It’s Wednesday, April 30. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large.
Today is the 100th day of the president’s second term in office. If all goes according to plan, he has 1,361 days left.
A total of 143 executive orders! Eight “national emergencies”! DOGE and deportations! McDonald’s on Air Force One! Teslas on the South Lawn of the White House! The Gulf of America, the triumph of the plastic straw and, depending on who you ask, multiple constitutional crises.
In other words, there’s a lot to make sense of.
So for today we called up a handful of our friends and asked them what they thought. Among them: Bill Maher, Mike Pompeo, Victor Davis Hanson, Tyler Cowen, Jamie Reed, Coleman Hughes, Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, Christopher Rufo, Nellie Bowles, Derek Thompson, Jed Rubenfeld, and Kemi Badenoch.
Here’s a taste of what they think.
“Giddyup.” —Mike Pompeo
“A singular political talent.” —Reihan Salam
“Not a ‘constitutional crisis’ but political theater.” —Jed Rubenfeld
“Much-needed shock therapy.” —Chris Rufo
“No longer are food dyes something only whispered about between San Francisco moms.” —Nellie Bowles
“Shitshow.” —Bill Maher
As you can see, the responses were. . . wide-ranging.
—The Editors
No one would accuse Trump of a slow start to his second term. But how ambitious is the president’s project? Very, says historian Victor Davis Hanson. He writes that Trump has launched a counterrevolution that “surpasses the ambitious agendas of even the first three months of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal or Ronald Reagan’s efforts to unleash the American free market and win the Cold War.”
If the president has been busy, the First Lady has put in roughly an afternoon of work over the past three months. “And you know what? Good for her,” says Suzy Weiss. Read her latest column, on why Melania has earned the right to phone it in.
Not so long ago, Elon Musk claimed that cutting $1 trillion in spending would be a straightforward task. But as he steps back from his government role, DOGE’s own website touts just $160 billion in “estimated” savings. Now more and more Republicans say that the goal was only ever a pipe dream.
Earlier this week the best-selling author came by the newsroom to talk Israel, Ukraine, Trump, the right, the West and more. Some 5,000 paid subscribers joined us live and asked brilliant questions. In case you missed it, here's the video of our conversation.
Harvard has released a long-awaited report on antisemitism on campus. The publication of the report—and an accompanying report on anti-Muslim discrimination on campus—had been delayed for months without explanation. Last week, the Trump administration demanded to see a draft of the report.
The Chinese foreign ministry released a social media video Tuesday in which Beijing vowed to “never kneel down” to Washington. “History has proven compromise won’t earn you mercy—kneeling only invites more bullying,” the video said. “For China, for the world, we must rise and fight on.”
The White House slammed a “hostile and political act by Amazon” on Tuesday after a report alleged that the e-commerce giant planned to start including the price increases caused by tariffs on product prices. The company walked back the proposal after Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly and he did the right thing. He’s a good guy,” said Trump of Bezos later in the day.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday he is “proudly” ending a program to advance women’s participation in peace-building and security. It was signed into law by Trump in 2017, and touted as an example of his first administration’s record on “women’s economic empowerment.”
A new study estimates that exposure to phthalates—a chemical in common household plastics—contributes to 13 percent of all heart disease deaths in people between ages 55 and 64 each year.
Asked by a reporter who he’d like to replace Pope Francis, Trump said Tuesday: “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice.”
Tried to listen to entire podcast debate about 100 days with Batya and Brianna. But Batya's overbearing A ++ rating and grandstanding was too much. I'm very curious about different perspectives. But credibility was lost in her ranting and refusal to ancknowledge any areas of improvement needed with Trumps leadership. Also, please avoid phrases like "everybody can agree on ..." because its a short cut to making a point and not always true.
m ost of the "key" indicators were invented by our political class for self evaluation . The real indicators such as wealth inequality , homelessness, despair and despair crimes -not so good