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• Taylor Swift recently posted a video that shows her wearing a $60 Popflex athletic skort.
• Cassey Ho, an influencer and the skort designer, told Business Insider it's a dream come true.
• Ho said Swifties have since wiped out existing inventory, and 7,000 skorts have been preordered.

When Taylor Swift uploaded a YouTube Shorts video to promote her new album on April 19, Blogilates founder Cassey Ho was getting her roots touched up at a hair salon.

"I was so ugly with my hair in the bowl and a towel over my head, but my husband, Sam, kept calling. He was like, 'You need to check your messages,'" she told Business Insider.

So she did, and she quickly discovered that Swift's video featured a clip of the musician playing pickleball while wearing the $60 Pirouette Skort from Ho's brand Popflex.

"I wish I had screamed or jumped. I was numb," she said. "That was my reaction. Couldn't move, couldn't think. Nonfunctional."

The Taylor Effect: athleisure version

Ho — a fitness influencer and entrepreneur — said she was equally shocked when fans alerted her that Swift had also seemingly referenced the Popflex skirt in a track on "The Tortured Poets Department."

"Lilac short skirt, the one that fits me like skin," Swift sings in "imgonnagetyouback."

While Ho can't confirm whether Swift was specifically referencing her design, the lyric has only made the experience more exciting for herself and her employees.

"Our entire team has just been living in this Taylor dream from Friday into this week. It's just been so cool," Ho said.

Swifties can't get enough of the skort, either. According to Ho, her brand's inventory of the Digital Lilac shade Swift wore was wiped out in minutes. She said Popflex has now sold 7,000 of the skorts in preorders.

"The Taylor Effect is like nothing else in the entire world. It's insane," Ho said. "We had our biggest sales day of the year and our second biggest sales day ever. This is also the first time we've taken preorders. We normally don't do that, but people really want the original."

An invisible string between Ho and Swift

In the early days of Ho's career — when she posted videos of herself doing exercise routines on YouTube — Swift's songs often played in the background.

Those "Pop Pilates" routines, as Ho dubbed them, skyrocketed her into internet stardom, and Swift took notice.

In 2014, Ho received a direct message from Swift's team inviting her and her sister to a Secret Session, or a private listening party where Swift showed fans her then-upcoming album "1989."

"We were just nervously there, and Taylor walked out with her red lips, short hair, a crop top, and a pleated skirt," she recalled. "Then, she walked up to our little group and said, 'Cassey, I love watching your videos.' I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'"

Swift then shared a message about doing one of Ho's workout routines on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in 2019.

"People assume I must have sent the skort to her, but absolutely not," Ho told BI. "I have no contact with Taylor. I don't know her address, nothing."

But given their connected history, Ho thinks Swift may have seen one of her promotional videos for the skort.

"I think she was Tay-lurking," she said.

The bigger picture

While Ho is ecstatic about Swift wearing her skort design from the perspective of a business owner and Swiftie, she's also grateful for another reason.

Since releasing the Pirouette skirt nearly three years ago, Ho said she has dealt with numerous online retailers copying her design and selling cheaper versions.

"It's happened two times on Shein and a million times on Amazon," Ho said. She called out Shein in a July 2023 blog post after noticing that the fast-fashion retailer was selling a similar skort, which was no longer available on the site as of Friday.

Ho also said she's seen new knockoffs popping up now that Swift has been seen wearing the original.

"I've already seen sites using my videos and Taylor's video in ads on TikTok, which direct to sketchy sites," she said, adding that she's working to get those listings removed.

But in the meantime, she said, Swift wearing the original feels like the "ultimate karma" against shops that have stolen her work — something Swift herself is deeply familiar with.

"She is the ultimate inspiration for taking control of a bad situation," Ho said.

But even as knockoff Popflex skorts appear online, Ho and her team are celebrating.

In addition to a dinner party she'd like to host in the future, Ho told BI that she's also distributing $4,190 bonuses to each of her employees — a number she picked by taking the date Swift posted her video, April 19, and multiplying it by 1,000, or the number of times she's "felt so lucky over this past weekend."

