The Free Press
It’s Tuesday, April 8. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large.
Before we get into it, a quick announcement: Join Bari, Lloyd Blankfein—the former CEO of Goldman Sachs—and Dennis Berman, the president and publisher of The Free Press—today at 11 a.m. ET at TheFP.com for a live conversation about tariffs, trade, and Trump’s economy. Bring your questions.
This is open to all paid subscribers of The Free Press. If you aren’t yet an official subscriber, sign up here:
Okay, there’s a ton of news. So let’s get into it. . .
Trump Isn’t the First President to Blow Up the Trading System
Watching the market carnage and global freakout that has followed Trump’s big tariff announcement—Monday brought wild volatility on Wall Street as well as a threat from Trump of a further 50 percent tariff on China—it can feel like we’re living through unprecedented times.
Has no president ever blown up the international trading system before? Yes, as a matter of fact—we’ve been here before, says Free Press columnist Matthew Continetti.
Matt travels back half a century to 1971, when President Richard Nixon shocked the world with his “New Economic Policy.” And the parallels between that epochal announcement and Trump’s “Liberation Day” are uncanny.
Both were massive gambles from Republican presidents for whom international economic competition was a zero-sum game that America was losing. And on a deeper level, both Nixon and Trump’s policies were based on a conviction that America was in decline.
Nixon’s gambit delivered short-term political results but was an economic flop. Can Trump avoid a similar outcome?
Read Matthew: “To Understand Trump’s Economic ‘Liberation,’ Look to Nixon.”
My Hometown Was Wrecked by Deindustrialization. The Tariffs Will Only Make Things Worse.
Trump insists his tariffs are designed to help ordinary Americans—the very people who voted for him in November. But The Free Press’s River Page, who grew up poor in a community ravaged by deindustrialization, thinks these tariffs will be a disaster for the working class.
Here’s River: “I’ve spent most of my life worrying about my ability to pay the bills. I know what it’s like to get a flat tire that you can’t afford to replace. I have couch surfed. I have lived in trailer parks. I have paid for groceries with loose change—and I know this: If you are already living paycheck to paycheck, being suddenly forced to pay a minimum of 10 percent more on every good produced outside the United States simply means that you will go without, or worse, go into debt.”
Read River: “Working-Class Americans—Like My Family—Will Be Hit Hardest by Trump’s Tariffs.”
Trump’s Tariffs Could Soon Be Challenged in Court. But Do the President’s Opponents Have a Chance?
The president says absolutely yes. Others say: Not so fast. Jed Rubenfeld, Yale Law professor and Free Press columnist, unpacks the three primary legal arguments being made against the Trump administration’s trade war and assesses their merits.
Read Jed Rubenfeld: “Are Trump’s Tariffs Legal?”
These Albertans Want Canada’s Oil-Rich Province to Become the 51st State
“Albertans are sick and tired of being overtaxed and overregulated by morons who believe that punitive taxes on working families will change the weather. We’re more similar to people in Montana than people in Toronto and Montreal.”
That’s the voice of Jeff Rath, a rancher, horse breeder, and lawyer who is leading the growing band of Albertans who want their oil-rich province to secede and become the 51st state.
They are readying for a trip to Washington just as Trump has unleashed severe tariffs on Canadian imports.
Read Rupa Subramanya’s latest report: “Meet the Albertan Separatists Who Want to Be American.”
Who Broke the Media?
In case you haven’t noticed, and we don’t know how you would have missed it if you’re a Free Presser, journalism in America is in deep trouble. This is in large part because Americans have lost faith in journalists. And for good reason.
How can that trust be rebuilt? Are we destined to live in a world of different realities and alternative facts? Should the mainstream media apologize for all they have ignored, covered up, or gotten wrong over the past few years?
On the latest episode of Honestly, Bari talks to Axios founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen about the crisis in American media—and what to do about it. Click play below to listen to their conversation. (And follow Honestly on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.)
Meet Usha Vance: MAGA’s Enigmatic Second Lady
Click here to read Peter Savodnik’s exclusive interview.
Tyler Cowen: A Contagion of Uncertainty
Read Tyler’s latest on the economic turbulence.
On Monday, the Supreme Court backed the Trump administration’s efforts to deport what it claims are Venezuelan gang members. The 5–4 ruling allows continued use of the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law, though it stipulated that migrants are entitled to due process. Chief Justice John Roberts, acting on his own, also temporarily blocked a court order requiring the return of a mistakenly deported Salvadoran man. Trump’s Justice Department officials conceded that an “administrative error” led to the Maryland man’s deportation, but argued that it is not the place of the courts to dictate immigration policy, and that the man could not be brought back as he is in Salvadoran custody.
Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran have been holding direct talks, and that a “very big meeting” will take place on Saturday, for the first time since Trump abandoned the Obama-era nuclear accord in 2018. When asked what a potential new nuclear deal might look like, Trump said, “I think it’ll be different, and maybe a lot stronger.” It was unclear who from the Trump administration would conduct the meeting—Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
A recent poll found that a majority of Americans think that Trump is too focused on tariffs and not prioritizing lower prices. Fewer than a quarter of respondents said that Trump’s policies are making them financially better off; almost twice as many report they’re financially worse off. Meanwhile, a majority approve of his efforts to close the border and limit immigration.
Idaho has legalized the death penalty by firing squad for convicted pedophiles, becoming the first state to do so. An Idaho state representative said the law “establishes a strong deterrent” for would-be offenders, and it was met with broad support from the state legislature.
U.S. Catholic leaders announced a formal end to their partnership with the federal government in refugee relief efforts. A Catholic official said that the break in relations was caused by Trump’s suspension of refugee resettlement funds.
Trump, long denied his D.C. parade, appears to have settled a plan for the four-mile-long show of military might. A Washington-area paper reported that the parade will be hosted on June 14, Trump’s birthday. But the White House later pushed back on that idea.
Scientists have successfully resurrected the dire wolf, a species that went extinct around 13,000 years ago but grew in prominence recently thanks to Game of Thrones. DNA from the fossils of the long-disappeared wolf was used to modify that of the gray wolf, combining the two in a process known as de-extinction. One of the project’s scientists explained the process, saying “We’re creating these functional copies of something that used to be alive.” And we appear to have learned nothing from Jurassic Park.
Lock in income that meets your needs, forget waiting for returns, manage your money to meet what you need, it took over 50yrs for the "market" to recover from the crash of '29. Managing to "beat the market" is a fools game. If you don't know who the sucker at the table is it might be you.
As soon as I read “In a recent poll…” I move on to the next news item