Many of us probably did the same thing this weekend: stayed out of the weather that half the country experienced (and some of you got the brunt of, like my beloved, devastated hometown). And watched your screens with abject horror at the videos and images coming out of Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed another person, this time an ICU nurse named Alex Pretti. Today, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes of the spectacle—what Trump has made clear is not merely a cultural war, but an actual war. And the visuals we have consumed are part of the message. “The focus on appearance and production value is essential in a movement that seeks not just to purify the actual America, but to resurrect the America of legend and myth,” writes Coates. “Securing The Homeland, they tell us, is an existential priority. It is also content.”
Elsewhere, Chris Murphy has a scoop on Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who took out a full-page ad of apology in The Wall Street Journal. More on what the recording artist did and did not say, in VF. |
CLAIRE HOWORTH,
DEPUTY EDITOR |
In the time following 9/11, even conservatives voiced skepticism of the proposed Department of Homeland Security, writes Ta-Nehisi Coates. Now, Trump seeks to cleanse, purge, and expand this so-called homeland. |
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Over the weekend, festivalgoers watched cell phone and social media videos of Alex Pretti getting shot until the lights in their theater dimmed, signaling that they had to put their phones away. Hillary Busis reports from inside the Sundance bubble. |
Schiaparelli designer Daniel Roseberry welcomes Vanity Fair into a fitting ahead of his Paris Haute Couture Week show: “We haven’t shown anything like this in a long time,” he says, “but it was time to peacock.” |
Before the Milano Cortina Olympics begin, revisit these eight unforgettable icy clashes, from the attack on Nancy Kerrigan to Surya Bonaly’s defiant backflip. |
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Social media users are latching on to the ominous accuracy of astrologer Michael Lutin’s horoscope about the United States, published in the January 2007 issue. Read it and judge for yourself. |
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