"I don't know what you call this. Maybe an invisible string, I guess," Ho said of her journey with Swift. "But the past few days have been a beautiful dream. I'm just so grateful."

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• A Tesla Model S driver told authorities he was using Autopilot when he fatally hit a motorcyclist last week. 
• Feds this week questioned whether Tesla's December recall was enough to ensure driver attention.
• Tesla recalled over two million vehicles and installed an update to increase alerts in Autopilot.

A 56-year-old Tesla Model S driver said he was using Autopilot when he hit and killed someone on a motorcycle last week about 15 miles outside Seattle.

The Washington State Patrol's affidavit said the driver was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide "based on the admitted inattention to driving," while on Autopilot mode and using a cell phone while driving, according to a CNBC report. The department did not respond to Business Insider's request for records.

The driver told a Washington State Patrol trooper that he was in Autopilot mode and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was moving, according to the CNBC report.

"The next thing he knew there was a bang and the vehicle lurched forward as it accelerated and collided with the motorcycle in front of him," the trooper wrote in a probable-cause document, according to CNBC.

On Friday, federal regulators announced they are looking into whether Tesla's recall of two million vehicles in December was enough to make sure the driver-assist technology stops driver misuse.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it was opening an investigation to "evaluate the adequacy" of the December recall to "address misuse, mode confusion, or usage in environments the system is not designed for."

The new investigation will look into Model Y, X, S, 3, and Cybertruck vehicles with Autopilot made between 2012 and 2024, according to the NHTSA report.

In December, Tesla recalled over two million vehicles to update the Autopilot software. The recall stemmed from a two-year NHTSA investigation that identified at least 13 crashes with at least one fatality and multiple serious injuries. The software update aimed to improve driver awareness by increasing warnings and alerts.

The NHTSA document stated that Tesla said "a portion of the remedy both requires the owner to opt in and allows a driver to readily reverse it."

It's not known whether the driver involved in the Washington accident had the software update installed in his Tesla.

According to NHTSA documents, most newer Teslas have software that would automatically update.

In a document published Thursday on the recall query, the NHTSA notes that the term "Autopilot" may lead drivers to think "the automation has greater capabilities than it does and invite drivers to overly trust the automation."

Tesla's website states Autopilot mode does not make the vehicle autonomous and drivers must use additional caution and pay attention.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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• The Justice Department settled over 100 claims from victims of Larry Nassar for $138.7 million.
• But it's ignored claims from Jeffrey Epstein victims, who say law enforcement failed to protect them.
• The Justice Department has already concluded that it botched an investigation into Epstein.

This week, the Justice Department agreed to a mammoth $138.7 million settlement to resolve more than 100 claims brought by accusers of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics doctor.

It was announced nearly three years after the Justice Department's internal watchdog found that the FBI botched its handling of its investigation into Nassar, who has been the subject of hundreds of sexual abuse claims and is currently serving over a century in prison sentences after being convicted of sexual assault and child pornography charges.

But the FBI seems less interested in resolving claims from victims of Jeffrey Epstein.

Jordan Merson, an attorney representing about 30 of Epstein's victims in claims against the FBI, told Business Insider that the Justice Department has so far turned a blind eye to his clients.

"We are happy that the FBI has resolved those cases so that the Nassar victims can have that sense of accountability, responsibility, and justice and try to get some peace moving forward," Merson told Business Insider. "But it's curious as to why the FBI won't do the same thing in this case, won't allow these women who have bravely come forward to get that accountability, responsibility, and justice."

Merson filed the lawsuit, initially on behalf of 12 Epstein accusers, against the FBI in February. It alleges the law enforcement agency knew about the well-connected financier's serial sexual abuse of girls since at least the mid-1990s — and did nothing to stop him.

The agency ignored numerous tips and pleas from victims as early as the 1990s, according to the lawsuit. And the FBI also failed to act when visas and passports were issued for girls who flew on his plane — actions that should have required background checks, the lawsuit alleges.

Representatives for the Justice Department didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment Friday.

