Trump, White House reveals two new giant American flags
President Donald Trump and other presidents saw the huge rise of the American flag in the White House.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
They’re taking shots of each other about a week after their public fallout with technology CEO Elon Musk, President Donald Trump, former Fox News host, right-wing Firebrand Tucker Carlson.
Carlson began his start over Trump’s handling of conflict between Iran and Israel, calling him “conspired in acts of war” in his newsletter. True socially, Trump fought back at Carlson, giving his host a derivative nickname, just like many of his past political enemies. “Someone please explain to the strange Tucker Carlson that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons,” he wrote. USA Today reached out to representatives of Trump and Carlson for further comment.
How did you get here? Well, to paraphrase the farewell expert named Taylor Swift, we did something that we had “watched this film before.”
Friendship experts previously told USA Today that such public fallouts are important to be careful. Shasta Nelson, a social relationship expert and author of “Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships We Spend Most Times,” said it was especially easy when friends drop out in unhealthy ways, when they fall out, it was a peaceful division spiral into a toxic feud.
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“These official relationships are a mirror of what happens frequently,” Nelson said. When two former friends get caught up in an online feud, it’s because they’re trying to get the public what they ultimately need for each other.
How does a split friendship affect our mental health?
Until recently, Carlson appears to be one of Trump’s biggest fans, endorsing him in the 2024 election and gave a headline speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden Rally in the lead-up in November.
That’s part of why his recent attack on Trump sparked such a conversation online. And Trump isn’t the only one Carlson has recently fought online. His interview with Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently went viral on X, with the two clashing over our involvement in the Middle East.
Shouldn’t we underestimate the collapse of friendship? Mental health sacrifice. That’s because, as Nelson previously told USA Today, our society doesn’t have the right etiquette when it comes to our friends who say goodbye. Without a clear roadmap, friendship divisions often feel vague and sometimes lead to unnecessary wounds.
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When that scar spreads online, it tends to rise to feud levels.
“It can be easily said that the splitting of friendship can be more complicated than romantic relationships because there are romantic relationships, so we have more rituals around them, and we usually have more conversations,” Nelson said. “In our friendship and platonic relationships, it can be very complicated. We expect it to be easier. Our expectations are different, we have more sadness, and we have more anger.”
How to deal with hostile friendship breakup
Still, if a friendship breakup takes an antagonistic turn, then that hostility is taken online – there is a way to remove the situation and reconcile.
Nelson recommends that both friends place their swords and begin a respectful, private dialogue.
“The best approach is to always sit down and practice vulnerability with each other and practice responsibility for our own,” she previously told USA Today. “I’m finding a place where I can apologize, I’m finding ways to understand others. I’m trying to use language where I say, ‘Understand this.’ “
If you find that others are unacceptable to that approach, psychotherapist Stephanie Salkis recommends ignoring online slings and arrows. The reaction tends to add fuel to the fire.
“When people use social media to attack each other, that doesn’t generally work,” she previously told USA Today. “No one ever said it. ‘Well, I’m so glad you solved that problem.”
Can Trump and Carlson take this route? That’s possible. The president suggested that he and Carlson might be ready to make up, speaking to reporters at a press conference on the afternoon of June 18th, according to a transcript provided to USA Today by White House representatives.
“Tucker is a good guy,” the president said. “He thought he said he was a little too strong, so he called the other day and apologized, and I appreciated it.”
