Kennedy Scion and NYC It Boy Jack Schlossberg is having quite the new year. The Harvard Law grad, whose online antics earned him a spot covering politics for Vogue, has deleted all his social media after trolling a little too close to the sun. Will his words on a former Biden aide’s podcast come back to bite him?
Here’s everything you need to know, in this edition of TL;DR.
Give me the TL;DR.
Schlossberg got into it with Megyn Kelly over trans rights issues, arguing for basic respect and inclusion…but didn’t show any respect to the people he was arguing with, hypocritically making fun of Kelly’s gender expression and rhyming Daily Mail writer Maureen Callahan’s first name with a euphemism for vagina.
After facing backlash, he deleted all of his social media (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) on Thursday, February 6.
A few days later, on February 10, Jen Psaki released an episode of her podcast The Blueprint which features an interview Schlossberg. Though some fans thought he might address his absence from social on Psaki’s platform, the episode appears to have been recorded a couple weeks ago, well before his departure from the internet. He did, however, tease “another outlet” in the works.
Wait, I need more. Who is Jack Schlossberg?
He’s Caroline Kennedy’s son, making him JFK’s grandson. He’s very handsome but possibly unemployed. As the latest batch of Kennedys turns out to be dangerous at worst (RFK Jr.) or obnoxious at best (Kyra), his seeming composure, intelligence and level-headedness during a speech at the DNC offered some hope that not all political nepo babies might be so bad.
He sounded pretty smart reflecting on Harris’ loss here.
Buuuut he also liked to play the stinker online. In a podcast interview with former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recorded before he left the internet, but released after (“Why Are We So Cautious?”), on February 10, he addressed his quirky sense of humor.
“I don’t care if people don’t get it because I think it’s funny,” he said, referencing jokes about his family, his love life, and public figures, from Vice President JD Vance to Justin Baldoni. “I can’t help but laugh that people believe some things that are so stupid, or some things [that are] so easily corroborated—something you could so easily look up and find out that’s not true. But at the same time, it’s like, if we’re too scared to say something like that, then what happens when something that really matters happens? You have to be willing to take risks and speak your mind and live with the consequences, and be okay with not everybody understanding you.”
Online, it was sometimes hard to tell what was a bit and what wasn’t, like when he compared his grandmother’s (Jackie O) and Second Lady Usha Vance’s “hotness,” or when he said he would represent Justin Baldoni amid Baldoni’s legal battle with Blake Lively. On that, Schlossberg said, “isn’t this incredible? Our culture is obsessed with certain things and not others…so how do you inject yourself and shine a light on that in a way that is totally out of the box? So I was like, ‘why don’t I defend the guy that nobody likes, and everyone is gonna get mad at me.’” (Including Baldoni’s actual lawyer, who was unamused.)
But he seemed in it for the long haul, proclaiming his “instinct” for social media and boasting about his ability to, as it were, get the people going. During the episode, Schlossberg said he couldn’t imagine doing anything other than politics, and that for now, at least, all of his efforts would be focused on social media.
“I have an instinct for social media that I growing more and more confident in, and I really enjoy playing that game,” he told Psaki. “I think that that’s where people are needed right now. It’s hilarious to say that serving my country would mean posting online, but I really do now think that.”
He continued, “I really see a massive hole and I do not see anything getting better until that’s filled. This is very basic, but [rightwing media is] propaganda being used against people and I’m not gonna sit by and let that happen unanswered. That said, there’s a lot of ways to serve. I went to law school, I love politics, I wish I didn’t love politics but I do, I can’t help it. It’s, to me, the most interesting, fascinating thing, I can’t stop talking about it, I can sleep a lot of nights because I’m thinking about it. Whenever I go home, my parents and my sisters beg me to stop talking. So for better or worse I love it, and that’s never gonna change. I plan to stay very engaged and adapt with the times.”
What’s the scandal?
On February 3, Schlossberg popped onto a video and said, “Hey Megyn Kelly, it’s me, Jack Schlossberg…I’m just checking in, starting a dialogue, seeing if you’re okay…The two genders rule must be tough. None of us know which one you are. So let us know,” per the Daily Mail.
On February 5, Mail writer Maureen Callahan wrote an article essentially calling him a self-absorbed brat. The next day, he tweeted angrily about both Callahan and Kelly, calling the writer “Maureen Vajeen,” which the Mail is calling a “slur” (but I’m pretty sure it’s just a gross way to talk about a woman’s body?).
Later that day, he posted, “I’m sorry to everyone I hurt. I was wrong. I’m deleting all my social media. Forever. It’s been fun. Thanks anyways.” And made good on his promise. As of this writing, the boy is gone (or, let’s be real, is using a finsta).
A few days later, a citizen journalist found him in the wild (NYC) and reports that he is “going through it” but “okay.”
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What does the internet think?
People miss him! Slash maybe this is all a bit! Or a conservative psy op!
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Am I going to care about or remember this in two weeks?
Well, Schlossy doesn’t think so, telling Psaki, “People are saying, ‘you’re saying crazy stuff, people aren’t going to take you seriously. Why would you air out your stuff in broad daylight,’ I’m like, are you not looking at what’s going on on the other side? Apparently nobody cares. And that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make. Like yeah, you can make fun of me, [but I] don’t think you’re actually going to remember it in a week because something else is going to take your attention and you’re gonna forget, and I’m gonna do something else and then you’ll focus on that. And we’re all kind of evolving to understand that that’s how the media works and maybe we need different strategies to break through.”
So, will we forget about this latest dust-up? If he stays offline, yeah, prob.
However, in the final moments of the podcast with Psaki, Schlossberg pledged to continue posting on his own socials as well as “another outlet.”
The post Did Jack Schlossberg Delete His Instagram Over a Feud With the Daily Mail? appeared first on Glamour.