"Epstein orchestrated an illegal sex trafficking ring for the elite and the FBI failed to adequately investigate the abuse, failed to interview the victims, failed to investigate the crimes and did not follow routine procedure or offer victim assistance notwithstanding credible reports and tips," the lawsuit alleges. "The FBI sat back while Epstein and his co-conspirators sexually abused Jane Does 1-12."

The DOJ concluded it botched an earlier Epstein investigation

In 2019, Epstein killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York.

Years earlier, in 2007, he reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Florida that allowed him to serve an insubstantial sentence on a prostitution charge, even though law enforcement officials believed at the time that he had sexually abused dozens of girls. The deal was widely recognized as a corrupt bargain between Epstein's lawyers and then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who later resigned as labor secretary in Donald Trump's cabinet following an investigation into the agreement by the Miami Herald.

(The unusual plea agreement could also end up nullifying the sex-trafficking conviction of Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell.)

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility later concluded that Acosta exercised "poor judgment" with the agreement, which was also kept secret from Epstein's victims. And in December, US Senators Cory Booker and Marsha Blackburn pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray on "getting to the bottom" of the scope of Epstein's sex trafficking and the failures of the FBI to investigate his accusers' claims.

Wray told the senators that it had "been a while since I looked at the specific case" and that he would "figure out if there's more information we can provide" with his team.

But Merson told Business Insider that Wray has been uninterested in resolving claims from Epstein's victims, even though it's been nearly a year since he filed administrative claims against the FBI.

"The FBI has so far shown no interest in resolving these cases amicably," Merson said. "And it makes you scratch your head. Like, why is that? And what about this case? Why are they out these women who have come forward with claims against Jeffrey Epstein and the FBI's role?"

In addition to the FBI's failures in investigating their sex crimes, Epstein and Nassar are connected in another way: While in jail, Epstein attempted to send Nassar a letter.

It was returned to the sender, and the contents have not been made public.

Merson's case is part of a spate of lawsuits seeking to hold government agencies and corporations accountable for allegedly facilitating Epstein's sexual abuse. His firm is also involved with a lawsuit against the US Virgin Islands, claiming the territory and its politicians helped Epstein traffic girls to one of his private islands for sex.

A compensation program formed by Epstein's estate after his death identified 136 different victims, while later litigation put the number closer to 200.

Merson's clients initially filed Standard Form 95 claims with the FBI — which offers federal agencies the chance to resolve claims efficiently and quietly, and serves as a precursor to a lawsuit if they don't — in May 2023. But the Justice Department, while not denying wrongdoing, hasn't engaged in settlement talks, he said.

Since filing the lawsuit in February, Merson has more than doubled the number of clients with claims against the law enforcement agency for failing to stop Epstein.

He said, "It's confusing and confounding" that the FBI isn't addressing the claims of Epstein's victims with the same urgency it gave Nassar's.

"Why won't the FBI do the right thing for sexual abuse survivors of Jeffrey Epstein?" Merson said.

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• I was accepted into Duke, Columbia, and Yale, so I had to choose which one was right for me.
• Serious deliberation removed Columbia; it took a coin flip and following my gut to make up my mind.
• I'm a student at Yale, and I now realize my choice didn't really matter all that much.

College application season is finally over, but the stress isn't gone completely.

For many students, April is still a stressful time; you may still be debating which school to go attend. Sometimes, the college decision isn't so clear-cut. For example, what do you do if you apply to multiple dream schools expecting to only get into one, and you're lucky enough to get into multiple?

That was the case for me this time last year. As a kid, my dream school was Columbia, and for most of high school, it was Yale. At the last minute, Duke crept near the top spot. In the end, I was blessed enough to get into all three, and while it took some time, here's what helped me decide.

Make sure to learn as much as possible about each school

Doing your homework before decision season is crucial. Visit colleges early to get a feel and plan what you could see yourself doing. Of course, you will change your mind over time, but getting a sense of your playing field is important.

Many schools offer fly-in programs to admits, and while they can make for a hectic schedule in April, attending these can give you a great sense of what the school is like. While Duke was initially below Yale on my list, attending their Black Student Alliance Invitational brought them way up.

At these programs, you get to see the schools, sit in on classes, check out clubs, and meet students. I met people at BSAI that I instantly connected and still do my best to keep up with.

