Why Gavin Newsom Will Never Be President. The Only Solution on Immigration. Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, June 12. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Kat Rosenfield on the rise and fall of the intimacy coordinator; how to power the AI revolution; is Europe better than America?; and much more.

But first: The uses and abuses of the immigration crisis.

Almost a week after anti-ICE demonstrations began in Los Angeles, protests have spread to other cities. There have been marches in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and other major cities. Meanwhile, the administration is ramping up the deportations that triggered the protests.

There are responsible and irresponsible ways to respond to such an explosive situation. Unfortunately, almost every politician involved seems set on exploiting the crisis for their own benefit—perhaps none more so than California governor Gavin Newsom. He’s used the crisis to try to fashion himself as the leader of the opposition—and as the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. It won’t work, argues Batya Ungar-Sargon in her latest Free Press column.

As for Donald Trump, he seems to know that he holds all the cards at the moment: He’s in a showdown with Democrats over law and order and immigration, two issues on which the public is largely on his side. And yet, he should compromise. That’s Charles Lane’s argument in his new Free Press column. Some kind of grand bargain is the only way to a resolution on the most combustible issue in American politics, and the president has the opportunity to do it on his terms.

Read Batya’s and Chuck’s essays on the politicians determined to raise the temperature—and the only way to lower it.

—Oliver Wiseman

Brian Wilson in 1968. (Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images)

• The U.S. has begun evacuating nonessential staff from embassies and military bases throughout the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran. The evacuations come amid ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the U.S. The IDF has also reportedly been on extremely high alert for the possibility of an imminent escalation with Iran.

• Trump announced a successful end to trade talks with China on Wednesday, saying that China will supply the U.S. with crucial rare earth minerals, while the U.S. will allow Chinese foreign students to attend U.S. colleges and universities. Further details of the deal, which was hammered out in London this week, remain unknown.

• The White House is preparing to ramp up its transfer of foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally to Guantanamo Bay, with citizens of countries including Britain, Italy, and Haiti set to be transferred to the prison complex. Officials said they would likely not inform those citizens’ home governments of their detention. Trump has previously said he plans to send almost 30,000 migrants to the base.

• David Hogg was officially ousted as vice chair of the DNC after launching a campaign to unseat “asleep-at-the-wheel” incumbent Democrats. A new election for two vice chair positions will be held.

• Year-on-year inflation was 2.4 percent in May, a lower number than many had feared given Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

• Elon Musk and Trump appear to have reconciled on X after last week’s fiery breakup. “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk posted. The president, who had previously said that Musk suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” seemed open to forgiving Musk, saying, “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”

• Disney and Universal sued the AI start-up Midjourney over its use of copyrighted images, the first such case of alleged copyright infringement by a generative AI company. Midjourney, an AI image-generating platform, is accused of creating images for users that “blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters.”

• The price of shares in Papa John’s surged Wednesday on the news that Apollo, a private equity firm, and Irth Capital, an investment fund backed by a member of the Qatari royal family, had made a bid for the pizza chain. For more on how Qatari capital has found its way into a staggering number of U.S. institutions, read the Free Press investigation: “How Qatar Bought America.”

• Brian Wilson, co-founder and front man of The Beach Boys, has died at the age of 82. Wilson toured and performed his hits about surfing, girls, and sunny California until 2022.