Bari here—good morning!
It’s Thursday, April 3. 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: Matti Friedman on the scandal roiling Israel. Debating pronouns with linguist John McWhorter on Honestly. And much more.
But first. . .
‘Liberation Day’ Ushers in the Most Drastic Tariffs in a Century
In an announcement from the Rose Garden, Donald Trump yesterday declared war on the global trading order. The tariffs, when you first looked at the big chart Trump held up, seemed nonsensical:
India: 26%
European Union: 20%
Japan: 24%
Vietnam: 46%
Sri Lanka: 44%
South Korea: 25%
Cambodia 49%
Taiwan: 32%
China: 34%
How did the White House come up with the rates? It seems by a crude formula: A given nation’s trade deficit with the U.S. divided by that nation’s exports to the U.S. Even harder to understand: Taiwan, which is a U.S. ally being threatened by China, now faces almost the same tariff rate as China.
What gives?
Free Press columnist Tyler Cowen minces no words about yesterday’s developments:
“This is perhaps the worst economic own goal I have seen in my lifetime. I cannot think of any credentialed economist colleague—Democrat, Republican, or independent—who would endorse it. And I haven’t even mentioned the risk that some foreign nations will retaliate against American exporters, damaging our economy all the more.”
Read Tyler: “Liberation Day Doesn’t Leave Us Any Freer.”
There’s a lot we don’t yet know about Trump’s tariffs. As Tyler notes, with this president, “high and persistent uncertainty” are “the basic rules of the game.” But Matt Yglesias explains there is one thing we can know for sure: They will lead to higher prices.
Is this really how to help working-class Americans?
Read Matt’s article: “Here Come the Tariffs. The Pain Will Arrive Soon.”
But some cheered yesterday’s news. Among them: Free Press columnist—and self-described MAGA Lefty—Batya Ungar-Sargon.
She believes that Trump’s economic policies are “giving the working class its best shot at the American Dream in 60 years.”
Rewind eight years and Batya would have been shocked to hear herself make that argument. “Initially, I had Trump Derangement Syndrome—and I had it bad. In 2016, I stopped going to my favorite local bar in Sheepshead Bay because everyone there had voted for Trump.”
Her shift over the past few years is a case study in the political realignment that’s arguably the biggest story of our age. It’s one of the reasons we appreciate hearing from her. (If you missed her viral moment recently on Real Time with Bill Maher, click here.)
Her inaugural piece as a Free Press columnist is all about how she learned to stop worrying and love the Donald.
Trump won, Batya writes today, “by convincing millions of Americans like me, who had never voted for a Republican president in our lives, that he would defend the dignity of the American working class, the backbone of this country.”
Read Batya’s debut column here: “I Used to Hate Trump. Now I’m a MAGA Lefty.”
For more about tariffs from The Free Press, including commentary from Niall Ferguson, Christopher Caldwell, and Larry Summers, click here.
And if you want to talk tariffs with us . . . join me and Tyler Cowen for a livestream Q+A only for paid members of The Free Press. Come to our website today at 4:30 p.m. ET to watch the conversation.
‘Qatargate’ Is Roiling Israel
Israelis are not having an easy time of late. Our Matti Friedman would know: He lives with his family in Jerusalem, where they are regularly sent running to the bomb shelter because of incoming ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis. And that’s to say nothing of the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, and with Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.
But even Israelis used to chaos from abroad have been shocked by the scandal: Multiple aides to Israel’s own prime minister, people operating in the most rarefied sanctuary of its leadership and state security, are accused of doing paid side jobs for Qatar, an enemy state.
“Qatari money is like fingerprints that appear when an ultraviolet light turns on,” writes Matti. “Few expected it to turn up in Israel itself.”
Read Matti Friedman:“Qatargate Roils a War-Weary Israel.”
And ICYMI, read Michael Oren on why you should never bet against Israel’s longest-serving prime minister: “How Does Bibi Survive?”
On Honestly: Debating Pronouns with John McWhorter
As well as being one of the greatest living experts on the English language, linguist John McWhorter is a truly independent thinker. He’s an outspoken critic of illiberal liberalism—his last book, Woke Racism, drove many on the left crazy. But now he’s published a book sure to rankle those on the other side of the political divide.