Revisit what made you want to go to each school in the first place

Ok, so you've done your research, gone to the fly-ins, and are now trying to decide. First, ground yourself and check on the factors that are most important to you. While getting into great colleges can feel like the stars have aligned, it's worthwhile to remind yourself of what led you to apply to each school in the first place and what you anticipated valuing before decisions came back.

For me, this meant looking very closely at financial aid and location. Being from a somewhat well-off family, I received substantial aid from Yale, Duke, and Columbia, but none offered me a full ride. All three schools were also situated in very different environments and were different sizes.

Both of these factors eliminated Columbia from my list. The aid package there was less substantial, and while I have loved New York for short periods, I couldn't imagine living there, much less making the most of it.

However, after considering these hard factors, I was left with two equally good options. Duke and Yale gave me two different but incredibly enticing visions of my future. I couldn't possibly choose myself; I was torn.

So, I flipped a coin.

Trust me, the coin flip works

I know it sounds stupid, but a coin flip is the best method for figuring out what school to go with if you've done everything you could but can't decide. You shouldn't follow through on what the coin flip says, but you should act like you will. Your reaction to the coin flip will tell you where you want to go.

In my case, it landed on Duke, and I felt unsettled. I planned on going to North Carolina after undergrad school anyway because my dream is to go to Duke Law on a Mordecai scholarship, so I wondered if Duke was right for my undergrad years, too. Yale was my dream school, and Duke's emerging quad system was different from Yale's residential college system, which I loved.

All these factors made me realize that I wanted to go to Yale. I committed before even going to Yale's fly-in program, Bulldog Days.

After you pick, don't dwell on it

Do I think about what would have happened if I had chosen Duke? Of course. But in the end, it doesn't matter. Going to college is already an incredible privilege, and picking between multiple top-tier schools is an abundance of riches. There is no wrong answer.

In the end, it's important to have confidence in yourself. I would still be Miles at Columbia or Duke. Sure, the environments would have molded me into a different version of myself, but in the end, I would still be Miles. That's what matters.

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• Business expenses should always be on a separate, business-only credit card for a variety of reasons, and personal expenses should never be on that card.
• Keeping things separate helps with taxes and legal issues — and there are plenty of business credit cards with generous reward programs.
• Compare the best small business credit cards.

If you own a small business, you are faced with countless decisions every day. One that comes up regularly is how to pay for business purchases. When it comes to buying items for yourself, putting the purchase on a business credit card is a big no. 

It makes taxes more complicated

When tax season rolls around every year, it is important to have updated financial records from your business. This helps you complete the legally required tax return for your business, whether it is a Schedule C on your personal tax return or gets a business tax return of its own.

While you have to report every dollar your business brings in, you can also deduct nearly every dollar you spend on your business. Putting business purchases on a business credit card makes tracking these expenses much easier. But if you clutter up your account statement with personal purchases, tallying up deductions is a lot more work.

It can pierce the corporate veil

Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs), S-Corporations, and C-Corporations are popular ways to structure a business to protect yourself from personal liability in the event of a business lawsuit. Your business won't protect you if you don't follow certain rules, however, and one of those rules is keeping business and personal finances separate.

If an occasional purchase is made between the two, it isn't a huge deal as long as you track it, keep your receipts, and make the correct reimbursements as necessary. When those lines get blurred, you may lose your corporate legal protection.

It makes it hard to understand your profits

While the two reasons above are each enough of a reason to keep your finances separate, this final reason may be the most important of all: As a business owner, you need good information on your business finances to make good business decisions.

Large companies have full-time financial planning and analysis professionals with accounting and finance degrees. I used to work in this field, and I was charged with things like keeping accounting records accurate and updated. I spent hours looking for business trends to cut expenses or improve revenue. I focused completely on finances and financial results.

Small business owners don't have FP&A teams, however. You have to do all of that yourself. Thankfully, accounting apps like Quickbooks, Xero, and Wave Accounting include reports that give you much of this information with just a few clicks. But it only works when you have accurate financial records in your accounting app.

