The Free Press
It’s Monday, November 11. 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: Who is the new MAGA coalition? Veterans Day reads, and Michael Shellenberger on California recovering its sanity. But first: Who will run America’s foreign policy as of January 20?
What version of Donald Trump will we get? Now that Trump has won a second term, we will soon find out the answer. (Some readers will be excited by that prospect; others will be watching from behind the couch.) In the coming days and weeks, we’ll bring you plenty of reporting and analysis on what Trump’s White House return will mean for the country and the world.
Today, with two hot wars gripping the planet—in Ukraine and the Middle East—we start with possibly the most important issue on Trump’s plate: foreign policy. And Free Press reporter Jay Solomon finds that a third war has now started—over who will run the State Department.
The stakes could not be higher. As they say in Washington, personnel is policy. And many of the names in contention have wildly differing views on America’s role in the world.
Californians Finally Get Serious on Crime
For years now, California has symbolized Democratic misgovernment. Over the past few years, the state has been a laboratory for progressive policies on drugs, homelessness, and crime. And the results have been disastrous. The number of homeless people in the state has risen by 50 percent over the last ten years. In the Bay Area, businesses have closed on the grounds of public safety, and a quarter of a million people fled the region between 2020 and 2022. Last week, Californians finally sent a message: enough.
Seventy percent of voters in the state—and every single county—backed Proposition 36, a measure undoing soft-on-crime measures brought in under 2014’s Prop 47. Among its changes: If you are caught stealing items worth under $950 three times, you will be charged with a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.
In Los Angeles, voters elected a Republican district attorney.
In Oakland, voters recalled their DA and mayor.
In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed lost her reelection bid to moderate Dan Lurie.
Michael Shellenberger, the author of San Fransicko who has himself run for governor of California, marks this sea change in an op-ed for The Free Press. “These are all very positive signs,” writes Michael of the move toward a safer state. But “the question is not why voters revolted against policies that made their lives and the lives of their less-fortunate neighbors so much worse—but rather why it took them so long.”
Read Michael Shellenberger: “Californians Finally Get Serious on Crime.”
Who Is the New MAGA Coalition?
As The Free Press’s social media editor, Lucy Biggers spends a lot of time scrolling. She says that makes her “chronically online”; I say that makes her good at her job. All those hours on X, Instagram, and TikTok meant Lucy had “a front-row seat to the MAGA ‘vibe shift.’ ” After Donald Trump was nearly assassinated and Joe Biden dropped out of the race, she saw dozens and dozens of videos of newly minted MAGA fans popping up on her feeds. And these first-time Trump voters were nothing like the old, angry, white Trumpers you hear about on cable news.
Watch “Who Is the New MAGA Coalition?” below, and read Lucy’s accompanying article here.
Scott Bessent is reportedly the early front-runner for the role of treasury secretary in the next administration. Bessent, who met with Trump on Friday, is a gay former George Soros executive and former Al Gore supporter who is relatively new on the MAGA scene. Trump calls him “one of the top analysts on Wall Street” and “a nice-looking guy, too.” Also under consideration: fellow investor John Paulson.
Elise Stefanik will be Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the UN. Announcing the pick, Trump described Stefanik as an “incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.” The number four Republican in the House has become a close Trump ally over the years, and made headlines last year with her questioning of Ivy League college leaders.
A FEMA official has been fired for instructing hurricane relief workers in Florida to avoid homes with Trump flags. You read that right: A government worker tried to deny support for families in the middle of a natural disaster because they had the wrong politics. Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has launched an investigation and has requested that FEMA Director Deanne Criswell testify before the House Oversight Committee.
Want a sense of how much work the Democrats have to do after losing this election? Look no further than a small fuss in the office of Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. As his party searched for answers to how it had lost its way, Moulton suggested Democrats had leaned too far into identity politics and promoting transgender issues. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” he told The New York Times. In response to the comments, one of Moulton’s top aides resigned—making Moulton’s point for him. For more on the role of transgender issues in this election, read Madeleine Kearns’ piece: “Democrats Picked the Wrong Women’s Rights Issue.”