It’s called Pronoun Trouble. In it, he mounts a defense of they/them pronouns. Indeed, John doesn’t just think singular they/them pronouns are an acceptable choice—he says the wide adoption of they/them in the singular, instead of he/him or she/her, might be a good development. It’s a provocative argument, and one I had many, many questions about, so I invited John on Honestly. You can watch our conversation here, listen below, or follow our feed on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The clock is ticking for TikTok once again. The Chinese-owned social media app is legally required to sell itself to an American buyer by April 5 to avoid being shut down. The White House is reportedly trying to broker a deal that could bring in new investors, including the technology giant Oracle, the private equity group Blackstone, a firm called Zoop—whose leaders include the founder of the pornography site OnlyFans—and others. Yesterday, Amazon reportedly put in a bid as well. TikTok, for its part, says it’s not for sale because the Chinese government would block a deal.
Liberal judge Susan Crawford beat conservative Brad Schimel in Wisconsin’s closely watched Supreme Court race on Tuesday. Her victory—and she won handily, by ten points—was a political blow to Elon Musk, who spent $21 million backing Schimel in the race, campaigned for him in person while wearing a cheese hat, and controversially gave million-dollar checks to voters. Then, yesterday, a new poll showed Elon’s approval ratings at a new record low—below Trump’s 46 percent rating. NBC reported that the president told cabinet members last week that Musk will leave his role in the administration in the coming months, at the end of his 130-day stint as a special government employee—the maximum amount of time someone with that legal classification can be employed by the government.
A new report from The Wall Street Journal says that in late 2023, Trump’s lawyer Boris Epshteyn told an unnamed source that he had studied the law—and “believed Trump could find a way to run again in 2028.” The report comes just days after an NBC interview where the president said he “wasn’t joking” about seeking an unconstitutional third term.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard a case challenging South Carolina’s decision to bar patients from using Medicaid at Planned Parenthood for non–abortion related healthcare (the use of Medicaid for abortion is already banned at the federal level). The case may rest on a technical issue—conservative justices on the court expressed skepticism over the legal ability of Medicaid recipients to sue in order to pick their preferred healthcare provider.
Dale Ho, the judge overseeing the corruption case against Eric Adams, dismissed charges against the New York City mayor and ordered that they cannot be brought again—a blow to federal prosecutors who wanted to dismiss the case but retain the ability to potentially restore charges at a later time. In a scathing opinion, Ho wrote “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.” Ho added that his order “ensures that, going forward, the charges in the Indictment cannot be used as leverage over Mayor Adams or the City of New York.”
On Wednesday evening the Senate voted to block some Trump tariffs by rescinding the emergency powers he is using to implement tariffs on Canada. The measure passed 51–48 in the Senate but is all but certain to fail in the House.
An enormous springtime storm began yesterday, and forecasters say it could spawn damaging tornadoes and flash floods across the central U.S. Tornado watches were already active Wednesday across several states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois, delaying hundreds of flights and causing tens of thousands of power outages. To our readers in the heartland: Hunker down and stay safe out there.
I have been a huge supporter of the TFP and most of their contributors, especially as it relate to the push back on Woke culture and support of Isreal...but now that the Trump is in power and the Fox is loose in the Hen house, they need to protect their Mast head and hard work and not allow unqualified partisans like Batya who know nothing about economics or running a business to make grandiose statements with absolutely no data to support her views...it's nothing more then propaganda and has little to do with Journalism or truth seeking. As someone that has spent the last 40 years designing, importing, marketing and manufacturing products throughout the world, I can tell you without any hesitation that Trumps economic policies as it relates to Tarrifs and taxes will crater our supply chain and injure everyone other then the billionaires that will buy it all back for Penny's on the dollar. All this man cares about is money, the idea that he cares supports working people is beyond ubsurd...he's game show host looking for ratings and willing to say or do anything to get them.
Ungar-Sargon has a PhD in English literature. As a former lefty English major myself with a master's degree in it, I appreciate her research and writing skills to report on the mythical American Dream. She makes nice arguments fighting for the working class. With that said, I will leave the economics to the actual economists. While I believe her instincts on culture are correct, I don't plan on following her to understand the math.