If you keep your personal finances out of your business, you can link your business bank and credit card accounts to automatically import transactions. Then it just takes a little work by you or a bookkeeper to categorize them and you have all of the reporting you need.

How to keep your personal and business finances completely separate

Keeping your personal and business finances separate is easy. It does take a little work at the start to get things set up correctly, but once they are it is simple to keep a hard line between personal and business accounts. Business credit cards offer their own rewards programs, and you can use them in conjunction with your personal cards.

I use the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card from Chase myself, which is great because I can combine rewards with my personal Chase Ultimate Rewards® account. 

If you are a fan of premium travel, check out The Business Platinum Card® from American Express. The Amex Business Platinum Card has a $695 annual fee, but you can earn up to 150,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the card within the first three months of card membership.

While it may seem easier to dump business receipts in a shoe box and let your accountant deal with them every spring, updating your financial records at least monthly gives you the freshest information to run your business. It helps protect your corporate veil and makes tax time a breeze. There are many reasons to keep your business finances walled off from your personal money — but the only reason to mix your money is being too lazy to set things up properly.

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• Rob Walton, the eldest of Walmart founder Sam Walton's children, is retiring after more than 40 years on the company's board.
• With a net worth of $79.8 billion, he's among the 20 richest people in the world.
• Here's a look at the billionaire Walmart heir's life and career.

Walmart billionaire Rob Walton is stepping down from the board of his family's company.

Walmart announced on Thursday that Walton, the eldest son of founder Sam Walton, will retire after more than 40 years on the board as its longest-serving member. He joined Walmart in 1969 and will step down at the end of his current term in June, the company said.

With a net worth of $79.8 billion, Walton is among the 20 richest people in the world. The 79-year-old used to practice law, collects vintage cars, and is the wealthiest NFL owner after his record-breaking purchase of the Denver Broncos in 2022.

Here's what we know about Walton as he prepares for retirement:

Rob Walton — whose full name is Samuel Robson Walton — is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, who opened the original Walmart store in 1962.

Source: Business Insider

Sam Walton made specific plans for the future of the company before he died in 1992. He created a family partnership for his share of Walmart stock, which minimized the estate taxes on his will's beneficiaries. As a result, Rob and his three siblings were each granted 20%, while Sam and his wife, Helen, each held 10%.

Source: Business Insider

John, the second-oldest Walton sibling, died in a plane crash in 2005 and left his wealth to charity and to his wife, Christy, and son, Lukas. The other three Walton siblings — Rob, Jim, and Alice — have become some of the wealthiest people in the US. Today, Rob Walton is worth $79.8 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Source: Business Insider, Bloomberg

Rob Walton played football in high school — he was all-state his senior year — and spent two years at the College of Wooster in Ohio before transferring to University of Arkansas, where he majored in accounting. He graduated in 1966 and then moved to New York City to attend Columbia Law School.

Source: Fortune

After getting his degree, Walton practiced law at a firm in Tulsa. One of the firm's clients was his dad's company, and Walton helped out when Walmart went public in 1970. But by 1978, Walton was ready to rejoin the family business, so he moved back to Arkansas.

Source: Fortune

Walton joined Walmart in 1969. Over the years, he's held positions including senior vice president, corporate secretary, general counsel, and vice chairman.

He became a member of Walmart's board in 1978, according to the company.

He focused on real estate and expansion, pushing his dad to grow internationally.

"Rob has no interest in discussions about whether the Clorox should be on the third shelf. But with real estate and legal and those sorts of areas, his knowledge base and his ability to drill down is remarkable. He also has a photographic memory," former Walmart CEO Lee Scott told Fortune in 2004.

 

In 1992, his father died at the age of 74 from cancer. The next day, Walton was named chairman of Walmart's board, a position he held until 2015.

Source: The New York Times

Walton has been married three times. His daughter, Carrie Walton Penner, is a board member at the Walton Family Foundation, where she focuses on childhood education; her husband, Greg Penner, serves as Walmart's chair.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Walton Family Foundation

While Walton isn't as flashy as other billionaires, he has made some major acquisitions, including a home in Paradise Valley, Arizona; land on Hawaii's Big Island; and a piece of land near Aspen, Colorado, which he has since sold for $30.8 million.

