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All the changes to the White House over the past year read like a reality TV drama. Clashes with architects. A lawsuit over the East Wing demolition. Paving over the beloved Rose Garden and turning it into an exclusive club. President Trumps promise (or was it a threat?) to make federal buildings beautiful again primarily played out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now it has become the prime exemplar of Magatecture, whose aesthetic expression revolves around three key traits: Make it big, make it gold, and make it monetizable. [Photo: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images] It is tradition for presidents to redecorate the White Housethe Oval Office and first familys private quarters typically get a refresh with each incoming administrationbut for the most part, they serve as stewards of a public building. The White House of modern memory is largely the result of Jackie Kennedys belief that it should be a living museum furnished with the finest American art, furniture, and decorative objects. In fact, the executive mansion hasnt seen such dramatic structural change since Harry Truman had it rebuilt in the 1940s when it was on the verge of collapse. [Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images] What separates the renovations happening today from the ones of the past is just how slapdash they are. Trump seems keen on making his mark with little regard for design integritytaping up a paper sign with Oval Office printed in gold Shelly Script, affixing gaudy gilded appliqués on just about any empty surface, and releasing error-laden digital renderings of the new ballroom with stairs leading to nowhere and misaligned windows. Ranking near the top of the downgrades is the refurbished Lincoln Bathroom, once a subtly art deco interior with seafoam green tile (courtesy of the Truman renovation) now sheathed in white statuary marble and accented with gold fixtures, like a three-star hotel powder room. President Donald Trump departs the White House on November 5, 2025. [Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images] Trump speaks the language of opulence, with little grasp of the vocabulary that makes rooms designed to this sensibility actually sing. Instead, Magatecture is most comfortable with superlatives, expressing itself through scale and the appearance of expense. To wit: Trump proudly installed two nearly 100-foot-tall flagpoles (the actual height is closer to 80 feet). [Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images] The changes dont support the language within the Make Federal Architecture Beautiful Again executive order he issued in August, which proclaimed that all federal buildings ought to inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public. When those excessive gold embellishments are ridiculed as cheap Home Depot products (though Trump says he brought in his gold guy to fabricate them) its hard to argue that they represent distinguished design. Money talks, wealth whispers, and this spit shouts Temu Versailles. View this post on Instagram For a president who knew how to channel grandeur, look to Chester A. Arthur. In 1882, he hired Louis Comfort Tiffany to renovate the White House. One of his most indulgently furnished spaces was the Red Room, a parlor and sitting room occasionally used for small dinner parties. Tiffany painted the walls a rich Pompeiian red, blanketed the ceiling with copper and silver stars, installed a cherry-wood mantle adorned with glass tile, and commissioned a pink frieze. The furniture was equally lavish and included mirrors encrusted with gemstones, screens from East Asia, tall urns, and chairs upholstered in fringed damask. It was so lavish that Theodore Roosevelt had most of the decor stripped out during his administrations renovations, which the architecture firm McKim, Mead & White oversaw. Even more modest chapters in White House history reflect rigor. Michael S. Smith, President Barack Obamas decorator in chief, balanced the homes formal nature with more comfortable, approachable, and modern details, including an Oval Office done up in demure earth tones. While initially dismissed as an audacity of taupe, it was still thoughtfully composed and respected the architecture. White House historian William Seale told The New York Times that the calmed-down space felt welcoming, while interior designer Sheila Bridges noted that its understated look was appropriate considering the economic recession at the time. [Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images] There isnt any sensitivity at play now. Amid a government shutdown, Trump ordered the demolition of the East Winga highly unusual command from the president, but a routine developer tacticwhich is now the subject of a lawsuit from preservationists who argue it violated numerous laws. What will take its place, if all goes according to Trumps wishes, is a ballroom of monstrous proportions; at an estimated 90,000 square feet, it would be roughly the same size as the West Wing and main house combined. To fund the Palladian-style building done up with Corinthian columns, Venetian windows, and crystal chandeliers, Trump has solicited an army of corporate donors to bankroll the $400 million bill. But the buck certainly does not stop here. Ever the businessman out for personal benefitsome estimates say Trump and his family have earned $3.4 billion from the presidencyhe converted a small room near the Oval Office into a MAGA merch display in which he proudly slings baseball caps to foreign leaders. President @realDonaldTrump showing President Zelenskyy and President Macron his 4 More Years hat pic.twitter.com/c7dhAkZMuF— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) August 19, 2025 If anything, pettiness seems to be the modus operandi. Hes talked about building a new ballroom since 2010, and even pitched the idea to the Obama administration. David Axelrod, Obamas chief adviser, said Trump called him with his credentials. He said, You know, I build ballrooms. I build the greatest ballrooms and you can come down to Florida to see them, Axelrod told NPR. Nothing came of the call. Trump brought up his proposal on the 2016 campaign trail, and afterward then-White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the idea was never seriously considered. Im not sure that it would be appropriate to have a shiny gold Trump sign . . . on any part of the White House, he said. None of the ballroom renderings so far have shown a Trump sign on them, but given how he had his name added to the Kennedy Center facade, its not a stretch to imagine the final building similarly branded. [Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images] Then there are the changes to the West Wing colonnade. Trump hung portraits of previous commanders in chief (except for Joe Biden, who is depicted with an autopen signing his signature and labeled it The Presidential Walk of Fame inyou guessed itbig gold letters). Then came more gilded embellishments. And just last week, he installed plaques beneath each presidents portrait with his take on their legacy, written in the style of his Truth Social rants, often laden with misinformation. One year down, three more to go. If the renovations so far are any indication, expect to see a lot more gold.
