Meet the MAHA Moms. Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, January 30. 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: Freddie deBoer dissents from the AI hype, Trump’s latest executive orders, a tragedy above the Potomac, and much more. But first, RFK’s grilling, MAHA moms, and the big fight over how to make Americans healthy again. . .

There have been a lot of “imagine explaining this to someone who just came out of a coma” moments of late. Mark Zuckerberg throwing a party with Miriam Adelson. Jeff Bezos visiting Mar-a-Lago. Trump doing the YMCA dance onstage with the surviving members of the Village People. But perhaps none more so than yesterday’s grilling of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Here was the pro-choice scion of Camelot and crusading legal campaigner explaining why he was the right man to oversee public health in President Donald Trump’s second administration. Even a year ago, this would have been a pretty far-fetched idea. On the campaign trail, Trump criticized RFK Jr. as a “radical left Democrat” and “more liberal than anyone running on the Democrat side.”

The battle—including the hearing itself—is a perfect encapsulation of the weirdness of American politics in 2025. On RFK’s side, and seated behind him: his wife and Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines as well as independent media star Megyn Kelly. Lined up against him: an unlikely coalition that stretches from Elizabeth Warren on the progressive left to Mike Pence on the religious right.

At one point, RFK Jr. gestured at the lawmakers asking the questions and said: “All these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues. They used to be my friends. They agreed with me on all the environmental issues I’ve been working on for my whole career.”

Now those Democratic senators oppose him because he is Trump’s pick, and also because they think, as Warren put it yesterday, he will have the power to “undercut vaccines and vaccine manufacturing across our country.” But RFK has opponents on the right too.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post have both urged senators to vote against his confirmation on the grounds of his “long record of anti-vaccine advocacy” (WSJ), and that he is “a deeply damaged serial womanizer who once had a brain worm, left a dead bear in Central Park, and hasn’t met a conspiracy theory he didn’t love” (the Post). National Review—bastion of establishment conservatism—published an editorial Wednesday arguing that “pro-lifers should vote no on RFK.” Possible Republican no votes include Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins—who both voted against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth last week—and Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor who has criticized “efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures.”

In other words, RFK’s nomination—and the rise of the movement he leads to “Make America Healthy Again”—is the political realignment in all its messiness. It’s also a test of the limits of the extraordinary coalition Trump has built.

As you may have noticed, we’re very interested in the MAHA story here at The Free Press. Newsroom views on RFK Jr. range from “quack” to “hero,” but on the importance of the MAHA story, we’re more or less singing from the same hymn sheet. Why? In part because the question of how Americans got so sick—and what should be done about it—is a very important one.

But also because the rise of MAHA gets at so many of the big-picture themes we see driving American life today: the twin crises of trust and trustworthiness; the clash between incumbents and outsiders; the ongoing question of whether we need reform or revolution.

Also: Do beef tallow fries actually taste good?

I hope to investigate that urgent question very soon. But until then, and while we await RFK Jr.’s fate, we have three MAHA-themed offerings for you today.

First, Olivia Reingold charts the rise of the “MAHA moms,” women who have been calling their legislators in recent days and saying “appoint RFK Jr. or face the wrath of moms across America.” Olivia compares this faction to the “soccer moms” of 30 years ago—independent-minded women who wanted the government to support education, get tough on crime, and improve healthcare—and who were credited for helping swing the election for Clinton.

“Just as those soccer moms worried about the fate and future of their children, so do the MAHA moms lining up behind Kennedy. You probably know one of them—they’re PTA members, nurses, and yogis. They’re also influencers with millions of followers, wellness entrepreneurs, and Silicon Valley titans. They’re the mothers of children with autism, allergies, and ADHD. Many are former Democrats, but they feel like their cause transcends party lines—shouldn’t everyone want clean water, fresh air, and healthy foods?”

Are they the most powerful force in American politics today? And can they help get Kennedy across the line in the Senate? Read Olivia’s report to find out.