Nancy Pelosi has blamed her party’s defeat on “Guns, God, and gays.” Also at fault: Biden’s late departure from the race, and opting for a coronation rather than a primary. This chart, from centrist Democratic pollsters Blueprint, offers a good rundown of the messages that hurt the party:
Qatar has agreed to a U.S. request for Hamas’s senior leadership to be kicked out of the country. The terror group’s officials have been living freely in the Qatari capital since October 7. Better late than never, I suppose. Qatar has also withdrawn from its role as a mediator in ceasefire talks.
Russia has assembled more than 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, ahead of a major offensive aimed at reclaiming Russian territory seized by Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. On Sunday, Ukraine attacked Moscow with at least 34 drones, the largest strike on the capital since the start of the war. Five people were injured.
President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to The Washington Post. Trump advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and expressed an interest in further conversations to discuss “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” according to people familiar with the call.
The final tally in the Senate will be 53–47 in the GOP’s favor, and now the question is: Who will replace Mitch McConnell as majority leader now that he is stepping down? On Sunday, Trump backer Elon Musk endorsed Florida’s Rick Scott for the role, a few weeks after Trump reportedly called Scott’s bid for the post “not serious.” (Scott has run an openly brash race in what is usually a more discreet process. He also appeared on Laura Loomer’s podcast a week before the election.) Meanwhile, Musk described candidate John Thune (R-SD), a top McConnell ally, as the preferred choice of Democrats. A third candidate, John Cornyn, was described by Tucker Carlson as an “angry liberal” on Saturday. (The long-standing Texas senator is not a liberal and has the endorsement of Republican senator Josh Hawley.) The election will be held Wednesday, and senators are likely grateful the ballot is held in secret.
Three Veterans Day Offerings
Happy Veterans Day. After a bruising election season, it’s important not to lose sight of what is eternally important to America: the people whose sacrifice keeps us safe and free.
Here are two rewarding reads and one interview with an extraordinary veteran to mark the occasion.
First, a piece that’s only one year old and already a classic. Joe Nocera was walking in his neighborhood in uptown Manhattan when he spied a small plaque in a park paying tribute to a 19-year-old soldier who died in World War II. That memorial sparked his curiosity—and his quest to learn that soldier’s journey. Read the result, a very American story of sacrifice: “The Tribute to a Little-Known Soldier.”
Second, in case you missed it, former Democratic operative Evan Barker, who voted for Trump last week, wrote about why in a Free Press piece that went viral over the weekend. An important part of Evan’s story is the death of her stepbrother Charles aboard the USS John S. McCain in 2017. Charles had worked as a janitor in the same office where Barack Obama served as a state senator in Illinois and Evan recalls writing to Obama about his death, hoping he might remember her brother and send a letter to his two children. The fact that didn’t happen is one reason Evan started to turn against her party, she writes: “I remember how striking the lack of empathy was from the people I worked with in Democratic politics.” Read her piece, “I Raised $50 Million for the Democrats. This Week, I Voted for Trump.”
And finally, if you want to read deeply on the life of an extraordinary veteran, I recommend an interview with 99-year-old Frank Cohn on the School of War podcast. Cohn fled Nazi Germany for America as a Jewish refugee in 1938. Then, he joined the army and became an intelligence agent hunting Nazis in Europe. Not only did he liberate a labor camp at the end of the war, he went on to serve in the military for thirty more years. Watch here or listen here to hear his full incredible story.
Oliver Wiseman is a writer and editor for The Free Press. Follow him on X @ollywiseman.
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I listened to the NYTimes podcast The Interview with Nancy Pelosi. It was absolutely stunning how this woman has no insight into why the Democrats lost the election. There was no introspection. Zero. She is clearly incapable of such. Her vitriol and external blaming will be counterproductive and it shows that her time has come to step aside and step down. Unfortunately she was just re-elected for another 2 years.
Mike Walz was selected by Trump to be his National Security Adviser.