Category:
E-Commerce
As always, many of this year’s best apps are ones you’ve probably never heard of. Sure, there are some big names on this list, particularly in the buzzy field of artificial intelligence, but the real standouts of 2025 innovated on a smaller scale. They give you better ways to take notes or remember things, write with just your voice, have fun snapping photos, or even indulge in some gaming classics. For this list, “apps” include desktop and mobile software, along with browser extensions and web tools. Some apps are entirely new, while others received transformative updates that make them worthy of a fresh look. Hopefully, you’ll discover something that quickly becomes a must-have. Productivity Raycast: Open Raycast with a keyboard shortcut, and you can quickly find files, search the web, access your clipboard history, paste frequently written text snippets, reposition your windows, look up emojis, ask AI questions, and more. It’s a Swiss Army knife of time-saving tools for power users, and it finally arrived on Windows and iOS this year to complement the long-running Mac version. (Windows, Mac, iOS) Payload: Cloud storage is great, but sometimes you need a faster way to send files to yourself. Payload checks your Wi-Fi network for any devices where its app is installed, then uses that connection to transfer files almost instantly, without ever leaving your local network. Previously desktop-only, Payload arrived on mobile devices this year and launched an optional online service for remote file sharing. (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android) Ghost Capture App: This free app streamlines the act of adding items to your to-do list. Just long-press the little ghost icon and say what you’re trying to accomplish, and it will create a task that syncs to either Apple Reminders or Google Tasks with no extra buttons to push. (iOS) Monotype: Typewriter Simulator: If you miss (or, for that matter, remember) the feel of writing with a typewriter, this app is for you. It provides an on-screen typewriter that produces a satisfying clack with each key press, followed by a ding and the need to hit Enter (or, more appropriately, Return) at the end of each line. When you’re finished, you can copy the text into whatever document editor you normally use. Thankfully, the app allows you to delete without any Wite-Out. (Mac) Antinote: Apple’s default TextEdit app is too clunky when you’re just trying to jot down some quick thoughts. Antinote speeds things up with a clean, plain-text scratch pad, which you can pop open with a keyboard shortcut (Option+A by default). You can also create to-do lists by typing “todo” at the top of a note, or perform calculations by typing “math” at the top. It’s a $5 onetime purchase after a free trial. (Mac) Orb: Most internet speed test tools just give you a snapshot of upload and download speeds. Orb instead lets you run persistent speed tests throughout the day, providing a clearer view of overall reliability. You can even set up the app on multiple devices around the house to see where the connection is weakest. (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) AI Proton Lumo: While most AI companies keep a record of your chat history and may even share conversations with human reviewers, Proton’s Lumo AI makes a point of being oblivious. Proton doesn’t log users’ chats or use them to train its models, so the company has no way of accessing your chat history. (iOS, Android, web) Perplexity Comet: Amid a wave of AI web browsers, Perplexity stands out for its ability to navigate the web on your behalf. Try letting it cancel your subscriptions, search across multiple flight deal sites, or even put a single question to multiple AI tools to see how their answers differ. Just be careful about letting it access sensitive data. (Windows, Mac, Android) Wispr Flow: Your phone or computer’s built-in voice dictation features are fine if you don’t mind doing a lot of manual cleanup. Wispr Flow manages to be a lot more accuratesometimes eerily soas it uses AI processing to both clean up your text and learn from your writing tendencies over time. It’s also just convenient to use in short bursts with push-to-talk keyboard shortcuts. (Windows, Mac, iOS) [Screenshot: Jared Newman] Superwhisper: Another voice dictation app, Superwhisper stands out by letting you use on-device speech-to-text models with no online processing. This allows for unlimited usage without any privacy concerns while still offering handy shortcuts for push-to-talk mode. (Windows, Mac, iOS) Google Gemini: Google’s AI assistant isn’t new, but its built-in “Nano Banana” text-to-image model that arrived this year would be a killer app on its own. Start by uploading any image, then ask to render it in a different visual style, remove objects (including chain link fences), zoom and enhance, or add more images to the scene. You can even