It’s Thursday, May 1. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Trump blames Biden for the economy. Harvard’s “disturbing” antisemitism report. Why Europe’s lights went out. Your letters to the editor. And much more.
But first: The case for escalating the trade war.
Whether you agree with President Donald Trump’s tariffs or not, it’s important to understand why many Americans who do business in China are fed up with how Beijing treats foreign competition. Some of the staunchest critics of tariffs that we publish in these pages, like Niall Ferguson, readily concede that we’ve never really had free trade with China because of how they openly flout the rules the rest of the developed world abides by.
We’ve covered tariffs a lot since Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement, and many of the smartest people we know and publish—like Niall and Tyler Cowen—believe that they’ll cause a great deal of unnecessary hardship. Yesterday’s news that the U.S. economy contracted during the first three months of 2025 is certainly an ominous sign.
But today we’re running a piece that argues that Trump hasn’t gone far enough—at least on the question of China. It’s by famed investor Kevin O’Leary, the Shark Tank co-host known ironically as “Mr. Wonderful” for his love of tough negotiations. O’Leary walks us through exactly what it’s like to do business in China, and the hurdles Beijing puts up to rig the game in their favor. And he has his own suggestions for how to fight back and finally level the playing field for American businesses. His advice? “Squeeze China even harder.”
Read O’Leary’s piece to understand why he and other American entrepreneurs feel that, when it comes to China, there’s a serious argument to be made for Trump’s trade war.
—Bari Weiss
On Monday, Spain’s power grid went dark. Trains lurched to a halt. Planes were stuck on the runway. Within hours, the Spanish government declared a national emergency. The crisis was entirely avoidable, writes Emmet Penney, and is a warning about the risks of relying on renewable energy.
Harvard’s long-delayed antisemitism report was published this week, and it paints a grim picture of life on campus for Jewish students. Our Maya Sulkin combed through the “disturbing” findings.
“The elites were a disaster,” writes Christopher Rufo in response to Tyler Cowen’s recent column defending intellectual elitism. Plus more letters to the editor from Free Press readers.
Donald Trump blamed Joe Biden for the shrinking U.S. economy. As stocks tumbled Wednesday, Trump said in a post on Truth Social, “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th.” He later added in response to reporters’ questions that “You could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden. We’re turning it around.”
J.D. Vance said that Trump has plans to “juice the economy” with the “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill on Capitol Hill. Speaking to Fox News at the administration’s 100-day mark, he said the next 100 days will require Congress to “step up to the plate.”
Ukraine and the U.S. have signed the long-awaited minerals deal. The agreement—the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund—was supposed to be signed months ago, but then the disastrous Oval Office meeting between Zelensky, Trump, and Vance meant a White House signing ceremony never happened.
More than 160 crews are battling wildfires in the Jerusalem hills in what officials say could be Israel’s largest ever. According to a Wednesday night estimate, 2,900 acres of land have been burned in the blaze so far.
A Vermont judge ordered the release of Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi from custody on Wednesday. Mahdawi, who is from the West Bank, is a legal U.S. resident and was arrested at a naturalization interview last month.
The Trump Organization signed a new real estate and golf course development deal in the Middle East with support from a Qatari government-owned firm. Eric Trump, speaking from the region, announced that properties could be purchased with cryptocurrency.
Pakistan says it has “credible intelligence” that India will launch a military action against it in the next “24 to 36 hours.” The announcement came after days of tension between the two nuclear-armed rivals following an attack by Islamist militants in the disputed territory of Kashmir. Pakistan denies any involvement in the attack, while India says it has identified at least two of the assailants as Pakistani nationals.
Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is accusing CBS of using “selective editing” to create a “false narrative” that his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, improperly interrupted an interview that aired on Sunday. Hudson said, “We’re not talking about this” after a network host asked Belichick, who is promoting a new book, how he met Hudson, who is 49 years younger than him.
Ah, good to know Trump is turning America's decline around by making a golf course deal with a Qatari firm. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I'm just glad he has his priorities straight--America first!!
Before succumbing to the alarmism about the recent GDP figure, it's important to discuss the fact that after calculating the actual domestic production, etc., the costs of imports must then be subtracted. The April 2 tariff announcement unsurprisingly triggered a sudden, massive spending splurge on imported goods and materials to fill up our stockrooms - like another nationwide toilet paper hoarding splurge - before the dreaded tariffs hit. That sudden jump in spending is what drove the GDP into a negative territory. It's wrong to use this number to make any claim that the economy is in a downward slide. Future analyses will have to put an asterisk beside this one-time statistic.