Bari here—good morning!
It’s Wednesday, April 2. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today, Matti Friedman writes from Jerusalem on Israel’s threats from within. Attorney General Pam Bondi seeks the death penalty for Luigi Mangione—and Olivia Reingold reports. A Wall Street guy ditches retirement to protest Trump. The White House’s battle against the cartels. And much more.
But first. . . the war for the political right.
When historians look back to tell the story of the MAGA revolution, where will they begin? The obvious moment is when Trump descended that golden escalator and declared he would seek the presidency.
But that’s not the real beginning—at least according to Free Press columnist Matthew Continetti. He was there, among the nerdy intellectuals whose names would still be obscure to many of us, as they articulated the ideas that Trump would take up—and use to fundamentally transform the GOP.
Their ideas—of economic protectionism, immigration restrictionism, and nationalism—have not just challenged the traditional conservatism movement and Republican Party. They have fully replaced it.
As Matt writes:
What began as a rebellion against mainstream conservatism is now orthodoxy. The pre-Trump GOP is gone. Its standard-bearers are retired or dead. The “Never Trump” faction left the Republican Party. Conservative institutions, such as CPAC, ISI, and the Heritage Foundation, promote tariff policies they would have once rejected. The New Right built its own professional ecosystem. Its recruits staff the second Trump administration.
Adherents to free markets, limited government, and interventionist foreign policy still exist. But they’ve gone from positions of authority to junior partners in the Trump coalition. Not only must they compete for influence with New Right nationalists, they must also contend with Silicon Valley tech bros, Kennedy assassination conspiracists, manosphere influencers, and MAHA moms. The Trump mansion has many rooms—each more crowded than the last.
The MAGA coalition is capacious and cacophonous. But what exactly does it stand for? As Matt writes: “The intellectual foundation of the new conservatism remains contested.”
We’ve covered many of the fault lines of this war for the right in these pages. On Ukraine. On Iran. On deportations. On trade. On health. And more.
No one is better situated to map these—and where the MAGA movement might go next—than Matt, whose book The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, is already a classic. It’s why he’s a Free Press columnist, and it’s why his latest column is a must-read.
Here’s Matt on the state of the New Right—and what its rocky future might look like: “What I Saw at the MAGA Revolution.”
ICYMI: Our Exclusive Interview with the Family of a Murdered Gaza Protester
Hours after he publicly denounced Hamas in a coffee shop, 22-year-old Uday al-Rabbay’s body was found mutilated, with a note pinned to his clothes: “This is the price for all who criticize Hamas.” Yesterday, The Free Press spoke exclusively to Uday’s family. Watch that interview by pressing play below. (Warning: It contains graphic and disturbing images.) And click here to read Tanya Lukyanova’s accompanying news story.
Money Pours in for Luigi Mangione After News of Death Penalty
On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice is seeking the death penalty in the case of Luigi Mangione, who is charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street last December. The news triggered outrage and dismay amid the accused killer’s supporters in the “Free Luigi” movement. That’s the rather creepy, mostly female subculture that doesn’t insist on Mangione’s innocence, but venerates him for the crime he is accused of. The Free Press’s Olivia Reingold reported from “Inside the Cult of Luigi Mangione” last month. And now she has an update on how his fans reacted to yesterday’s news.
Read Olivia on “Luigi Mangione Fans ‘Coming in Hot’ After News of Death Penalty.”
Death Comes for the Cartels?
The State Department recently designated eight drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The move was presented as a major escalation in the administration’s fight to take on transnational criminals. But what does it actually change? Free Press reporter Madeleine Rowley investigates how the administration plans to use the new powers that come with the designation, including the ability for prosecutors to seek the death penalty for cartel members.
Read Madeleine’s story: “Will Cartel Members Now Face Execution?”
Meet the Ex–Wall Street Honcho Who Protests Trump Every Day
Evan Newmark doesn’t fit the profile of your average anti-Trump agitator. In fact, until three weeks ago, he was a retired Goldman Sachs executive who had never taken part in a protest in his life. As for his politics, he calls himself “a Ronald Reagan, Stars and Stripes, ‘shining city on a hill’ guy.” But ever since President Trump’s Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian president Zelensky, Newmark has staged a one-man demonstration every day outside the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Manhattan.
