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Ever since Twitter and Facebook banned former President Donald Trump from their platforms in January following his repeated lies about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, it’s been harder to keep up with what he’s doing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — in fact, it’s absolutely blissful.

Trump typically used his social platforms to spread falsehoods and violent rhetoric about everything from the coronavirus pandemic to what was happening on the U.S.-Mexico border to anti-racist protest movements. Now that we’ve seen how effective it has been for tech companies to severely limit access to their platforms for the former president, it’s safe to say that de-platforming far-right politicians and activists — who spew their violent and hateful rhetoric to their eager followers online — not only works, but works really, really well. (Of course, what would be even more effective than social media de-platforming would be ensuring that far-right politicians can’t dictate policy matters from the White House or any other positions of power. Sadly, Congress failed to prevent Trump from running for public office a second time when the Senate acquitted him during his second impeachment trial in February, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, and Lauren Boebert are still in the House of Representatives.)

Still, Trump has less of an audience than he did five years ago when he ran his first presidential campaign, and far less of one than when he was serving as president, which is only good news. Even his daughter and former senior advisor Ivanka’s social media platforms have gone silent since January; though she wasn’t banned from any platform, perhaps she’s left them in solidarity with her father. And let’s not forget, the former president’s 2016 win was largely thanks to social media platforms like Facebook that helped generate millions of dollars for his campaign in online fundraising.

But, it’s not all good news. Despite his limited reach, the former president is still voicing his terrible opinions — only now it’s in an echo chamber of his far-right supporters, as he continues to make appearances on Fox News, where he continues to perpetuate lies about the violent January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Republicans who pushed the same conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud that ultimately led to the Capitol riot have also not yet been held accountable.

Trump also addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando earlier this month, where he spoke about uniting the Republican Party and passing new election laws. While he can’t spew his violent rhetoric on social media, the GOP is still listening and following Trump’s lead. Georgia became the first state to implement new voting rights restrictions this week, and Arizona, Florida, and Texas are working to pass similar restrictions. 

The former president’s platform may be more niche than ever, but he’s also still reaching the people he needs as Republicans attempt to consolidate power following their 2020 presidential election loss. The Republican Party will have to unite under the banner of so-called Trumpism in order to win the trust — and votes — of the former president’s far-right supporters.

As a result of Trump’s social media de-platforming, the former president is apparently in talks with app vendors as he considers creating his own social media network, sources familiar with the plans told Axios. “I do think that we’re going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with his own platform,” former Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox News on Sunday. It’s safe to say we will not be signing up for whatever platform Trump ends up creating. We’re still too busy enjoying his absence from Twitter and Facebook.

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On Thursday night, every notable LA-based 20-something gathered to celebrate Justin Bieber’s album release at The Nice Guy, a fauxld-school Italian hotspot in West Hollywood. Parties like this are certainly NOT back on, according to the CDC, but celebrities appear to be going ahead with things anyway, as guests like Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Justine Skye gave it their all for this rare night out. Out of all the partygoers, the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan did the most in a next-to-naked look that made us really (like really, really) miss parties. 

To celebrate the release of Justice, Kylie chose a ketchup-colored, nearly sheer catsuit and matching cut-out dress from New York-based designer LaQuan Smith’s latest collection. With it, she wore a leather trench coat in a lighter shade of red with pointy-toed red heels, and carried a monogrammed, makeup-case-shaped Louis Vuitton handbag. It’s one of those looks that only the most daring of party-goers would have dared try pre-pandemic. Now, after a year spent in sweatpants, we’d show up in a cocktail napkin if it meant we could go out again.

Her fellow party-goers didn’t hold back either. Bieber wore an all-brown look, featuring a leather jacket-mini skirt set from The Mannei, strappy sandals from Femme LA, a Bottega Veneta pouch bag, and a TRE by Natalie Ratabesi shearling vest. Skye also went for a monochromatic look — hers all black — in a shiny bike short-crop top set by Marine Serre. And Kendall went rogue in a short (floral) skirt and a longgg (leather) jacket.

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Travis Barker isn’t just a tattoo devotee — he’s also his own artist. The former Blink-182 drummer posted a video to his Instagram yesterday that shows him wielding a buzzing tattoo gun, inking the phrase, “Youre so cool!” in all caps above a heart on his upper thigh.

