The Free Press
It’s Thursday, March 20. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Ross Douthat, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Michael Shermer, and Adam Carolla debate religion; Peter Savodnik on what our JFK obsession says about us; Rupa Subramanya talks to Canadians contemplating war with the United States; and much more.
But first: The ladies who love Luigi Mangione.
Luigi Mangione, the photogenic 26-year-old accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was supposed to be back in court this week, but his next hearing has been delayed until April 18. The docket doesn’t say why.
Earlier this week, Mangione’s lawyer alleged that police unlawfully gave Mangione a snack as a way of capturing DNA that prosecutors say links him to the scene of Thompson’s murder. They also say that police violated Luigi’s rights by rifling through his belongings and telling the public they had found a “manifesto.”
These procedural arguments suggest a legal team determined to fight tooth and nail for a not guilty verdict. But the disturbing thing about Mangione’s case is that some of the defendant’s most enthusiastic supporters don’t think he’s innocent. They think he did it—and that’s why they love him.
That’s what Free Press reporter Olivia Reingold learned from her dive into the strange world of Mangione fandom.
“Not everyone in this community supports him because they think he’s innocent. It’s because they think he did it, and I’m one of those people,” one Luigi supporter told Olivia.
Olivia speaks to many other members of Luigi’s (overwhelmingly female) army of progressive supporters, and infiltrates their private Discord server, where they plan future protests in Mangione’s defense, discuss the logistics of sending mail to the accused assassin, and raise thousands for his legal defense.
What she finds is a mix of psychosexual desire and political radicalization.
Read Olivia’s full report on the Mangione fangirls who say they find “hope” in the man suspected of murder: “Inside the Cult of Luigi Mangione.”
Luigi Mangione—and his cult following—is a strange tale. But he is only the latest in a long line of rich kids accused of committing what appears to be an act of political violence. In the latest episode of the Breaking History podcast, Eli Lake examines the history of bourgeois radicals, zooming in on the story of Ulrike Meinhof, a museum curator’s daughter who started West Germany’s infamous Red Army Faction.
Listen to Eli’s latest episode below, and follow Breaking History on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And read Eli’s accompanying essay, “Luigi Mangione and the History of Bourgeois Terrorism.”
Canadians Fear Annexation, Possible War, with United States
When I first heard Trump say that Canada should be the 51st state, I assumed it was a joke. Apparently, it isn’t. Or, at least, some Canadians appear to take it seriously.
Today in The Free Press, our woman north of the border, Rupa Subramanya, reports on how Canadians are readying themselves for a fight with America over the future—and the possible independence—of their country.
Many Canadians think Trump’s expansionary rhetoric and the escalating trade war are just the beginning. “Some,” Rupa writes, “are even imagining the once-unthinkable: full-blown war against the U.S.”
Read Rupa’s report: “These Canadians Are Ready to Go to War with America.”
Do People Want to Believe They’re Being Lied To?
On Tuesday, Trump made good on a campaign promise and released more than 60,000 pages of government documents relating to the assassination of JFK. Christmas may have come early for conspiracy theorists and JFK obsessives, but what are the chances we actually learn anything important about the killing from this document dump?
Not high, says Peter Savodnik—who wrote a book about Kennedy killer Lee Harvey Oswald’s time in the Soviet Union. Instead, he argues, we’re more likely to learn something about ourselves, and how conspiratorial thinking went from the fringe to the mainstream.
Read Peter’s full op-ed on the JFK papers: “What the JFK Files Reveal.”
John Lennon sang Imagine there’s no heaven. . . . and no religion too in 1971. In the decades that followed, many people in the West did exactly that. In 1972, 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian. By 2022, that number had dropped to 64 percent, while the religiously unaffiliated jumped from 5 percent to 30 percent. But now, things are changing. Christian identification is ticking up again, and as Peter Savodnik wrote in an essay last year, even the intellectuals have found God.
A religious revival may be underway in the West. But do we need one? That was the question discussed at our most recent live debate. In a theater in Austin, Texas, Ross Douthat, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Michael Shermer, and Adam Carolla duked it out over religion and faith, and whether we need either. And now you can listen to the event in podcast form on Honestly.
Hit the play button below, or catch the episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Paying subscribers can watch the video on our website. And if you’re not a paying subscriber, you can fix that here.
Officials at the Federal Reserve left interest rates untouched as they predicted higher inflation and slower economic growth. Jerome Powell, chair of the Fed, projected that interest rates would be lowered twice later this year as he predicted that the economy would grow by only 1.7 percent instead of the original expectation of 2.1 percent. Powell said that further progress fighting inflation might be delayed thanks to tariffs.
On a phone call with Trump, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky agreed to a limited ceasefire deal also agreed to by Russia. It was their first conversation since the Oval Office dressing-down last month. The terms include a mutual halt on strikes on energy infrastructure in Ukraine and Russia. The agreement is far less extensive than the full ceasefire that U.S. and Ukrainian officials agreed to last week. Putin, however, refused to accept a full halt to hostilities when he spoke to Trump on Tuesday. Diplomats—including Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz—will soon be dispatched to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to expand the ceasefire into a more permanent one.
The Trump administration froze $175 million in taxpayer money to the University of Pennsylvania in response to the Ivy League university’s continuing to allow trans athletes to compete in women’s sports—in defiance of Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. The sum accounts for nearly one-fifth of the university’s federal funding. A university official said that “We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions.”
Israel sent ground troops into Gaza yesterday following a wave of strikes on Monday that targeted political leaders and military infrastructure. The Israeli reentry formed part of an effort to push back against gains made by Hamas during the two-month ceasefire. Yaron Buskila, an Israeli military leader, explained the tactical strategy: “We need more pressure levers. Once we go back to negotiate we will have a card.”
Famed attorney David Boies is expected to file a wrongful death suit against Boeing on behalf of whistleblower John Barnett. Barnett died by suicide after testifying against Boeing during investigations into the company’s violations of its policies and procedures amid concerns over the safety of its aircraft. Boies and his firm plan to accuse the aerospace giant of creating a workplace environment that led directly to Barnett’s suicide. One lawyer working with Boies stated that “while Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, the company is legally responsible for his death.” Read Joe Nocera’s report about Boeing and Barnett from March 2024: “Boeing’s Dead Whistleblower Spoke the Truth.”
The Canadian left is loony.
Mr. Mangione will be very popular in prison among his fellow inmates.
You (and he) can take that however you would like.