It’s Monday, June 29. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Mene Ukueberuwa reveals what Americans really think about racial progress, DEI, and fairness in America. Rod Dreher bids Hungary farewell. Joshi Herrmann explains why Britain’s new prime minister may be even blander than its last. And much more.
But first: The triumph of anti-Israel Democrats.
On Friday evening, California state senator and Democratic congressional candidate Scott Wiener was on his way to a trans-led Pride Shabbat service in San Francisco—an event he’s attended for 22 years. On his way in, protesters surrounded him, screaming: “We fucking hate you.” “You do not belong here.” And: “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of shit.” Wiener is a Jewish gay man. He left the event, fearing that staying could endanger him or his staff.
One would struggle to honestly describe Wiener as an Israel supporter. He has accused the Jewish state of genocide in Gaza, and called for a ban on U.S. military aid to the country.
It’s a stark example of something increasingly difficult to deny on parts of the left: No matter who you are, how you identify, or what causes you’ve championed, if you don’t entirely fall in line with a hard-line anti-Israel stance, you risk being ostracized. And in Wiener’s case, it’s hard not to conclude that the fact he is Jewish is part of the reason he was targeted.
The incident is also the latest indicator of a democratic socialist wing of the party emboldened and aggressive in its efforts to bring the rest of the party to heel.
The confrontation in San Francisco came days after the triumph of three Zohran Mamdani– and DSA-endorsed democratic socialists, all staunchly anti-Israel, in congressional primaries in New York City. In the coming weeks, two more Democratic candidates, every bit as radical and anti-Israel, are running in primaries in Colorado on Tuesday and in Michigan on August 4. Congressional candidate Milat Kiros is five points ahead in Colorado. Abdul El-Sayed, running for Senate, is the current favorite in Michigan.
Take all this together and it feels like something that has been bubbling up for a while is suddenly spilling over.
How did we get to this explosive, unpredictable moment?
Commentary editor John Podhoretz answers that question for us this morning.
If you’ve wondered how it is that a progressive San Francisco lawmaker who has accused Israel of genocide could be harassed for being pro-Israel, or how a congressman in New York—still the most populous Jewish city on Earth—can get ousted for supporting Israel by Democratic Party voters, John’s essay will help you make sense of it all.
—The Editors
Last week, we launched The Honesty Project, a new series of opinion surveys from The Free Press, where we measure Americans’ private beliefs about the most important issues in public life. Our first installment featured questions related to the health of America’s civic life; this week, we’re tracking perceptions of fairness and equality, from race relations and DEI to whether, if you work hard and get ahead, you can make it in America. Click below for a detailed look into what Americans really think about one of our country’s fundamental promises, and read Mene Ukueberuwa’s analysis of what they reveal about our politics.
This spring, long-time Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán suffered a landslide defeat in the country’s elections. Hailed by the right as a conservative champion and autocrat, his loss was a blow to the MAGA universe, including the Trump administration, which had backed his reelection. Four years ago, Rod Dreher moved to the small European nation because he wanted a front-row seat for Orbán’s experiment in “illiberal democracy.” But after Orbán’s defeat, Rod is back in America. He explains why he moved home, what he learned in Hungary, and why both the left- and right-wing caricatures of the country miss the mark.
Britain is set to have yet another new prime minister—its sixth in 10 years—and it will almost certainly be Andy Burnham, who until recently was mayor of Manchester. So who is the man at the heart of the drama? And what does he actually believe? To answer those questions, we turned to Joshi Herrmann, who as the founder and editor of a Manchester news site, has followed Burnham closer than anyone.
Great Americans
Today’s great American is Stephen Sondheim, the man who reinvented the Broadway musical with shows that were psychologically complex, musically original and, more often than not, profound. And also, argues Scott Wheeler, funny. “Throughout his musicals,” Wheeler writes, “Sondheim used comedy to lay bare our ambivalence, rationalization, self-justification, and general cluelessness.”
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THE NEWS
The United States military launched air strikes at Iran on Saturday, after the Iranian military struck Bahrain and Kuwait. The exchange of fire comes at an especially fragile time, as the countries continue to try to negotiate a permanent peace deal.
An earthquake in Venezuela killed over 1,450 people this weekend. Rescue teams are still searching for missing people, and aid workers from across the globe are arriving to help.
The U.S. military officials said Sunday that they are still searching for a Marine who went missing off the coast of California. The Marine disappeared during a training exercise on Thursday, making him the second missing Marine in the past six weeks.
President Trump nominated Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to become the new ICE director on Saturday. Schroyer is an adviser to Markwayne Mullin, whom President Trump appointed as DHS secretary earlier this year.
Anthropic’s powerful new AI model Mythos is reportedly on track to become available again soon. The model has been offline for over two weeks, after the Trump administration deemed it a threat to national security. The two sides are said to be close to reaching a new deal.
Bill Maher received the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night. While Maher has been known to skip award shows, he appeared onstage last night alongside fellow comedy legends, including Louis C.K. and Jay Leno.
Why is Uncle Clarence meeting privately with Speaker Johnson?
Disgusted by the media reaction to Mamdani and his cronies. There is no place for such anti-Semitic rhetoric in our political process. Pretty soon all Jews will make Aliyah to Israel. It will be a dark day for America if my prediction comes to fruition.