The Free Press
It’s Wednesday, June 18. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Everything you need to know about Iran’s nuclear program; Garry Kasparov on why Israel sees the world as it is; Jay Solomon on the potentially “medieval” fight for Fordow; and more on the Iran war. Plus: Breaking History is back, Kat Rosenfield on “Materialists,” and much more.
But first: All eyes on Trump.
On Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump and his top advisers met in the Situation Room. A U.S. strike against Iran is on the table, officials said. And Trump’s social media posts showed no indication that the president was looking to de-escalate. “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” he said on Truth Social.
Has the president made up his mind? As Eli Lake reported on Monday, “Trump is the decider”—and he’s working with a very small team on perhaps the biggest foreign policy call of his presidency. But that hasn’t prevented furious fights outside the White House—on Capitol Hill and in MAGA World—over the question of whether the U.S. should intervene directly in the conflict. Those fights are the subject of our first two stories today.
In his latest report from Washington, Gabe Kaminsky lifts the curtain on the MAGA civil war over Iran. He talks to White House officials and some of the most powerful influencers in the MAGA ecosystem about the biggest divide on the right. Oh, and he gets a text from Tucker Carlson.
Peter Savodnik reports on the strange coalitions forming on the Hill because of the war. He talks to lawmakers attempting to block Trump from acting without congressional approval, and finds a group of progressive anti-Zionists, MAGA Republicans, and libertarians unified in their opposition to U.S. involvement.
—Oliver Wiseman
Tune In: Everything You Need to Know About Iran’s Nuclear Program
It’s hard to keep up with the onslaught of information coming out about the Iran war. That is doubly true of the details of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Israel has claimed that Iran was on the cusp of weaponization and has enough enriched uranium to produce nine bombs or more. Is that true? And if it is, how far has that program been set back? Most urgently, is it possible for Israel to destroy the nuclear weapons program on its own? Or will America have to get involved?
These are the kinds of questions physicist and nuclear weapons expert David Albright will be answering on a Free Press livestream later this morning. No one is more qualified to tackle these issues than David, a former IAEA inspector and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security. (Read more about him in this piece published by our friends at Tablet.)
Join Albright at 10:00 a.m. ET today with our own Eli Lake. Bring all your questions about Natanz, Fordow, B-2s, and more.
This livestream is available to paying subscribers only. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, click below to become one. You won’t want to miss it.
Israel has dealt Iran many blows—they’ve targeted military and nuclear facilities and taken out top commanders—but the biggest target by far still left untouched is the underground Fordow enrichment site, critical to Iran’s production of weapons-grade uranium. What will it require for Israel to destroy this facility? Jay Solomon reports.
With Israel having dealt a serious blow to its biggest enemy, Iran, Washington’s foreign policy intelligentsia is lining up to decry “escalation.” They have it wrong, says chess grandmaster and Russian dissident Garry Kasparov. In this op-ed, he explains why.
Can a woman resist a rich husband? That’s the question Materialists—which is being billed as the romance film of the summer—seeks to answer. After four waves of feminism, everyone’s too embarrassed to admit that it feels good to marry a wealthy man. Everyone, that is, except the makers of this film.
This Week on Breaking History: Buckley, Trump, and the Death of Conservative Civility
Over 40 years ago, William F. Buckley created the intellectual framework for the American conservative movement that fueled the Reagan revolution. But what happened to the Reaganite movement in Trump’s Republican Party? Has it been definitively left behind? On the latest episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake takes a deep dive into the rich life of Buckley, and looks at how today’s conservatives have both supplanted and emulated the movement that Buckley helped to build.
Donald Trump will extend the deadline after which TikTok will be banned in the United States unless it is sold by Chinese parent company ByteDance, the White House said in a statement Tuesday. The 90-day extension marks the third time the president has punted on taking down the popular social networking app. Read our editorial: “A TikTok Ban Is the Law of the Land. Time to Enforce It, Mr. President.”
On Tuesday, Jewish News Syndicate reported that the Pentagon’s chief Israel planner, Col. Nathan McCormack, has publicly bashed Israel as a “death cult,” rebuking “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies” and Washington for enabling Israel’s “bad behavior.” Later in the day, the Pentagon said McCormack “will no longer be on the joint staff while this matter is being investigated.”
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security said they would continue to conduct immigration raids in hotels, farms, and restaurants, reversing Trump’s suggestion that these facilities would be exempt from ICE searches. “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” said a DHS official.
Bernie Sanders gave Zohran Mamdani, the socialist New York City mayoral candidate, a much coveted progressive endorsement with less than a week left until election day. Mamdani has closely trailed former governor Andrew Cuomo in the polls, even as moderate voters and powerful editorial boards rally against him. In other mayoral news, another candidate, Brad Lander, was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court Tuesday.
Russian air assaults on Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities have intensified over the past few days, with a strike on the capital killing at least 10 people yesterday, including a U.S. citizen. Zelensky criticized foreign leaders who he says have failed to rebuke Russia. “It’s a disgrace when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it,” said the Ukrainian president.
Two oil tankers caught fire after colliding in the Gulf of Oman, 17 miles off the coast of the UAE. Officials reported that navigational systems were down, likely a product of ongoing military operations in Iran. A number of crude oil tankers have reported similar electronic interference in the region, disrupting a major global shipping lane.
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has requested a new execution date for Robert Roberson, who was convicted of the murder of his 2-year-old daughter in an alleged case of shaken baby syndrome and whose execution was delayed last year. The case remains highly controversial given new evidence that casts doubt on the validity of such diagnoses. Read The Free Press’s report on the case: “The Junk Science That Gets Parents Convicted of Murder.”
Chinese automakers led global sales of electric vehicles, surpassing American and European manufacturers including Tesla, Volkswagen, and BMW, according to new research. The surge comes as China focuses on bolstering its domestic supply chains—including the sophisticated chips required to manufacture electric vehicles.
Kraft Heinz announced that it will no longer use artificial food dyes in new U.S. products, and committed to removing them from existing American products by 2027. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has blamed food dyes for “poisoning our kids,” and hopes to eliminate six synthetic dyes from the food supply by the end of 2025.
MAGA goes to war with itself? What kind of headline is that? Your headline writer needs to be fired. The Make America Great Again campaign is alive, healthy, and strong as far as I can see. Your wishful thinking is exposed in a headline that if off base, a stretch at best.
“Israel claims” Iran is on the cusp of having a nuclear bomb….. how about the U.S, IAC and most of the civilized world making the same “claim?” Why do you think Iran built multiple sites and buried its largest bomb making facilities deep underground? Come on, man.