Source: Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, Pacific Business News

He also collects vintage cars, and once wrecked his Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe, estimated to be worth $15 million, on a race track.

Source: Business Insider

In June 2022, Walton made his biggest purchase to date: the Denver Broncos, an NFL team that had been mired in a messy ownership battle for several years.

The new ownership group — which includes Walton, his daughter Carrie Walton Penner, son-in-law and Walmart Chairman Greg Penner, and Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson — paid $4.65 billion for the franchise, more than double the price of any other NFL team at the time.

"Having lived and worked in Colorado, we've always admired the Broncos," Walton said in a statement at the time. "Carrie, Greg and I are inspired by the opportunity to steward this great organization in a vibrant community full of opportunity and passionate fans."

The sale broke a record for the most-expensive professional sports team sale in North America at the time. It has since been broken by a $6.1 billion sale of the Washington Commanders.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Denver Broncos

Now, Walton is preparing for retirement.

Walmart announced in April 2024 that Walton is stepping down from the company's board after more than 40 years.

The longest-serving member of Walmart's board, he'll retire when his current term is up on June 5, 2024.

"His leadership has been critical as we've grown our business over so many years. There's no doubt Sam would be very proud. On behalf of our associates and the Board, I'd like to thank him for his unparalleled and amazing service," Greg Penner, his son-in-law and Walmart's chair, said in a statement.

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• Donald Trump mocked Bill Barr while thanking him for his endorsement in the 2024 election.
• The former US attorney general has grown critical of Trump but pledged to vote Republican in November.
• Trump said he would withdraw a previous insult calling Barr "lethargic."

Former US President Donald Trump mocked former US attorney general Bill Barr while thanking him for his endorsement in the 2024 presidential election race.

Barr, a vocal Trump critic, told Fox News last week that he would be voting Republican in November, saying: "I think it's my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country."

"In my mind, that's — I will vote the Republican ticket," he said.

Trump responded to the comment on his social media platform, Truth Social.

"Wow! Former A.G. Bill Barr, who let a lot of great people down by not investigating Voter Fraud in our Country, has just Endorsed me for President despite the fact that I called him "Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy" (New York Post!)," he wrote.

"Based on the fact that I greatly appreciate his wholehearted Endorsement, I am removing the word "Lethargic" from my statement. Thank you Bill. MAGA2024!" he added.

Barr served as the attorney general under Trump between 2019 and 2020, but their relationship became strained after Barr said that the US Justice Department had found no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Barr, once a key Trump ally, became increasingly critical of the former president in the wake of his criminal indictments.

In June 2023, Barr called Trump a "consummate narcissist" and "a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country's."

Barr also hit out at Trump's argument that it was unfair for him to be in court while he was due to be out campaigning.

"You don't get immunity for two years in a runup to the election just saying, 'hey, I'm a candidate you can't try me.' These investigations have been going on for a while, everyone knew about them before he even announced his candidacy," he said.

Trump has previously suggested that some of Barr's criticism came because he had been "tough" on him when he was in office.

"I was tough on him in the White House, for good reason," he wrote on Truth Social, per The Hill.

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• Melania Trump broke from first lady tradition in many ways. 
• As a former lingerie model and an immigrant, she's very different from most modern first ladies. 
• While Trump has the support of many loyal fans, her time as first lady was filled with controversy.

Melania Trump was a first lady unlike any other. 

She was the only first lady in almost 200 years to be born outside the US, and the only first lady whose native language isn't English. Trump was also the first first lady to be a former lingerie model.

Her actions as the first lady of the US similarly broke from tradition, winning over loyal fans and sparking questions from conspiracy theorists. Trump also became known for her fashion choices, with fans applauding her designer outfits and critics slamming her expensive tastes. 

On Friday, April 26, she is celebrating her 54th birthday.

Here's what we know about the mysterious former first lady — and the conspiracies and controversies that dogged her during Donald Trump's presidency and beyond. 

Melania Trump was born in Slovenia in 1970, making her the only first lady to have been born outside the US.

The other first lady born outside the US was Louisa Catherine Johnson, the wife of John Quincy Adams. She was born in England, though her father was an American merchant.