Movie buffs will recognize the declaration from the 1993 film True Romance, but the tattoo’s symbolism might run deeper than an appreciation of the cult-favorite flick. Fans believe Barker’s fresh self-administered ink is a direct expression of his love for girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian, and may even be in her handwriting. For her part, Kardashian immediately took to the comments section to show her support for the thigh tattoo, echoing the same sentiment (using proper grammar): “You’re so cool!”

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A post shared by travisbarker (@travisbarker)

While Kardashian has yet to post anything more specific about her thoughts on Barker’s new tattoo to her own Instagram, she did give her own subtle nod to their relationship status via her heart-tipped manicure shared around Valentine’s Day. It goes without saying that Barker’s tribute is a lot more permanent — so hopefully these two are in it for the long haul.

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As a seasoned reviewer of Colourpop collabs and a diehard Lizzie McGuire stan, I was beyond stoked and ready when news broke of the duo's highly-anticipated collection — which, ICYMI, launched today (!). In honor of this joyfully nostalgic occasion, I tried every single glittery lip gloss tube to pastel eyeshadow palette that the what-dreams-are-made-of lineup has to offer.

The Disney Channel series was full of certified bops (like this underrated Play anthem that I still listen to weekly), cute boy cameos, and #relatable struggles. I love the show so much that it is singlehandedly the reason why I signed up for Disney+ (and we all know how that turned out).

From Lizzie's signature crimped hair in season one to popular girls Kate Sanders (and her lackey, Claire Miller)'s mirror-like lips, the show was full of iconic early '00s makeup moments. Ahead, read up on my thoughts of the full collection, and stay till the end to see my full face beat with the products!

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission. 

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It’s been months since Donald Trump was banned from social media and Joe Biden was inaugurated into office — gone are the days of opening Twitter and watching in real-time as the U.S. President reminds North Korea he has a nuclear button. Thankfully, Biden has opted to use Twitter in a much tamer way, but some of his social media tactics are still worth wondering about. Namely, how much time do Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spend walking around the White House?

Since his first week in office, Biden has taken to sharing weekly slow-motion videos of himself, Harris, other politicians, and guests of the administration walking around the White House grounds with purpose. Usually, the videos are paired with captions like “51 days down” or “Another week in the books.” In a recent post for Equal Pay Day, he shared a clip of U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team athletes Megan Rapinoe and Margaret Purce strolling down a hallway side by side. “Equal Pay Day is a big deal around here,” he wrote. “Right, @mPinoe and @100purcent?”

Harris hasn’t posted any slow-motion videos, but she’s clearly supporting the Administration’s social media strategy, usually with images. “It’s been a busy few weeks,” she wrote in February, alongside a photo of herself walking outside. “Ready for the next one.”

Equal Pay Day is a big deal around here. Right, @mPinoe and @100purcent? pic.twitter.com/wYdJkp9QYa

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 25, 2021

One week down. pic.twitter.com/yxrkWAXlkL

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 28, 2021

It’s unclear why, exactly, the Biden administration has made these kinds of videos so integral to its Twitter brand, especially since they’re very easy to mock. Some users have wondered about Harris and Biden’s FitBit numbers. Others have sardonically noted that we still don’t have broad student debt forgiveness, but at least we have dramatic videos of our President, masked-up and smiling, celebrating another week in office. “Feeling like shit,” one person joked. “Could really go for a pic of Kamala & Biden walking down a hallway rn.” Or perhaps everyone at the Biden White House is just a big fan of what Vogue‘s Emma Specter wrote about in a recent article: “the silly little walk,” which, she notes, is “good exercise, and its mental health benefits are myriad, but mostly, it’s the perfect way to be alone, together.”

According to body language expert Patti Wood, M.A., author of SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, Biden’s videos signal that he’s in control. Take his March 5 video, for example. Wood notes that he’s carrying books and binders, indicating how busy he is. “And the funny thing is, even though it’s in slow motion, you see his arms move and his shoulders move, so he looks like he’s in action,” Wood told Refinery29. “See the sweep of his shoulders back and forth, and the swing of the arm. It gives the impression of, ‘Wow, he’s going so fast and moving so powerfully that we have to slow this down.'”

