It’s Tuesday, February 18. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Tory leader Kemi Badenoch tells us ‘DOGE isn’t radical enough.’ The ‘brokenists’ go to Washington. Suzy Weiss says: Make comedians ugly again. And Rick Caruso tells Bari why he refuses to shake Jeffrey Katzenberg’s hand. But first: trouble in Europe.
It’s been a big week or so for Americans causing trouble in Europe.
First, Pete Hegseth told European defense ministers that they needed to handle their own security. Then J.D. Vance shocked an audience of the continent’s leaders, blasting them for turning their backs on free speech and political liberty (and dunking on Greta Thunberg for good measure). And finally: The Free Press threw a party in London (scroll down for pics).
A few of us crossed the pond to meet writers and readers, and to attend a conference focused on some of the most burning political questions of this uncertain moment (more on that in a second). But what struck me—and all of us—the most was a sense that we arrived at the exact moment that Europe woke up to the fact that Donald Trump is the president.
The precise moment of the wake-up call was Vance’s speech to the Munich Security Conference on Friday, in which he said that Europe’s “threats from within” are graver than those from Russia and China. “What I worry about is the threat from within—the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values that are shared with the United States of America,” he said. “For years, we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything—from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship—is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts canceling elections, and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.”
He shocked some and delighted others. Read Niall Ferguson’s take here.
It is worth reading Vance’s speech in full because it is the most articulate, concise explanation of the most dramatic policy change that Trump has ushered in during his first month in office. “Peace through strength” was a campaign slogan. Now it’s taking shape.
So far it means:
Tariffs or threats of them, including on our friends, like Canada.
Tough love—in public—for our allies, who the administration argues have strayed from Western values such as freedom of speech; have let their economies stagnate; and are overly dependent on America for their defense.
Demand an end to the war in Russia’s war in Ukraine, starting with a call to Putin and stopping with a “reasonable settlement.”
On this last point there is much debate—including inside the Free Press newsroom. But whether you think Trump’s push for a Ukraine peace deal amounts to a betrayal of a democratic ally (and a win for an imperialist aggressor) or the inevitable outcome of a stalemated war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of casualties, it is the latest indicator of a clear trend: Europe and America are drifting further apart.
This was the news hanging over the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) Conference, which drew 4,000 people, including a healthy sprinkling of friends and Free Pressers in the lineup: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Niall Ferguson, Rob Henderson, Douglas Murray, Konstantin Kisin, Melissa Chen, Rod Dreher, Winston Marshall, and others.
Also speaking was our editor in chief.
At a conference where there was a lot of (entirely understandable) complaining about the dangers to a free society from the left, Bari gave a speech about the threat to our values from the right. She argued that an ascendant right risks repeating the mistake made by the left in recent years: letting its radical fringe swallow the center.
“If a political movement does not police its ranks, if it neglects to protect its borders, if it does not defend its sacred values, it cannot long endure,” she warned.
Watch a short clip from that speech below, and stay tuned for the full text later today.
Kemi Badenoch: “I Don’t Think DOGE Is Radical Enough”
In an interview yesterday in London, Bari asked Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch about a number of hot-button issues. Among them: what she thought of J.D. Vance’s speech, whether the vibe shift has made it to the UK, whether she should do a deal with populist insurgent Nigel Farage, and much more.
Click here to read the full Q & A.
The “Brokenists” Go to Washington
On one thing, Trump’s critics and supporters of Trump’s approach to Europe so far agree: It is a radical departure from what came before. And that is true in many other areas, from public health to the FBI.
Trying to make sense of all this disruption over the past month—and there’s been a lot of it—I keep coming back to a pair of essays written by Tablet magazine editor Alana Newhouse in 2021 and 2022. In them she coined the term brokenism and argued that the most important divide in our politics today was between “status-quoists” who “are invested in the established institutions of American life” and “brokenists” who “feel that whole parts of America’s governing bodies have decayed past the point of usability.”
What struck me as an important idea back in 2022 now feels like it might be the essential thread that connects so much of the revolution underway in Washington.
Read my column on “The ‘Everything Is Broken’ Administration.”
Rick Caruso: “I Refused to Shake Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Hand”
When Rick Caruso ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, the world was a different place. Many quietly supported the billionaire real estate mogul—but were scared to come out publicly for the Boomer billionaire against Karen Bass (a black woman and career politician) who was backed by Barack Obama and celebrities like Shonda Rhimes and Ariana Grande.
But disaster has a way of clarifying things. And many—including the LA Times owner whose paper endorsed Bass—are expressing serious buyer’s remorse and wondering how different the situation would be had Caruso won.
Today on Honestly, Bari sits down for a frank conversation with Caruso. How frank? Read on for a taste.
Bari: Did any Hollywood celebrities tell you privately that they would vote for you for mayor in 2022, but felt like they couldn’t make a public endorsement?
Rick: Yeah. I won’t name names, but many people did at the time. I mean, it was politically incorrect if you were for me in some circles.
Bari: Do you think that that would be different if you ran today?
Rick: I think it would be different. I may be kidding myself, but I think it would be different. If I could call somebody out, you take a guy like Katzenberg, who led the charge against me and supported Karen and raised a lot of money and cast me as a really terrible human being.
Bari: And covered up Joe Biden’s mental state.