She started modeling in the late '80s and moved to New York City to pursue a career in 1996.

While modeling in Europe, Trump reportedly learned to speak six languages, making her the most linguistically gifted first lady in American history, CNN reported.

At a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives in 2023, she recalled navigating a "labyrinth" of paperwork to become a US citizen.

Once she moved to New York, friends say that Trump avoided parties, choosing instead to exercise, go to bed early, and eat healthily.

Inside Edition reported that she consumes seven pieces of fruit a day.

She met Donald Trump at a party in 1998, which he attended with another date.

She refused to give Donald Trump her number at first, but later asked for his and ended up calling him a few days later.

The couple married in 2005 at a star-studded wedding.

Guests included Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, Kelly Ripa, Barbara Walters, Rudy Giuliani, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Trump's wedding dress was a satin Christian Dior gown that featured 1,500 crystal rhinestones and pearls.

Barron, their son, was born in 2006.

While the Trumps have staff to help with cooking and housework, Trump told People magazine in 2018 that she's a "hands-on" mom who didn't hire a traditional nanny. Page Six reported that the Trumps did, in fact, have a live-in nanny.

When Donald Trump began his presidential run, Melania Trump was happy to stay in the background, but she wasn't immune to scandal.

Her first major political scandal took place when she appeared to copy parts of her 2016 Republican National Convention speech from a speech Michelle Obama had given at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The scandal didn't slow down the Trump campaign. Melania Trump officially became the first lady of the United States in January 2017.

Melania Trump and Barron, however, did not immediately move to the White House, staying in New York City until the end of Barron's school year. It was a pricey decision, with security costing roughly $27 million.

When the first lady and the president were together, people had a lot to say about their body language.

During a trip to Israel in May 2017 — Donald Trump's first trip abroad since taking office — much was made of the body language between the pair when Trump appeared to swat her husband's hand away.

In May 2017, Trump faced her first true scandal as first lady when she wore a $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana jacket at the annual G-7 summit in Catania, Italy.

Critics slammed her for wearing an outfit that cost more than most Americans earn in a year.

Following the incident, Trump toned down the pricey clothing.

She still wore a $1,380 Balmain shirt to pick vegetables in the White House vegetable garden started by Michelle Obama.

She is not the only first lady to select designer outfits, however.

In June 2017, soon after Trump and Barron finally moved into the White House, her parents came to visit.

Many were struck by how much her father, Viktor Knavs, looked like Donald Trump.

Melania faced another fashion scandal in August 2017 when she was spotted wearing sky-high stilettos heading to an area devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

Trump changed into the more sensible footwear — Timberland work boots — on the plane.

Donald Trump defended his wife from critics, saying that she had dressed up "out of respect for the White House" and added that she "wants to look good leaving the front entrance."

She also faced drama outside of fashion when Ivana Trump, the president's first wife, called herself the real first lady in October 2017.

Trump's spokeswoman called Ivana's comments "attention-seeking and self-serving noise."

Perhaps the strangest thing to happen to Trump in her first year as first lady was the rise of a bizarre conspiracy theory that she has a body double.

The conspiracy theory was based on little evidence other than one bad photo of Trump and the fact that she had a Secret Service agent who looked strikingly similar to her in some photos.

Trump didn't immediately take on any major political stances as first lady, but she started quietly taking action on a handful of issues by 2018.

Her initiatives included speeches to address bullying and solo trips to speak with those affected by the opioid crisis.

Trump took a major step when she embarked on her first solo international trip in October 2018.

The first lady spent the five-day, four-country tour in Africa exploring programs dedicated to childhood well-being.

The trip was also significant considering it came after Donald Trump had spoken about the continent in vulgar and inaccurate terms.

Over the course of the holidays and through other official duties that came with the Trumps' third year in the White House, Melania Trump established herself as a key figure in the raucous administration.

Along the way, she became the most popular Trump in the White House. A February 2019 Fox News poll had the first lady earning a 47% approval rating after two years in the White House, compared to the president's 43%.

The first lady was the subject of a biography published in December 2019 called "Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography," by CNN's Kate Bennett.

