‘Top Chef’ host Padma Lakshmi celebrated the Fourth of July, creating her own fireworks with her special American flag pie. Lakshmi decorated her Independence Day pie with an American flag and the phrase “Close The Camps.” In another tweet, she urged people to “contact your representatives tomorrow and demand they #CloseTheCamps”, referencing the federal facilities that are holding undocumented migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

In March Lakshmi used her own immigration story to call out Trump on Noah Trevor’s ‘The Daily Show’.

“I’m an immigrant,” the award-winning India-born cookbook author told host Trevor Noah as they discussed her advocacy for immigrants as an ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Nations.

I really came here with my mother, much like these people at the border with hardly anything. What you have to understand is that, if a parent takes a child on a dangerous journey, puts them on their back, is willing to walk across deserts, that’s because the place they’re leaving is worse and more dangerous, and I just think we have plenty to share. And if you look at all the contributions that immigrants have made, you’re basically looking at what America is today, in whole, full stop.

AOC notes that four months later, everyone now refers to the Mexican border crisis as a ‘humanitarian crisis’. When Lakshmi spoke with Trevor Noah in March 2019, she said:

There’s no crisis. There’s no crisis. The only crisis is that we have a lunatic with a lot of power. That is the only crisis.

On Wednesday the 9th Circuit of Appeals voted 2-1 to deny a request from the Justice Department for an emergency stay of a lower court judge’s injunction blocking the Trump administration attempts to seize funds to build Trump’s wall by taking money from already in place to fund border projects in Arizona, New Mexico and California.

Megan Rapinoe, the captain of the US Soccer Women’s National Team, has said the team will not attend any White House celebrations honoring the women if the US wins the 2019 World Cup, as they are currently positioned to do.

Rapinoe responded to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, however, saying the team would be pleased to visit the people’s House of Representatives following the tournament — world champs or not.

The purple-haired, gay captain of the women’s team responded to Trump’s tweet about the team coming to the White House — if they are champs, of course, only if they are champs because Trump doesn’t like losers. Rapinoe set the ego-maniac Prez back on his haunches, saying "she’s “not going to the F…ing White House if we win.”

Trump quoted her for the whole world, with his series of presidential admonishments:

Trump truly doesn’t grasp how much we loathe him. LOL

Friday Match Set TV Viewership Record

Friday’s US team 2-1 quarter-final win over France was a close-call, with Rapinoe scoring both her team’s goals. The women play England in the semi-final Tuesday July 2 at 3pm.

Friday’s match set a record for the most-watched Women's World Cup quarterfinal match ever on U.S. English-language television. Drawing 6,12 million viewers for Friday’s match and peaking at 8.24 million, the game was the most-watched English-language soccer telecast since last year’s men’s World Cup final, writes ESPN. The match also averaged 211,000 viewers online, making it the most-streamed Women's World Cup game ever.

Rapinoe Loves Her Activism

Back to Trump and Rapinoe, the superstar told Jenny Vrentas of Sports Illustrated a month ago that a trip to the White House wasn’t on the team’s agenda.

“I am not going to fake it, hobnob with the president, who is clearly against so many of the things that I am [for] and so many of the things that I actually am,” Rapinoe said. “I have no interest in extending our platform to him.”

Think Progress points out the the video in which Rapinoe f-bombed the White House was made in January, but only got Trump’s attention now. Exhibiting the same aplomb as Nancy Pelosi, AOC swept in an scored her own goal, bringing the team to the house they belong in: The People’s House. Score AOC 1; Trump 0.

On a side note, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the 28 players in the US soccer team suing the organization, have tentatively agreed to pursue mediation once the sames are over, writes WSJ. The women’s team lawyers made it clear that if US Soccer didn’t agree to mediation voluntarily, they would ask the court to order them to mediation.

Just now the New York Times posted: Megan Rapinoe Is a Leader for Her Team, and Her Time