemore proceeded to give his "brother" a public dressing-down for his refusal to politicize his tour.

He described a private conversation in which Sheeran told him that “Free Palestine” and the image of a Palestinian flag had been hurtful to some of the people Sheeran had spoken with.

Macklemore wasn't persuaded. "I told him if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect."

“But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides,’” Macklemore wrote.

“Taking a side can cost you,” Macklemore wrote, citing money, sponsorships, festivals, relationships, and access. He then offered a crash course in social justice for his fellow multimillionaire pop star:

“There is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn't leave you in the middle."

Paging Pink

Sheeran wasn't the only artist Macklemore took to task. After Pink reposted criticism of his MetLife remarks from the group StopAntisemitism, he invoked her as another example of a successful artist with little excuse, in his view, for remaining on the sidelines.

“Sheeran is not a victim, Pink is not a victim,” Macklemore wrote. “We have careers, money, opportunities, safety, and audiences around the world.”

Pink later objected to the assumptions being made about her own views.

"I was born a Jew. I didn't pick it, and I've never hidden it," she wrote. "And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word 'Jew' were apparently enough to fill in the rest."

She added that she doesn't speak for Israel and that "Hamas is a terrorist organization."

In Macklemore's telling, however, celebrity and financial security appear to create an obligation to speak: Using a stadium concert to advocate for Palestine isn't an intrusion of politics into entertainment but part of an artist’s responsibility.

“I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2,” Macklemore wrote. “Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say.”

Sheeran: Fans first

On Tuesday, Sheeran issued a lengthy response of his own. He confirmed that venues threatened to cancel upcoming shows if Macklemore remained on the tour and said he spent the week speaking with venues, promoters, and activists in an effort to find a compromise.

But he disputed the suggestion that he personally fired Macklemore. “Macklemore coming off the tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” Sheeran wrote.

And he pushed back more directly against Macklemore’s suggestion that staying publicly neutral amounts to complicity. “I am not complicit,” Sheeran wrote.

Sheeran said he has his own views on the Israel-Gaza war and cares deeply about the suffering it has caused. But he does not believe that obligates him to turn his professional platform into a political one. Furthermore, his fans “do not expect a political forum” when they come to see him perform.

Instead, Sheeran said he wants his music to provide “a place of safety and sanctuary” and argued that “there is room for multiple approaches” toward the same goal of peace.

Sheeran's attempt to keep the tour out of the political fight hasn't exactly succeeded. All of his remaining scheduled opening acts — Finneas, Aaron Rowe, and Lukas Graham — have now pulled out, while his touring band Beoga has quit as well.

School of rock

After publicly recounting their disagreement and some of Sheeran’s private remarks, Macklemore insisted he bears his old friend no ill will.

“I hope this isn’t the end of my relationship with Ed,” he wrote. “Thirteen years of friendship doesn’t disappear because of one painful disagreement.”

He then offered his erstwhile tour-mate a homework assignment of sorts.

“I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this.”

Macklemore himself doesn't appear to have much wrestling left to do.

“Free Palestine,” he concluded, adding that “if those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.”

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Belichick’s cringe interview: 24-year-old girlfriend’s outburst sparks escort rumors



On April 27, 2025, Bill Belichick, the former New England Patriots head coach and current University of North Carolina football coach, appeared on "CBS Mornings" to promote his book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.”

Belichick attended the interview with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, in tow. Hudson, a former cheerleader and Miss Maine USA contestant, is listed as the chief operating officer of Belichick Productions.

At one point, CBS correspondent Tony Dokoupil noted Hudson’s attendance and described her as a “constant presence.”

He asked Belichick, “You have Jordon right over there. Everybody in the world seems to be following this relationship. ... How did you guys meet?” But before Belichick could respond, Hudson interrupted from off-camera with a stern, “We’re not talking about this.”

Dokoupil pressed, but Hudson remained firm in her stance.

Liz Wheeler plays the “painful, cringey clip” of the moment.

Liz says it’s pretty clear who’s running the show, and it’s not Bill Belichick.

What makes Hudson’s response even weirder is that the story of how they met is already out.

“In February 2021, Belichick was traveling from the Boston area to Florida seated next to Hudson, then a college student and cheerleader. Sources say during that trip, Belichick leaned in to ask about Hudson's schoolwork, specifically her deductive logic textbook,” Liz reads from an International Business Times article.

“Their conversation quickly became engaging with the pair diving into discussions about logic and reasoning. Belichick was reportedly so impressed that he signed the inside cover of her textbook, inscribing, 'Thanks for giving me a course on logic,' along with his signature. This gesture captured in a photo later obtained by TMZ marked the beginning of a connection that would quietly grow over the following years,” Liz continues.

“First of all, a photo is not just later obtained,” she corrects. “If it's in her textbook, it was given to TMZ by Jordon Hudson ... because she somehow and for some reason wanted their relationship to be public.”

Regardless, there’s almost certainly more to their relationship than just a serendipitous plane encounter.

Liz mentions a now-deleted social media post on X alleging Hudson, under a different last name but with the same first name and picture, was a high-end escort.

While unverified, if true, it would perhaps “explain not only the reticence to talk about how they met but also this weird, toxic, really disordered dynamic,” says Liz.

Another factor fueling speculation about the true origins of their relationship is Belichick’s friendship with Robert Kraft — the owner of the New England Patriots, who in 2019 was charged with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.

“I'm not saying [Hudson] is a prostitute ... but all of the elements that would exist if that allegation were true seem to be true in this case,” says Liz.

To see the clip of the Belichick’s interview and hear more of Liz’s commentary, watch the episode above.

