Donald Trump Seems Really Confused About the Civil War: Here’s What We’re Reading Today

The Daily 5 is Sharp’s essential reading list for what’s happening in the world today. Make sure to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Sharp Insider newsletter to stay up to date.

Here’s what we’re reading today.

1. ‘Why was there the Civil War?’ Trump asks

“U.S. President Donald Trump made puzzling claims about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War in an interview, suggesting he was uncertain about the origin of the conflict while claiming the former president was upset about a war that started 16 years after his death.

“Trump, who has at times shown a shaky grasp of U.S. history, said he wonders why issues ‘could not have been worked out’ in order to prevent the secession of 11 Southern states and a war that lasted four years and killed more than 600,000 soldiers.”

– CBC

2. Texas contractor makes $9 million from Saskatchewan prison inmates who want to make a phone call

“In 2010, the government of Saskatchewan entered into a contract with a company called Synergy for a service known as Telmate.

“Prisoners often pay to make phone calls and when they do, 90 per cent of the money charged goes to Telmate.

“The province takes 10 per cent of the money from those calls and deposits it to a trust account for inmates.”

– National Post

3. Samantha Bee’s awkward praise for the press at the Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

“During commercial breaks, slides played on the big television monitors, highlighting notable moments in the complicated relationship between Presidents and the press.

“Bee returned to Trump’s highly irregular absence from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in her second segment, speaking from behind a podium emblazoned with her show’s logo. She ridiculed him for ‘celebrating his hundredth day in office by trying to win Pennsylvania,’ and congratulated the assembled reporters for their luck, being spared the duty of covering Trump’s Harrisburg rally. ‘That plum assignment went to whatever reporter fucked his boss’s wife,’ she joked. ‘Meanwhile, you guys get to sit indoors, in a safe space, getting fluffed by a minor celebrity!'”

– The New Yorker

4. $100 million lawsuit claims Fyre Festival owners knew it was doomed all along

“The class action suit names Fyre Media and co-founders Billy McFarland and Ja Rule as defendants, suing them for fraud, misrepresentative advertising, and breach of contract.

“Essentially, Jung’s suit makes three major allegations against McFarland, Ja and Fyre Media. First, that organizers knew long before the day of the event that they couldn’t accommodate attendees, yet didn’t cancel the event.”

– Gizmodo

5. Ryan Seacrest is predictable. So he’ll fit right in on morning TV.

“Ryan Seacrest, who needs another gig the way most of us need another foot, has expanded his bicoastal conquest of Hollywood. Donald Trump should build a wall around this guy’s LA mansion because Seacrest is either on a mission to steal every showbiz job or he’s part of a top-secret cloning program in which a foreign government is trying to infiltrate the entertainment industry.”

– Toronto Star

Photo: CBC