The Free Press
It’s Wednesday, April 9. 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: Why won’t Congress take back control of trade policy? Is it time to buy gold? Trump freezes $2.7 billion in “digital equity” grants. “I Was Called an ‘Inbred Swine’ at Princeton Last Night.” And more.
But first, our lead story today:
Martin Gurri: The Year We Gave Up on Freedom
What was the moment when Americans lost what faith they had left in our institutions? Why is it that “Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public”? Indeed, why are people cheering it on?
According to Free Press columnist Martin Gurri, the answer is straightforward: It was Covid. And understanding what happened five years ago is essential to making sense of our current moment of vibe shifts, political realignments, and mistrust.
“Has there ever been a more damaging scandal than the abject failure of the governing classes, and of their expert advisers, and of their media mouthpieces, during the Covid-19 pandemic?” Martin asks.
Five years ago this month, nearly four billion people around the world were under some kind of lockdown order. Yet any resistance to those largely ineffective and greatly disruptive lockdown measures in the U.S. was severely punished. There is no way to understand the revolution happening in Washington today without reckoning with the mistakes of the pandemic.
Read Martin's piece to understand where it all went wrong: “When Americans Gave Up Their Freedoms.”
Fight Club: Should You Buy Gold?
Tuesday brought more tariff-induced market turbulence, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average for a moment up nearly 1,500 points but eventually closing down 320 points, at the lowest mark in a year. So I can’t help but wonder whether there’s a safer haven out there. Is it time to buy some gold?
The world’s oldest store of value hit a record high in March. So while I scrape together what’s left of my 401(k) after the last week, I want to know: Is gold a good investment?
Is buying it a protective measure against the inevitable failures of central banks and governments? Or is betting on gold betting against civilization itself—an overrated hedge against doomsday rather than a path to prosperity?
That’s the subject of today’s installment of Free Press Fight Club.
Representing the goldbugs is James Grant, founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.
Representing the skeptics is Peter Coy, longtime business writer with Bloomberg Businessweek and The New York Times.
And as they say, this Fight Club is not—absolutely not—intended as investment advice.
Read James Grant and Peter Coy debate: “Is Gold a Good Investment?”
Will Congress Stop Trump’s Tariffs?
Fun fact to consider as Trump slaps a whopping 104 percent baseline on Chinese goods: The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to levy tariffs. But Congress has largely sidestepped that responsibility, much to the chagrin of Free Press columnist Charles Lane.
Not that Lane thinks that a Republican-controlled Congress will do much of anything to get that power back, regardless of whatever economic turbulence it causes.
“GOP lawmakers can see the downward spiraling stock charts, but they can also read the cross-tabs of a recent Wall Street Journal poll, which show that 82 percent of Republicans back tariffs either ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat.’ Among self-described ‘MAGA’ Republicans, support is 92 percent,” Lane writes.
“The president’s near-unconditional support base has sustained him through every crisis he’s faced so far, and he’s counting on them to get him through this one. MAGA does not have to constitute a majority of the country—a large minority, efficiently distributed geographically, will do.”
Read: “Think Congress Will Stop Trump’s Tariffs? Think Again.”
Open Antisemitism at Princeton
At Princeton University on Monday night, “Jewish students were called ‘inbred swine,’ told to ‘go back to Europe,’ and taunted with gestures of the Hamas triangle by masked protesters,” reports Free Press fellow Danielle Shapiro, who is a senior at the school.
Shapiro was among some 200 students who turned out to see former (and possible future) Israel prime minister Naftali Bennett. The politician was set to speak at Princeton until his speech was derailed by numerous interruptions from protesters.
“Ever since October 7, we have endured so many antisemitic protests on campus, it’s almost become the background noise to our studies,” writes Danielle. “And it shows no signs of stopping, even though the Trump administration has paused $210 million in funding to Princeton for failing to clamp down on Jew hate.”
Read Danielle’s dispatch: “I Was Called an ‘Inbred Swine’ at Princeton Last Night.”
Digital Equity, We Hardly Knew Ye
A Commerce Department investigation into possible race-based discrimination by the Biden administration has led to the freezing of $2.7 billion in “digital equity” grants, The Free Press’s Gabe Kaminsky reports in a new exclusive. The grants, part of Biden’s massive 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, were intended to bring broadband internet access to “covered populations” such as racial and ethnic minorities.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) first brought attention to the issue in November, and the freeze is emblematic of the Trump administration’s push to remove DEI-related programs wherever they can find them. “Kudos to President Trump and his team for pressing pause on the unconstitutional and discriminatory ‘Digital Equity’ program rules,” Cruz told The Free Press on Tuesday.
Read: “Trump Administration Freezes $2.7 Billion in ‘Digital Equity’ Grants.”
Elbridge Colby—Trump’s pick for the third highest-ranking position in the Pentagon—was finally confirmed on Tuesday, despite resistance from more hawkish GOP senators. He won the support of Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who had fretted that Colby was too soft on Iran. In the end, Senator Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to join Democrats in trying to reject Colby’s nomination. For more on Colby, listen to him debate Ukraine with New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens on Honestly.
Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky announced Tuesday that they had captured two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia. “This is another country that militarily supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is another one after Iran and the North Korean military,” said Zelensky, adding that Ukraine’s foreign minister had contacted Chinese officials about the incident.
Trump told Republican senators that he’s open to raising taxes on the highest-earning Americans. The news comes as Republicans scramble to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which include reductions for high earners. Some Republicans are already getting behind the idea of a tax hike. “If we slightly increase the rate on the highest earners or create a million-dollar earner bracket that’s a little bit higher than the current highest level, I’d be okay with that,” Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the leader of the powerful House Freedom Caucus, told Semafor.
Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to help America’s moribund coal industry. The EO loosens regulations on the industry, instructs the Department of the Interior to lease federal land for coal mining, and orders the Energy Department to study whether coal plants can help power AI data centers that have a ravenous appetite for electricity.
A 29-year-old California man pleaded guilty on Tuesday for trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Nicholas Roske traveled to Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland in June 2022. He then called 911 on himself and was found with a Glock handgun, a knife, extra ammunition, zip ties, and pepper spray. Roske told the police that he was upset about Kavanaugh’s stances on gun control and abortion. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Japanese workers were able to erect a new train station outside Osaka in just six hours. “The new station’s components were 3D-printed elsewhere and assembled on site last month, in what the railway’s operators say is a world first,” The New York Times reports. “It may look more like a shelter than a station, but building one the traditional way would have taken more than two months and cost twice as much, according to the West Japan Railway Company.”
The author asks, Why is it that “Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public”?
Isn't it obvious? The public supports weeding out and ending wasteful spending and fraud. DOGE discovered that the VA signed a contract in which it pays an IT firm $380,000 a MONTH to manage it's web sites. The firm spends about 10 hours a week doing so.
Who allowed this to happen? Who thinks there were not huge kickbacks on several levels? Who wants this to continue? Not me.
You have to love the irony when a California man shows up with a Glock to kill Justice Kavanaugh because he thinks that the Justice is too lax on gun control! Where do we find these looney toons! California has some of the most strict gun control in the country, so maybe even strict gun control doesn't really work! But, of course, we should all know that the bad old NRA is the real culprit!