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College Activists Postpone Anti-Israel Encampment Because Students Are Too White

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-26-at-12.09.32 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-26-at-12.09.32%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Students at the University of Washington canceled an encampment because too many of the students who signed up are white.

Robert Kraft pulls support from Columbia, then academic gets brutally honest about his profession: 'On a suicide mission'



Billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, is putting his money where his mouth is.

Columbia University has become ground zero for anti-Semitism after students began occupying a spot on the campus now called the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment."

Last Thursday, university administrators allowed police officers to arrest more than 100 students, which only emboldened the anti-Israel protesters. Now, Columbia faculty members are walking out in solidarity with the protesters, and students at other schools, including Yale and New York University, are protesting. The protests are threatening the safety of Jewish students. One Jewish student at Yale was even stabbed in the eye.

On Monday, Kraft said he will stop supporting Columbia because of the protests.

"I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country," said Kraft, a Columbia alumnus and longtime donor.

"I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its student and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until collective action is taken," he added. "It is my hope that Columbia and its leadership will stand up to this hate by ending these protests immediately and will work to earn back the respect and trust of the many of us who have lost faith in the institution."

Kraft is an observant Orthodox Jew and has donated tens of millions of dollars to Columbia University. The school even named the Jewish student center after him.

Ultimately, Kraft's decision to stop supporting Columbia University will not impact the school, whose endowment is more than $13 billion.

But the growing phenomenon of wealthy donors pulling their financial support from universities is an interesting development in higher education, especially considering academia has almost universally embraced progressivism and a leftist worldview.

"Our profession may be on a suicide mission," said University of Pennsylvania scholar-in-residence Brian Rosenwald on Monday.

"It's like a game of how can we alienate everyone but the far left despite having an exceptionally expensive product that needs broad buy in. I can only shake my head," he observed.

Essentially, American academia is biting the hand that feeds it, which, if gone unchecked, will threaten its livelihood and comfortable existence.

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New England Patriots' new head coach suggests not being racist requires you to 'see color': 'I do see color'



The new head coach of the New England Patriots suggested on Wednesday that not being racist requires someone to "see color."

At a press conference officially introducing Jerod Mayo as the new head coach of the Patriots franchise, a reporter asked about the significance that Mayo is the first black head coach of the Patriots.

Team owner Robert Kraft responded by describing himself as "really colorblind in terms of ... what I feel like on Sunday when we lose" — referring to his goal of hiring the people he believes will best position the Patriots to win NFL championships — but Mayo admitted that he doesn't feel the same way.

"I do see color because I believe if you don't see color, you can't see racism," he said.

"Whatever happens — black, white, disabled person ... for the most part people are like, when they're young, they kind of make the spot hot. Younger people know what that means. But what I would say is, no, I want you to be able to go up to those people and really understand those people. It goes back to whatever it is: black, white, yellow, it really doesn't matter," he continued.

"But it does matter so we can try to fix the problem that we all know we have," Mayo added without clarifying what "problem" he was referring to.

— (@)

Whether people should "see color" is hotly debated.

Advocates of anti-racism, for example, argue that seeing color is a prerequisite for racial reconciliation. Advocates of color blindness, on the other hand, say no one should be pigeonholed because of or reduced to their skin color.

Still, there is a divergence in perspective even in the small fraternity of NFL head coaches.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coach Todd Bowles, who is also black, denounced seeing color in October 2022 when asked about Steve Wilks being named, at the time, interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

"We don't look at what color we are when we coach against each other. We just know each other," Bowles said. "I have a lot of very good white friends that coach in this league as well, and I don't think it's a big deal as far as us coaching against each other, I think it’s normal. Wilks got an opportunity to do a good job, hopefully he does it.

"And we coach ball, we don't look at color," he declared.

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Prosecutors drop prostitution charges against Patriots owner Robert Kraft



Prosecutors in Florida have dropped the charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft stemming from a 2019 prostitution sting, after an appeals court recently determined law enforcement violated the Constitutional rights of Kraft and others when they took secret recordings in a massage parlor.

What are the details?

Kraft stood accused of visiting the Orchids of Asia Day Spa early last year, and was allegedly caught on video engaging in a sexual act with a woman. He was charged with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.

The NFL franchise owner pleaded not guilty to the charges, but issued an apology at the time, saying in part, "I am truly sorry. I know I have hurt and disappointed my family, my close friends, my co-workers, our fans and many others who rightfully hold me to a higher standard."

But The Washington Post reported that "last month, a Florida appeals court ruled that the video of Kraft would be inadmissible at trial, confirming a lower-court ruling that the 'sneak and peak' search warrant used to obtain the footage violated the fourth-amendment rights of Kraft and others caught up in the sting." The outlet noted that 24 other people had been charged in connection to the operation.

With the court tossing out the evidence, prosecutors determined the case against Kraft and others was too weak to move forward.

NBC News reported that a filing by the office of Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg explains, "Although there was probable cause to make an arrest, the evidence cannot prove all legally required elements of the crime alleged and is insufficient to support a criminal prosecution."

"We are ethically compelled to drop all cases," Aronberg said during an online press conference, according to the Associated Press.

The outlet further reported, "Aronberg said that even though the charges were dropped against the spa's customers, the felony cases against its owner and manager will proceed using evidence such as bank records."

Beth Kudman, the attorney for Orchids of Asia Day Spa owner Hua Zhang reacted to that in an email to the AP, saying, "It is beyond ironic that the State's entire prosecution was allegedly motivated by a desire to protect women from abuse. Yet, even after stating that the state did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute these women without the video evidence, the State persists in proceeding against them, while dismissing the charges against the men."