
It’s Thursday, May 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: Is there a better way to help the people of Gaza? Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on the Biden health cover-up and the failure of the legacy press. Chuck Lane on the “big, beautiful bill.” And much more.
But first: DOGE goes Musk-less.
Will DOGE survive without Elon Musk?
That’s the question Free Press reporter Gabe Kaminsky seeks to answer in his latest dispatch. He spoke to DOGE staffers and Washington insiders to find out what’s next for Musk’s quasi-agency and its mission to cut government waste.
The White House says that DOGE’s work will continue while Musk tries to build rockets that don’t explode. On Wednesday night, Musk formally announced on X that his time in government was over, thanking President Donald Trump “for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending” and promising that DOGE “will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
But with Musk heaping scorn on the Republicans’ new budget bill—a major Trump priority—for spending too much and not codifying DOGE’s cuts, can the band of youthful misfits he brought into the government really make a difference? Or has the DOGE era ended as abruptly and chaotically as it began?
Read Gabe’s piece to find out. And while you’re at it, pair it with Joe Nocera’s sharp column on why DOGE fell short—and what it should have done differently.
—Will Rahn
Here’s Gabe’s story:
And here’s Joe’s column:
For years, Hamas has maintained its grip on power by controlling the flow of aid in Gaza. A new group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is trying to change that by making an end run around the UN and Hamas. Is it working? Madeleine Rowley investigates.
However bad you thought it was, it was worse. On the latest episode of Honestly, Bari talks to Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson about their new book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, how Biden and his aides misled the nation, and how the legacy press missed a scandal in plain sight. You can read an edited transcript of their conversation here, or listen below:
Rallying House Republicans to pass a version of his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) last week, Donald Trump instructed them, “Don’t fuck around with Medicaid.” The White House brandished polls explaining that reforms to the program are politically risky. In the end, though, the House could not avoid $700 billion in Medicaid reductions.
AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10 to 20 percent within five years, warns Dario Amodei, CEO of AI giant Anthropic. Amodei told Axios that companies and the government must stop “sugar-coating” the threat and prepare for mass disruption in tech, law, and finance. “Most [people] are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei said. “It sounds crazy.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday evening that the U.S. “will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” There are some 277,000 Chinese students in the U.S., according to Reuters, although that represents a significant decline from the 370,000 students that were in the country in 2019. Earlier this month, The Free Press republished a story from The Stanford Review detailing alleged Chinese espionage efforts at Stanford.
The U.S. Court of International Trade blocked Trump from imposing some of his more severe tariffs on imports from countries like China, Mexico, and Canada. The Justice Department says it will appeal the ruling, which stemmed from two lawsuits by businesses and state officials that challenged Trump’s legal authority to impose the tariffs. “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” said a White House spokesman, according to The New York Times.
While speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump delivered a fiery response when asked about Wall Street analysts reportedly coining the acronym TACO, for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” when it comes to tariff threats. Trump claimed not to have heard the phrase before launching into a defense of his up-and-down tariffs against China and the European Union. “Don’t ever say what you said,” Trump said. “That’s a nasty question.”
UK prosecutors have authorized 21 charges against right-wing influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, including rape, actual bodily harm, and human trafficking. The charges were approved in 2024 based on evidence from Bedfordshire Police, but extradition from Romania—where the brothers face separate charges—must be resolved first. Andrew faces 10 charges involving three alleged victims, while Tristan faces 11 involving one victim.
Private military contractor and Trump ally Erik Prince has been hired by the Haitian government to assist them in fighting back against criminal gangs that have seized vast swaths of the country. Prince’s team has been trying to use drones to hunt down and kill gang leaders, according to The New York Times, “but the authorities have yet to announce the death or capture of a single high-value target.”
After Trump accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of “playing with fire” and going “crazy” in the wake of his continued attacks on Ukraine, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev fired back: “I only know of one REALLY BAD thing—WWIII.” Read Konstantin Kisin on why American presidents continually misunderstand Putin and his motives.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to restart South Sudan deportations, which critics say is happening without due process. Administration officials argue it undermines executive authority and foreign policy. A judge previously halted the deportations, citing the country’s extreme violence.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the death of Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’s Gaza chief and brother of the slain October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar. He was targeted in a recent hospital strike in southern Gaza.
Top global forecasters say Earth is barreling toward several more years of record-breaking temperatures, with an 80 percent chance of setting a new annual temperature record by 2030. The forecasters say the world should expect stronger hurricanes, floods, droughts, and deadly heat waves.
I expect intelligent reporting from The Free Press, and one item here fails spectacularly. The Climate Alarmists have realized that just saying "expert" doesn't work any more, so now it is "top expert" or "top weather forecaster". And no, the rising temperatures over the past century have not created more violent weather by any measure. More expensive disasters, yes, but that is a function of inflation and increased wealth allowing more construction in vulnerable areas. But every study of hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, etc. shows no statistically significant trend (except for the southern Indian Ocean, where cyclonic events are trending downwards).
Thank you, Ken the poet for your effort at communication. As for your comment.
Bernie while a student at the University of Chicago spent his time in the southside ghettoes teaching and feeding the Southside community ghettoes of the early 1960s.. When he moved to northern Vermont.,they had Gentiles Only signs only from Battleboro to Newport. Vermont went from Mississippi North to Massachusetts and real democracy in my 77 years. Vermont was the REDDEST State in the Union and the most backward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrrOY0vwuPE
You are a brainwashed, brain addled pedant but I understand the power of propaganda. Thomas Woodrow Wilson was a National Socialist and Josef Goebbels credits Wilson's Committee on Public Information for the foundation of the third Reich.
https://www.history.com/articles/world-war-1-propaganda-woodrow-wilson-fake-news
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Goebbels