draw around parts of the image to show where the edits should go. (iOS, Android, web) Dia: The most thoughtful of the AI browsers, Dia lets you @ mention your open tabs to synthesize information from them, ask questions about your browser history, and take action in web apps like Gmail and Google Calendar. Its smartest feature, though, is its search box, which automatically routes your queries to AI or web search, based on what you write. (Mac) Sora: What if there was a social network where you didnt need to stop and wonder if something was generated by AIbecause everything was generated by AI? Thats the premise behind OpenAIs Sora. You can even create an AI doppelgänger of yourself and control who can use it in their videos (just you, just your friends, or everyone). Yes, deceptive Sora deepfakes leaking onto the rest of the internet with their watermarks removed is an issue. But at its best, the app itself is silly, fun, and not at all misleading. (iOS, Android) Photo and video Affinity: Serif’s image editing suite is a popular subscription-free alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator, and Designer, so users got nervous last year when the company was acquired by Canvaitself a subscription-driven business. This year, Canva didn’t just honor its promise to offer Affinity without a subscription, it released the entire desktop suite for free. The only catch is that you need a Canva accountand a subscription if you want to use some AI tools. (Windows, Mac) Not Boring Camera: This iPhone app offers a more fun way to take photos, with skeuomorphic buttons and knobs for zoom, exposure, focus, and more. The two-second preview of snapped photos that appears in the viewfinder is an especially nice touch, allowing you to quickly discard a bad picture while staying in photography mode. (iOS) Cassette: The self-proclaimed “Home Video Player” app offers a fun way to revisit all the footage you’ve captured on your iPhone. The app groups your videos by year, presenting them as VHS tapes on a shelf. Tapping on a cassette gives you a stream of auto-playng videos, which you can either swipe through TikTok-style or advance through with the fast-forward and rewind buttons. (iPhone, iPad) Google Vids: Google’s foray into multitrack video editing lets you combine multiple video and audio clips with transitions, voice-overs, and subtitles. Of course, there’s an AI angle, with an option to generate video clips using Google’s Veo 3 model, but otherwise it’s just an easy way to edit videos online for free. (Web) Detail: Apple’s winner for “Best iPad App of the Year,” Detail is a handy tool for professional (or aspiring) content creators. It helps record video in a variety of ways, including making reaction videos and reading script from an on-screen teleprompter, and its AI editor can help trim out unwanted bits. The real power, though, comes from being able to combine multiple iPhones and iPads for things like split-screen video podcasts, live monitoring on an iPad while shooting on your phone, and recording top-down iPhone footage while speaking into an iPad. (iOS, Mac) Camo Streamlight: The free Windows app makes you look better on Zoom calls by surrounding the outer edges of your screen in bright white. It takes inspiration from those ring lights you can attach to your screen, and while the effect is subtle in a well-lit room, it can make a big difference when the room lightning isn’t great. (Windows) Shutter Declutter: If your Apple Photos library is swimming in tens of thousands of images you couldnt care less about, youre not alone. Shutter Declutter can help you finally make progress at pruning them. It lets you efficiently swipe to delete the detritus, and reminds you each day to review pictures you took on todays date in previous years. The fewer fuzzy and/or accidental shots that remain, the more you can enjoy the photos worth preserving. (iOS, iPadOS) Security and privacy UBlock Origin Lite: Apple’s Safari browser finally has the free, open-source, customizable ad-and-tracker blocker it’s been missing. This offshoot of the venerable uBlock Origin does a great job decluttering web pages, and you can dig into its settings menu to tailor the filtering rules to your likingfor instance, to hide cookie notices or social media widgets. The same extension is also available for Chrome. (iOS, Mac) Have I Been Pwned?: For more than a decade, Have I Been Pwned? has been invaluable for checking whether your email and passwords have been exposed in data breaches. (The answer is almost certainly “yes.”) This year, the site added a personal dashboard with a full history of breaches for your email address, the types of data exposed, and optional email addresses for the next time your email is compromised. (Web) Proton Authenticator: Proton’s two-factor authentication app is what Authy used to be before it discontinued its desktop apps. It allows you to set