Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon medley of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni digs into the quiet rebrand of Disney’s D.E.I. program to “Opportunity & Inclusion,” a semantic sidestep intended to appease the Trump-era culture warriors. As Matt notes, Bob Iger, once the industry’s moral compass, is now seemingly steering the ship from a place of fear. Meanwhile, it seems like Josh D’Amaro—not Dana Walden, whose proximity to Kamala Harris is a liability these days—is looking more and more like the heir apparent…

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe captures the growing resentment among military officers over Trump’s unprecedented domestic troop deployments. Ian Krietzberg exposes the staggering water usage of the data centers fueling the A.I. boom. And for Inner Circle members, Lauren Sherman evaluates the consequential debuts of Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Jonathan Anderson at Dior.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt welcomes WME and TKO’s Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro to The Town to discuss their new company, Mari. On Impolitic, John Heilemann and former R.N.C. chairman Michael Steele debate who has the upper hand in the government shutdown. On The Grill Room, Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander examine the fallout from Bari Weiss’s grand arrival at CBS News. On Fashion People, Lauren connects with Interview’s E.I.C. Mel Ottenberg to exchange Fashion Month notes. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby rings up Lauren to pick the biggest winners and losers from Milan and Paris.

A new H.R. tweak, which comes in the wake of Kimmelgate and an MPA sponsorship of the group behind the president’s military parade and rallies, provides the latest sign of just how far the once proudly progressive entertainment industry has pivoted during Trump II. Implications for the Disney leadership bake-off are becoming clear.

As Trump masses troops outside blue cities in the name of protecting federal properties, current and former members of the military grapple with the question of which orders are legal—and resent being dragged into the muck of politics.

Ever heard of little ole Quincy, a small city on the Columbia River? Well, it’s home to a Microsoft mega-facility, a BlackRock-backed A.I. firm, and a handful of other entities that are harvesting its natural gifts—including its water supply—into a mini economic miracle.

The Matthieu Blazy and Jonathan Anderson debuts (at Chanel and Dior, respectively) offered an inflection point for the fashion industry, and perhaps an epiphany, too, about its path forward.

Matt is joined by WME and TKO’s Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro to discuss their new company, Mari. They talk about why they are betting on live experiences, the possibility of the four-day work week changing the way we live, the state of the talent business, and how we should be thinking about A.I. in Hollywood.

John welcomes former Republican National Committee chairman and current MSNBC host Michael Steele to the show to discuss the government shutdown, Pam Bondi’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Donald Trump’s militarization of law enforcement in America’s cities. Steele argues that Democrats have the upper hand in Washington’s fiscal standoff, Bondi beclowned herself on Capitol Hill, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is holding his own against Trump’s incursion into Chicago; but in the larger battle over the future of the country, “Team Democracy needs to get its shit together.”

Julia and Dylan dig into the uproar over Bari Weiss’s grand arrival at CBS News—seen by some as a journalistic awakening and by others as a credibility crisis in the making. The duo consider how her appointment fits into David Ellison’s broader media ambitions and debate whether Weiss can lure younger, more affluent viewers without blowing up the network’s buttoned-down DNA.

Lauren is joined by Interview magazine editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg to discuss what was an incredibly nerve-racking and paranoia-filled but ultimately creatively successful month of fashion shows. They discuss their 12 favorite collections, from Demna’s Gucci debut to Jonathan’s Dior to Matthieu’s Chanel.

Lauren Sherman joins Peter to debrief from Fashion Month in Paris and Milan, where the major houses were under serious pressure to deliver. Lauren breaks down the season’s winners and losers—and offers a sneak peek at the trends we’ll start to see in stores soon, including Ozempic hips, ’80s fashion throwbacks, and more.

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