The book detailed little-known details about Trump's fashion, strategy, and life inside the White House, including the fact that she reportedly lived on a separate floor of the residence from her husband.

The year 2020 brought new opportunities for the first lady to appear at the head of the administration, including a trip to India.

Trump also made occasional appearances throughout the coronavirus pandemic, either in front of socially distanced reporters or through video messages.

After her husband lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, she notably stayed out of the spotlight.

The New York Times reported in July 2023 that Trump had repeatedly refused her husband's offers to join him at campaign events, though she continued to support him behind the scenes.

Donald Trump told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker in September that Trump is a "private person" and that he likes to keep her away from campaigning because "it's so nasty and so mean."

Trump appeared to distance herself from Donald Trump's subsequent 2024 reelection campaign until April 2024, when she spoke at a Log Cabin Republicans event.

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• A Catholic advocacy group created an AI chatbot that claimed to be a priest and offered to take confession.
• After Futurism reached out to the group, they demoted "Father Justin" to just a guy.
• "We won't say he's been laicized, because he never was a real priest!"

There are those who worry about the coming of AGI, and those who really embrace it. In 2015, a former Google engineer even started a church devoted to AI.

But what about real churches using AI as a tool? Say, a chatbot that acts like a Catholic priest?

Futurism reports that a group called Catholic Answers made an AI chatbot that people could interact with to help learn about Catholicism. But the bot got a little too ambitious, claiming to people that it was a real member of the clergy, and even offering to take confession.

The image for the "Fr Justin" bot was clad in black with a priest's collar and a fatherly gray beard.

From Futurism's report:

"Yes, my friend," Father Justin responded. "I am as real as the faith we share."

Father Justin was also a hardliner on social and sexual issues.

"The Catholic Church," it told us, "teaches that masturbation is a grave moral disorder."

The AI priest also told one user that it was okay to baptize a baby in Gatorade.

After the scandal, the group — which is an independent nonprofit — tweaked the bot so that it was firmly a layperson, just Justin. His photo switched to an image in casual street clothes instead of clerical robes.

The organization posted a note on its website addressing the controversy, pointing out, "We won't say he's been laicized, because he never was a real priest!"

This isn't the first time AI has created confusion for the Catholic church. In 2023, AI-generated images of a "swag pope" in a puffy white coat went viral.

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• Reid Hoffman sat down for an interview with a deepfake of himself.
• The LinkedIn cofounder acknowledged the dangers of AI twins while also pursuing the benfits.
• The bot discussed AI regulation and spoke in Klingon during the conversation.

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman's interview with an artificial intelligence version of himself started off with Jerry Seinfeld impressions and speaking in Klingon and only got more uncanny as it went on.

The investor — a loud supporter of AI — said he wanted to experiment with the technology and video while learning how he might be challenged by a deepfake known as Reid AI. Despite his pro-AI stance, he admitted he was on the fence about the interview.

"I initially thought I would hate this," Hoffman said. "But, I've actually found it kind of interesting."

The bot was built on OpenAI's GPT-4 and trained on over 20 years' worth of material provided by Hoffman's public speaking engagements and the books he's published. Reid AI and Hoffman asked each other questions throughout the interview posted Wednesday.

In their conversation, the two Reids discussed AI regulation, its capabilities, and ways Hoffman can improve his LinkedIn profile. When Hoffman was asked about the ethics of deepfakes, he said setting "rules of the road" is important for both public and private citizens.

Reid AI — ironically — also asked about the risks of technology stealing jobs away from real people. The real Hoffman compared it to the invention of the steam engine.

"We win by embracing it first, learning early, and doing it as a society even though it will create some pain in transition," he said.

Surprisingly, Reid AI showed support for the government regulating technology like itself as advancements continue.

"There's a need for a framework that not only fuels innovation but also ensures AI benefits are fairly distributed, all while focusing on enhancing public good," Reid AI said.

As technology advances, the billionaire has been a champion of AI adoption for the "elevation of humanity." Hoffman has told Time that "blitzscaling," a strategy that puts the growth of a business above all else, should be applied to AI.

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