up 2FA codes that add an extra layer of protection to your online accounts, then back up and sync them to your other devices. This makes 2FA more convenient while reducing the odds of getting locked out. (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android) Leisure time WikiTok: This clever website takes the addictive infinite scroll of TikTok and applies it to random Wikipedia pages, so you can swipe through until something catches your interest. The experience is far less scintillating, but that’s kind of the point. Try using it before bed. (Web) Iconfactory Tapestry: If you’re feeling burned out by social media, Tapestry lets you stitch together a chronological feed of your favorite internet content sources. Those can include publications, YouTube channels, Reddit forums, Bluesky accounts, and even custom sources such as a Gmail inbox. (iOS, Mac) Pocket Casts: This venerable podcast player continues to establish itself as the best option that works on any device, not just those made by Apple. This year, Pocket Casts made its web player free, and it syncs your progress from the mobile app for picking up where you left off. It also overhauled its search function, added recommendations for similar podcasts, and launched searchable transriptions as a paid feature. (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, web) DOSBox Pure Unleashed: This free app drastically simplifies the previously complex task of running old DOS games on your computer. Instead of having to deal with command prompts, you can just drag and drop the files into the DOSBox window and select the .EXE file you want to run. All you need to do beyond that is supply the games, which are easily obtainable from sources like the Internet Archive and My Abandonware. (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Category:
E-Commerce
Two years ago, a $575 million battery factory planned in St. Louis, Missouri, was set to be the first large-scale lithium iron phosphate (LFP) facility in the U.S. This November, after the Trump administration withdrew a grant for the project, it was cancelledbecoming one of more than 50 major clean energy projects to be scrapped or scaled back in 2025. From January through November, as federal policy turned against clean energy, companies abandoned more than $32 billion in investments, according to the most recent data from E2, a nonpartisan organization that tracks clean energy projects in the U.S. Some companies are still announcing new projects, but lost investments are now outpacing them by three to one. “The scale of cancellations shows how fragile this moment is for Americas clean energy economy,” says Michael Timberlake, director of research at E2. The list includes a new $4.3 billion General Motors EV plant in Michigan that’s being retooled to make gas-powered vehicles, a $3.2 billion Stellantis battery factory in Illinois that was cancelled, and a $2.6 billion battery factory in Georgia that was scrapped by a Norway-based manufacturer, among dozens of other projects. The majority of the cancelled projects are factories, not clean energy generation plants, though some solar or wind farms may not show up on the list because their cancellations are harder to track. (Though there is some evidence the administration is changing its mind about batteries, specifically.) The cuts add up to nearly 40,000 lost jobs, according to E2. Republican congressional districts lost the most large-scale projects, 37 in total. What’s harder to track than cancellations is how many projects might have been announced under different political conditions that now won’t ever break ground. Up until the 2024 election, Timberlake says monthly announcements consistently exceeded $1 billion in investment. Last month, that total was $550 millionless than the value of the cancelled battery project. “We’ll never recover those jobs and those investments that were going to be announced in 2025 under a different political environment,” says Timberlake. “And thats going to add up over time to a significant loss in step with the rest of the world. We’ve now lost a lot of what could have been, and it’s going to be hard to ever get that back.” It’s not clear yet what will happen in 2026. Still, despite the setbacks, the industry still has strengths. The fact that the list of cancelled projects wasn’t longer “is a good sign of the health of the clean energy economy and how robust it is and how the economics still work,” Timberlake says. Nearly all of the energy added to the grid in 2025 came from solar, wind, or batteries, despite the Trump administration’s efforts. As the surge in energy demand continues, driven in part by data centers, clean energy is still a quick, affordable way to meet that demand. And some projects are continuing to move forward. “The market is still there,” he says.
Category:
E-Commerce
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