Another week in the books. pic.twitter.com/Q2u8fSS86Q

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 6, 2021

The slow-motion effect also serves another purpose: It allows viewers to focus on details including Biden’s intentional movements, bold suits, and his facial expressions, which are sometimes harder to discern from underneath a mask. Wood, who led training sessions on how to visibly smile above the mask, said that we can usually spot Biden’s smile, even though half of his face is covered. “That is his baseline, he smiles quite a bit of the time anyway, and the fact that you can see that above the mask is comforting to us,” she explained. “And so in this case, the slowing down of the video allows you to say, ‘I think he’s smiling,’ and then examine it.”

Maybe “comfort” is another motive. Much of Biden’s campaign — and now, his presidency — hinged on unity and a purported return to normalcy, so it’s very possible that these videos are supposed to somehow reassure us that Biden is still hard at work and still determined to let us know every time he’s gotten another week down. Make fun of them all you want, but they’re something we’ve come to expect, and the same can’t be said about our last President’s erratic online habits.

51 days down. pic.twitter.com/DGsWdxEkz1

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 13, 2021

Or maybe, the idea of movement itself is symbolic. “I think part of it is what they’re trying to get across, that he’s a man of action, he’s a man on the move, he’s doing things,” Wood said. “He’s moving forward.” Literally.

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Georgia became the first state to impose new voting rights restrictions under the Biden administration Thursday. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law the legislation that sets new voter ID requirements for absentee ballots, limits ballot drop boxes, and makes it illegal to give food and drinks — even water — to people waiting in line to vote.

Apparently motivated by fear over President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, as well as the Senate wins by Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the law was passed by Republican lawmakers with the stated interest being that it would provide, said Kemp, “another step toward ensuring our elections are secure, accessible, and fair.” Kemp also cited alleged “alarming issues” with the 2020 presidential election as the reason to pass a sweeping crackdown on voting rights in the state, which will make voting even more difficult for Georgia’s large Black population. The fact that this legislation is being passed after Georgia turned blue in the presidential election for the first time in decades is no coincidence — the Democratic wins were thanks to community organizing efforts led by Black women, after all. 

The fact that these laws are specifically designed to suppress working-class and Black voters, who make up one-third of Georgia’s population and tend to overwhelmingly vote Democratic, is enraging. More rigid ID requirements on their own will always impact Black voters more harshly. According to a 2020 report on voter suppression from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, 25% of Black voting-age citizens nationally did not have a current government-issued photo ID, compared to 8% of white voting-age citizens. 

“Rather than grappling with whether their ideology is causing them to fail, they are instead relying on what has worked in the past,” said voting rights activist Stacey Abrams. When she ran for governor in Georgia in 2018, Abrams centered voter suppression in her campaign. “Instead of winning new voters, you rig the system against their participation, and you steal the right to vote.” 

In an interview with The Guardian, Abrams added that legislation like this one is a response to “the big lie, to the disproven, discredited and, sadly, the blood-spilled lie of voter fraud” perpetuated by former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the 2020 election. “And they are responding to it by actually doing what the insurrectionists sought, doing what the liars asked for.” 

Faith leaders who sought a meeting with Kemp also called the law racist. Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, who oversees all African Methodist Episcopal churches in Georgia, said he told Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, “these bills were not only voter suppression, but they were in fact racist, and they are an attempt to turn back time to Jim Crow.”

Georgia isn’t the only state where Republicans are bowing to the demands of far-right conservatives who still falsely believe that Trump lost the presidential election due to widespread voter fraud. Republicans passed a similar law in Iowa and are working to pass similar restrictions in Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Such laws will continue to disenfranchise Black voters and voters of color.

Moreover, as voting restrictions at the state level are underway, House Democrats are bringing the fight over voting rights to the federal level with legislation that seeks to expand voter protections. The omnibus voting, ethics, and campaign finance bill seeks to weaken restrictive state voter ID laws, mandate automatic voter registration, expand vote-by-mail and early voting, and restore voting rights to people formerly convicted of felonies, The New York Times reports. 

The bill was pushed through the House on Wednesday with a 220 to 210 vote mostly along party lines, in what is becoming a national fight over voting rights as Republicans push laws to further suppress Black voters following Trump’s lies about the election.

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