It’s Tuesday, July 1. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Why a dead diplomat is the woman of the moment; understanding the ‘Trump Doctrine’; how Iranian missiles set back cancer research; and much more.
But first: the president’s remarkable winning streak.
Love him or loathe him, you have to admit: It’s good to be President Trump right now. His massive “Big Beautiful Bill” is careening through Congress and is set to land on his desk before July 4. NATO nations, after years of Trump’s prodding and threats, have finally agreed to spend more on defense; the alliance’s secretary-general is even going so far as to call him “daddy,” which Trump seems to enjoy even as it makes the rest of us uncomfortable. And his bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities did significant damage without a single American casualty.
The wins are piling up, both at home and abroad, from a little-noticed peace deal in Africa to the Supreme Court nixing the “nationwide injunctions" Trump kept tripping over. But Trump and his Republican allies should remember that there’s no such thing as a permanent victory in politics. They can coast along on the good news for now, but there are plenty of storm clouds on the horizon.
So how long can Trump’s good luck last? Read Matthew Continetti on his impressive string of recent accomplishments and the many pitfalls waiting for him on the other end.
—Will Rahn
Pamela Harriman was one of the most cunning operators of the 20th century—though most remember her for the powerful men she slept with. But behind her sultry veneer was a razor-sharp wit and a ruthless instinct for power. “Pamela’s sexual frolics were not the racy rumbles of a good-time girl who loved the high life,” writes Tina Brown. “It was war work, in which Pamela was something of a milky-skinned Madame X, learning U.S. intelligence from her lovers that she brought back to Churchill.”
Our social media editor Lucy Biggers was once smitten with charming socialist candidates. Now she’s sounding the alarm for young people who are thrilled about socialism but blissfully unaware of its costs. “Hopefully, these young New Yorkers don’t have to live through the downturn of New York City to learn the hard way that socialism never works,” Lucy writes. “Just spend time at the DMV and tell me if you want a government-run grocery store.”
On the third day of the Israel-Iran war, two ballistic missiles from Iran destroyed the campus of one of Israel’s top research facilities, the Weizmann Institute of Science, leveling buildings and causing between $300 and $500 million in damages. But how do you put a price on lost discoveries? The strike obliterated years of scientific progress—destroying not just data and equipment, but irreplaceable organic specimens, including human tissue that required meticulous preservation. “For scientists, this is what is truly valuable, because if it’s lost it can never be replaced,” one researcher from the facility said.
Is Trump an isolationist or an internationalist? He’s neither, argues Yoram Hazony, but rather a secret third thing: a nationalist. According to Hazony, the president’s foreign policy comes down to two ideas: America’s job is to protect its own interests—not police the world—and the only allies worth keeping are those who can become regional powers capable of defending themselves.
An 82-year-old Jewish woman wounded in the Boulder, Colorado, firebombing attack last month succumbed to her injuries yesterday. The man charged with the attack, who police say shouted pro-Palestinian slogans and threw Molotov cocktails at the woman and others involved in a show of support for Israelis being held hostage in Gaza, may now face the death penalty if convicted.
The Trump administration found yesterday that Harvard University’s failure to address antisemitism on campus violated civil rights law. In a letter to Harvard’s president, Alan M. Garber, officials from four government agencies said the university’s “commitment to racial hierarchies” had “enabled antisemitism to fester.”
The man suspected of setting a fire in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to lure and ambush firefighters was identified as a 20-year-old local named Wess Roley, authorities said Monday. Two firefighters were killed in the shooting attack, while another was left critically wounded. Roley’s body was later found at the scene; police believe he acted alone, and said he appeared to have committed suicide.
Jurors began deliberating yesterday in the trial of musician Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is accused of hosting coercive group sex parties known as “freak-offs.” The evidence presented by the prosecution includes 28 days of witness testimony, videos of alleged victims taking drugs and having sex, and years of text messages between Combs and his alleged victims.
Trump laid into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell yesterday in a strongly worded letter demanding he lower interest rates. Despite inflation sitting at a four-year low, Powell has resisted cutting rates due to projections of market disruptions caused by tariffs. "If you just look at the basic data and don't look at the forecast, you would say that we would've continued cutting," Powell said at a congressional hearing.
Customs revenue has now topped $100 billion under President Trump, according to a new Axios report. The overwhelming majority of these earnings—$81.5 billion—came from tariffs, the report said.
Trump will tour Florida’s controversial new ICE detention center, “Alligator Alcatraz,” today. The $450 million, 1000-bed facility is the largest of its kind and was funded by the Shelter and Services Program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which President Biden once drew on to house migrants in hotels.
A new Reuters report revealed Syria’s new Islamist government slaughtered 1,500 members of the Alawite minority in March following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. The report came on the heels of Trump’s decision yesterday to lift sanctions on Syria’s new government, an action that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said is intended to “promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace.” Watch our exclusive report on the Alawite massacres here.
Hubris from the swamp
I misread the headline - I thought it said how long will Trump’s winning STEAK last? I guess I’m hungry…