It’s Monday, December 8. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: In defense of blowing stuff up. The EU opens a new front in its war on speech. D.C.’s contempt for the National Guard. Coleman Hughes talks to Reid Hoffman, the tech founder who didn’t make peace with Trump. And much more.
But first: Niall Ferguson on the outrage over Trump’s foreign policy priorities.
Upon entering office, every U.S. president issues a document called the National Security Strategy. The big-picture memo rarely generates much fuss outside the foreign policy blob.
But when Trump published his NSS late Thursday night last week, it prompted an almighty brouhaha—or stramash, “a good Old Scots word” used by Free Press columnist and our favorite Glaswegian Niall Ferguson to describe the reaction in his latest essay.
“Hostility [to Europe] is official White House policy,” declared The New York Times.
Europe is “seen by the administration as being on the colonial menu,” declared one think tanker in The Wall Street Journal.
The Yale historian Timothy D. Snyder said the document read like a Russian national security document.
The Economist said the 33-page report should cause America’s allies to “panic.”
In The Free Press today, Niall asks: What’s all the fuss about?
To find out, click the link below.
—Oliver Wiseman
The European Union fined X 120 million euros (about $140 million) on Friday for a series of alleged violations of the Digital Services Act, making the social media platform the first company to face a fine under the 2022 law. In our latest editorial, we explain why this alleged “violation of advertising rules” is really the latest effort by European officials to silence dissent.
The gerrymander wars are intensifying—and Texas is the bloodiest front. On Friday, the Supreme Court got involved in the high-stakes Texas fight, slapping an emergency stay on a lower court ruling that had struck down a map that would give Republicans five additional seats. Our legal columnist Jed Rubenfeld dives into the rights and wrongs of the case and asks: What will happen next in this high-stakes clash?
In the tech world, companies live and die by one rule: Move fast and break things. But for the legacy press, the price of that success is often uncomfortable. You might remember the outrage surrounding SpaceX’s test launches—now, those same outlets are ringing the alarms about Anduril testing its weapons to failure. Madeline Hart explains why controlled explosions are actually a good thing—especially when they guard against far worse on the battlefield. She says: Bring back the boom.
The command to “love thy neighbor as thyself” is a common theme of the Advent season, but it is one that has been in short supply in Washington, D.C., when it comes to the National Guard who have been deployed there since the summer, writes Mary Eberstadt. She reflects on how troops have been treated in the capital—both before and after the murder of U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, allegedly by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Live in New York: A Pub Conversation with Cardinal Dolan
Join us in NYC on December 17 at 7 p.m. for an exciting pub conversation between The Free Press’s Will Rahn and Archbishop of New York Timothy Cardinal Dolan on what religion meant to the Founders 250 years ago, the state of religious freedom in 2025, and whether America is on the verge of a great religious revival. There are only a few tickets remaining. Get them while you still can.
On Conversations with Coleman: The Tech Founder Who Didn’t Make Peace with Trump
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has been a key figure in Silicon Valley since the early 2000s. But Hoffman’s politics have not developed like many of his peers. While many in tech have trended MAGA, Hoffman remains a committed Democrat. More recently, after calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Hoffman has found himself a target of President Trump. Coleman sat down with Hoffman to talk about what it’s like to live under the constant anticipation of political retribution, the normalization of lawfare in the U.S., and the future of the technological revolution he helped usher in.
To listen to their conversation, click the play button below—or watch it on our site. And be sure to follow Conversations with Coleman wherever you get your podcasts.
Meta is driving economic growth and supporting local jobs nationwide with a $600 billion investment in American infrastructure.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the Pentagon’s decision to kill two survivors of a September boat strike in the Caribbean in public remarks over the weekend. Hegseth said he was told survivors “could still be in the fight” after the boat was initially struck and, according to the admiral who reportedly ordered the second strike, were on a list of military targets. Democrats are seeking the release of the video that shows the killing of the survivors.
A federal judge has blocked an attempt by federal prosecutors to use emails and computer data of an associate of former FBI director James Comey as evidence. The move is a blow to the Justice Department’s effort to reindict Comey after a previous indictment was thrown out by a judge last month.
The European Union has opened an antitrust investigation into Meta’s AI use, saying the platform is potentially “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors.” The investigation seeks to halt Meta’s AI platform’s implementation in WhatsApp, the global messaging platform. Last week, the EU fined X $140 million dollars for various violations.
Just days after pardoning him, President Trump has lashed out at Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar. In a Truth Social post, President Trump raged over Cuellar running for reelection as a Democrat. “Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like,” he said.
On Sunday night, President Trump took center stage at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington. While past presidents have often watched from special box seating, President Trump paid tribute to honorees including actor Sylvester Stallone and singer Gloria Gaynor.
I made my comments under Ferguson essay.
I would add that we need to get our house in order, tape Trump mouth shut,
Get rid of radical Islam
Get rid ofthe teachers union brainwashing our children
So much to do
So little time to do it.
Because I figure FP readers are interested in the ongoing saga of how the West Midlands Police doctored the advice, including citing a football match which never took place and falsely claiming to have consulted Jewish leaders over it. They are now having to apologise. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/maccabi-tel-aviv-aston-villa-hrsczhwq3 or https://archive.ph/oNXYY
And the exchange yesterday between Baroness Falkner and Trevor Phillips who both understand the Equality Act 2010 and its implications was fascinating, not the least about how certain liberals looked the other way when Sara Sharif was murdered and didn't question why she was wearing a hajib. Baroness Falkner who is Muslim fears any definition of Islamophobia could be weaponised by a small group of men, such as those responsible for grooming gang behaviour. https://youtu.be/oSqHbQubuxA