Rick: Exactly. The other day, I was at an event and he came up to me and tried to shake my hand and I said, “There’s no way I’ll ever shake your hand.” I think those kinds of people are dangerous in politics, and they should be held accountable for the things that they did.
Bari: Did you actually say that to him? “I won’t shake your hand.”
Rick: I would not shake his hand.
Bari: And how did he reply?
Rick: He just had this sort of stunned look on his face. But I think this is where core values and character matter. And if you want to oppose me, at least do it in a way that has a sense of honesty to it. But if you’re not going to be honest, I don’t want you in my world and I’m certainly not going to give you the benefit of a handshake, which is a gesture of friendship. There is no friendship there because he disrespected my family. And so unless he says he’s sorry publicly and that what he said was wrong publicly—at that point, I’ll forgive him because forgiveness is important. But until then, I won’t.
Listen to the whole episode here:
Make Comedians Ugly Again
The great and the good of the comedy world gathered over the weekend to celebrate fifty years of Saturday Night Live. The anniversary has “gotten more attention than V-E day,” says Suzy Weiss, who also identified a problem with the star-studded special: The comedians just looked too hot.
“Christopher Hitchens famously argued that women aren’t funny. Which is bad news for me—it’s sort of the only thing I got going,” writes Suzy. “But I’ll hang this tassel to his stake in the ground: Professionally funny people should not also be fashionable people.”
Read her full take on this troubling trend: “Comedians Should Not Be Hot.”
On Monday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis’s respiratory infection required further hospitalization due to a “complex clinical picture.” The 88-year-old pontiff was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday after developing a fever and bronchitis symptoms, and is in stable condition. In 1957, Francis had surgery to remove part of one lung due to a severe respiratory infection. Francis has been hospitalized four times over his pontificate, but has repeatedly said that he, unlike his predecessor, will not resign: “I believe the pope’s ministry is ad vitam, for life, and I therefore see no justification for giving it up.”
Just four weeks into Trump’s second term, his voters are splitting into two camps: MAGA die-hards thrilled at his swift reshaping of the federal government, and swing voters startled by the same, according to the Wall Street Journal. A poll found that a majority of Trump voters wanted “MAGA lite”—a less aggressive version of the Trump they voted for. One voter said, “He’s doing 80 miles an hour. I wouldn’t mind if he went around 55.” Other Trump supporters were thrilled: “I say he’s pretty much exceeded expectations, honestly. I did not expect him to be this quick in actually making these changes.”
President Trump’s DOGE fired up to 350 federal employees working in nuclear weapons programs—including workers who managed nuclear waste sites—only for those terminations to be rescinded a day later, according to the AP. Employees reported losing access to their emails and offices before even realizing they were fired. But who is actually running DOGE? Not Elon, says the White House.
Federal Aviation Administration employees were also purged. But bureaucrats and air traffic controllers weren’t the only ones to be fired: A group of terminated employees from the FAA’s National Defense Program (NDP) were actively working on an early warning radar system to protect Hawaii from incoming cruise missiles. Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, an employee in that defense group, said about DOGE, “I don’t think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.”
Meanwhile, a Delta plane carrying 80 passengers from Minneapolis crash landed at Toronto Pearson Airport, flipping upside down and injuring at least 18 people. Aviation experts speculated that the accident was caused by unusually severe crosswinds. All flights at the Toronto airport were shut down.
The Trump administration has pressured the Romanian government to lift travel restrictions on self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate as well his brother Tristan, both dual U.S. and UK nationals who have vocally supported the president. The brothers were arrested in Romania in 2022 and charged with human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and money laundering as well as starting an organized crime group. They’ve denied wrongdoing, but Andrew’s past statements—such as calling his sexually explicit webcam business a “total scam,” bragging about getting away with breaking a woman’s jaw in a bar fight, and saying he withheld a month’s wages from his “biggest earning girl” as punishment for drunkenly vomiting in his bed—certainly seem pretty damning. But who knows, maybe he’s just a good ol’ regular Joe like you or me. Maybe he was joking about beating and exploiting all those women. And who among us hasn’t moved to Eastern Europe to set up what I’m sure is a completely aboveboard pornography company?
Finally, a note from the party planning committee: It was so great to meet Free Pressers in London and gather the likes of Konstantin Kisin, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Julie Bindel, Michael Gove, Kathleen Stock, Ayishat Akanbi, Douglas Murray, Jacob Furedi, Freddie Sayers, Kate Andrews, Natasha Hausdorff, Tom Holland, Tomiwa Owolade, Charlotte Ivers, Neil Blair, Josh Glancy, Melissa Chen, and Winston Marshall all under one roof. The Free Press is eager to continue our bilateral relationship with the many brilliant writers, editors, historians, and commentators who live across the pond.
The Brits—at least the ones we met—are witty to a tee, very well-read, and they can drink any of us under the table. We’ll be nursing our hangovers until next time!
Thanks to Omer Barr, who came to document the party.
Consider the EU scold.
"You US are bad people for not continuing to pay for our security while we look down our nose at you because our relative effeminate peacefullness, and our cultural superiority that includes 30 hour work weeks, lots of paid time off, big government benefits and early retirement."
Bari asked a clear, direct question about the handshake. Caruso didn’t answer it. Talk about bullshit. But Bari didn’t call him out for it. How come?