Up next: Does MAHA have a class problem? Evan Barker thinks so. Barker is a Democrat fundraiser turned Trump supporter, and she agrees with a lot of what RFK and his acolytes say about public health. But she argues that too often, the MAHA movement forgets that working Americans don’t have the time or the money to shop at Whole Foods or, as one MAHA advocate recently suggested, quit a job that they find too stressful. It is working-class Americans whose health needs the most urgent attention—and MAHA risks alienating them. Read Evan’s op-ed: “When MAHA Forgets the Working Class.”

Last, we hear from doctors responding to Bari’s recent episode of Honestly who say that MAHA supporters get important facts wrong. Read their letters here.

Is AI Overhyped? Freddie deBoer Thinks So.

The most consequential story of the week, almost everyone agrees, is DeepSeek, the low-cost, high-performing AI model out of China that wiped a trillion dollars in U.S. stock market value on Monday. Economist Olivier Blanchard called the model “probably the largest positive tfp [total factor productivity] shock in the history of the world.” (That’s nerd-speak for “a big deal.”)

But what if this is all overblown? What if its underlying assumption—that AI is a revolutionary technology—is wrong? To present that alternative view, we give you Freddie deBoer. He argues that AI doesn’t pass the “shitting in the yard test.” Click here to find out what he means.

Emergency workers search for survivors amid airplane wreckage in the Potomac River. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

• An Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial aircraft as it was on its approach into Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., last night. The American Airlines flight was carrying 64 people from Wichita, Kansas, and downed in the Potomac by D.C. emergency services. There are multiple fatalities according to the AP. Emergency workers are battling freezing temperatures in a rescue operation on the river. There hasn’t been a fatal commercial airline crash in the U.S. since 2009.
  

• Trump said Wednesday that the start of his second term had “reportedly been the single most effective opening week of any presidency in history.” Readers will have their own views on that claim (settle it in the comments section, people), but Trump has undoubtedly been busy. As this Axios chart makes clear, he is issuing executive orders at a much faster rate than any other modern president.

• Among the most notable executive orders signed Wednesday: One that promises to “combat antisemitism vigorously” and notes “institutions may monitor for and report activities by alien students” and ensure that “such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.” In another executive order, Trump expanded school choice by instructing the Education Department to issue directives on using federal funding to support scholarship programs and vouchers.
  

• In arguably the first major flub of his second term, the Trump administration yesterday rescinded a memo that calls for a pause to trillions of dollars of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs. The Office of Management and Budget order issued Wednesday created confusion across government and was blocked by a federal judge.

• The Fed hit pause on interest rate cuts Wednesday, much to the president’s disapproval. Hours after Jay Powell announced that rates were holding steady, Trump complained that “If the Fed had spent less time on DEI, gender ideology, ‘green’ energy, and fake climate change, inflation would never have been a problem.” Not sure if that statement makes Trump an inflation hawk or dove?

• New national test scores show that American students’ reading skills are getting worse. Sixty-seven percent of eighth graders scored basic or above in reading in 2024, the lowest proportion since the test started in 1992. Part of the story here is Covid learning loss. But another is the hotly contested overhaul in how we teach kids to read.

• A slight wrinkle in the plan to buy Greenland: 85 percent of Greenlanders say they do not want their Arctic island to become part of America. Six percent said they were in favor and 9 percent were undecided. Maybe they really mean it. Or maybe Greenland’s 56,000 residents are just good negotiators. After all, everyone has a price.

• In a new Quinnipiac poll, 57 percent of voters say they disapprove of the Democrats, the highest disapproval rating for the party since the survey began asking this question in 2008. Respondents’ views on the Republican Party set the opposite record: 43 percent say they have a positive view of the GOP, the highest number on record.

In other news. . . OpenAI cried foul on DeepSeek. Germany’s right notched up a win on immigration. The Justice Department is reportedly considering dropping its case against New York mayor Eric Adams. A judge sentenced former senator Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison. And finally: Trump has officially established Task Force 250, a.k.a. the party-planning committee for America’s 250th birthday.