We were curious: How did Newmark go from a retired, 60-year-old Wall Street banker to a guy yelling “Trump is a Putin stooge!” outside a live taping of The Kelly Clarkson Show? So we asked him to explain his metamorphosis himself.
Read Evan Newmark: “I Used to Be a Complacent Wall Street Guy. Now I’m an Anti-Trump Protester.”
And hit play below to see Evan pound the pavement and get his message out:
Watch: Jay Bhattacharya on Honestly
As we told you yesterday, Jay Bhattacharya gave his first interview as director of the National Institutes of Health to The Free Press, appearing on Honestly to explain, among other things, why he thinks a pardon for Anthony Fauci was a good idea, and how he’ll navigate RFK Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Watch the episode, or read an edited version of our conversation here.
Book Now for Our Next Live Debate
We’re heading to San Francisco on May 15 for our next live debate.
The subject is artificial intelligence and its impact on our understanding of the world. We have a fantastic lineup of debaters, including Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas, Fei-Fei Li, Jaron Lanier, and Nicholas Carr. We’ll also have a fantastic comic opener to be announced very soon, and yours truly will moderate.
Please get your tickets here. We have a very limited number of VIP tickets, which will give you access to the after-party. I can’t wait to see you there.
We’re proud to partner with FIRE to present this debate. Our events sell out fast, so grab your tickets today to avoid disappointment.
Donald Trump is set to unveil a package of sweeping tariffs today, which he has labeled “Liberation Day.” On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the measures would be effective immediately after Trump’s announcement. On Monday evening, Trump said his plans were “settled,” without revealing exactly what those plans were.
European Union officials are weighing retaliatory tariffs targeting U.S. tech firms—including Apple, Google, and Meta. Digital services would be hit with European tariffs, after the EU said that “the goal posts have been shifted by the Americans.” Meanwhile, Meta is bracing for a $1 billion antitrust fine from the EU, and has been making appeals to the Trump administration—which has called overseas tech regulation “burdensome and restrictive”—for help.
China launched military exercises around Taiwan, days after Taiwan’s president referred to China as a “foreign hostile force.” Warships and fighter jets circled the country, with Chinese military officials saying that its forces were practicing for “seizure of overall control, strikes on sea and land targets, and the blockade and control of key areas and lanes” in response to Taiwan’s “provocations.”
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz—co-founded by prominent Trump backer Marc Andreessen (catch my interview with him on Honestly)—is in talks to join a group that could buy out TikTok’s Chinese owners, according to the Financial Times. The bid, led by software giant Oracle, is the front-runner offer ahead of a deadline of April 5, after which a federal law means the app is banned in the United States unless its parent company ByteDance sells.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) broke the record for the longest speech on the Senate floor yesterday when his attack on Donald Trump’s policies passed Strom Thurmond’s record of 24 hours and 18 minutes, set in 1957. The senator, who took the floor at 6:59 p.m. Monday night, said he planned to speak “for as long as I am physically able.” Booker said: “These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such.” At 7:18 p.m. Tuesday evening, he surpassed Thurmond’s record, and at 8:05 p.m. Booker yielded the floor, having added 48 minutes to the record.
A three-year-old girl found an amulet dating back nearly 4,000 years while hiking in Israel. It was identified as belonging to the Canaanites, an ancient tribe of people in the Levant frequently referenced throughout the Bible. The amulet was found in the same region where David is thought to have battled Goliath.
Your wildest read today (outside of The Free Press, of course) comes courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. They profile Iyad ag Ghali. He was once a whiskey-loving rock musician whose band played with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and U2’s Bono. Now he’s the leader of the most feared al-Qaeda group in West Africa. Yes, really. Read it here.
Ah, for that halcyon era in Philadelphia when all was sweetness, and harmony...🙄 Thank God for a return to the freedom to argue and debate without an undue care for real democracy’s messiness. MAMA❣️😎🤪
Bari, disappointed to see Cowen and Yglesias write their establishment analysis here. Why? Just to portray some perceived sense of balance in views?