Meet Our New MAGA Overlords. Plus. . .

It’s Tuesday, November 12, and 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: a new report estimates the Trump White House could cost Columbia University billions; a list of five things Trump should do on day one; and a monkey jailbreak in South Carolina. But first, meet the MAGA overlords who will shape America’s destiny for the next four years. 

When Donald Trump returns to the White House in 69 days, he will bring with him a new MAGA elite. There are a few holdovers from the previous Trump administration, but a lot of bridges were burned when officials from his first term were either fired, walked out, or ran for president against The Donald. And they’re not being invited back. Right, Nikki Haley?

River Page and Eli Lake reveal the VIPs who helped Trump win—and will likely be at his side during his second term. Some of these figures will be official White House staffers, cabinet members, or diplomats. Others will simply have Trump’s ear. (An important role, given the last person he speaks to is the one most likely to change his mind.)

You’ll recognize some characters: Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump Jr., of course. But others aren’t yet household names. People like Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who donated more than $100 million to the Trump campaign this year, and Casey Means, a doctor leading the effort to Make America Healthy Again.

Think of it as a Who’s Who to Trump World. Bookmark this story, because you’re probably going to need it later. Here’s River and Eli: “Meet Your New MAGA Overlords.”

The Five Things President Trump Should Do on Day One

With the help of Elon Musk, his new wingman, Trump has promised to streamline our bloated federal bureaucracy.

For the past year, Santi Ruiz, host of the Statecraft Substack and podcast, has interviewed scores of civil servants to learn how the federal sausage gets made. So he knows a lot about bureaucratic waste. Writing for The Free Press, Ruiz now offers five tips on how Trump and Musk can make our government efficient again.

His number one idea? Hire the right bureaucrats. Ruiz points to the example of Jack Cable, a 17-year-old who won the Department of Defense’s “Hack the Air Force” contest against 600 other contestants in 2017. But when Cable applied for a government defense role, he was denied. “His résumé was graded ‘not minimally qualified,’ ” writes Ruiz, “because the hiring manager didn’t know anything about the coding languages he listed himself proficient in.” Someone give Jack a job! And read Santi Ruiz on how Trump should reform the federal bureaucracy in five easy-ish steps.

Americans Just Said No to Drugs 

Kamala Harris wasn’t the only big loser in this election. Another was drug legalization. In Florida, voters rejected a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana. North and South Dakota defeated similar initiatives. Even in deep blue Massachusetts, voters rejected the legalization of psychedelics by a 14-point margin. 

“Proponents of drug policy liberalization have traded on the idea that voting for legalization just means leaving users alone,” writes Charles Fain Lehman for The Free Press. But it also creates social problems, like car crashes (an estimated 1,400 fatalities per year), public disorder (a 35 percent increase in chronic homelessness in states that legalize), and surging insanity (a 70 percent increase in psychosis among teens that use). Pot and psychedelics, meanwhile, can make people less responsible, harder to employ, and more dysfunctional. 

“Even soft drug legalization, it turns out, has had profound social consequences,” Charles concludes. “And voters are starting to realize this.”

Read Charles Fain Lehman on why legalization lost at the ballot box.

Could a Trump Presidency Cost Columbia University $3.5 Billion? 

A new report by Columbia professors and alumni warns the university could lose up to $3.5 billion a year— 55 percent of the school’s annual operating budget—under the incoming Trump administration. That’s because the president-elect is likely to accuse elite universities like Columbia of violating Title VI, the section of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination of “race, color, or national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance,” which would allow the administration to withhold federal funding.

At present, Columbia has at least three active Title VI investigations into antisemitism and anti-Muslim sentiment on campus. Since October 7, 2023, Columbia’s campus has been embroiled in chaotic demonstrations against the State of Israel, prompting the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to conclude the university was “the site of some of the most disturbing and extreme antisemitic conduct violations in the country.”

The report’s authors—Stand Columbia Society—urge the Columbia administration to avoid being at the “epicenter of public outrage” by simply stepping in to “enforce our rules.” Read Frannie Block’s piece about the “uncomfortable reckoning” that Columbia “can no longer wish away.”

President Donald Trump listens intently to Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE, at a law enforcement roundtable in 2018. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool via Getty Images)

• Thomas Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will serve as Trump’s “border czar,” the president-elect announced. “Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Homan recently told 60 Minutes that the solution to the controversial practice of family separation is deporting families together. 

• The stock market continued to reach record highs in a post-election bump. Buoyed by Trump’s promises of lower taxes and slashed regulations, certain stocks saw massive gains. Companies and commodities associated with Trump and his campaign performed especially well in the wake of his victory: Musk’s Tesla reached a $1 trillion valuation and Bitcoin hit a record high as Trump declared he’d make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.” Oh, and the surge in Tesla stock has made Musk the first $300 billion man.

• Also nearing record highs is China’s trade surplus, the difference between exports and imports. Bloomberg reports that the number is set to reach nearly $1 trillion if it continues at its present pace. As the Communist Party attempts to bail out local governments and bounce back from a housing crisis, it has another problem. An export-dependent economy will soon meet with Donald Trump, the self-professed Tariff Man, who’s promising to impose at least 60 percent levies on Chinese goods. 

• Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, will not step down before January despite pressure from liberal activists eager to lock in another progressive as her replacement while they have the chance. Liberals are anxious to avoid the mistake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who didn’t resign when Democrats controlled the White House and Senate under Obama, and later died under Trump only to be replaced by conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett. Ginsburg was 82 in 2015, and died at the age of 87. Chill out, guys. 

• On the topic of resignations, speculation continues to swirl that Kamala Harris will still be the 47th president of the United States. Jamal Simmons, the vice president’s former communications director, suggested on CNN that Joe Biden “could resign the presidency in the next 30 days,” fulfilling his promise of “being a transitional figure.” Why would he do such a thing? Because, says Simmons, it would “disrupt all of Donald Trump’s paraphernalia,” meaning he’d have to replace all his now-worthless “47”-themed merch with new “48” merch. Trump Derangement Syndrome lives on!

• Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an unofficial student group at the New York Ivy League school, protested Veterans Day on campus yesterday. “The American war machine should not be honored for the horrors unleashed on others,” the group’s flyer read. “Instead, we will celebrate Martyrs Day in honor of those martyred by the Israel-U.S. war machine.” This includes “those who resisted, whether violently or nonviolently,” a speaker at the protest said. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands nationwide paid tribute to those who kept us safe. Check out New York’s Veterans Day parade—a glorious, sunshiny tribute on Fifth Avenue—as a reminder of what’s really worth fighting for.

• Last week, 43 monkeys at Alpha Genesis, a primate research center in Yemassee, South Carolina, made a run for it after an employee failed to latch the door following feeding time. Over the weekend, 25 monkeys were recaptured. Police told residents of Yemassee to lock their doors and windows, and report to the authorities any primate fugitives, who are thankfully not considered armed or dangerous.

Madeleine Kearns is an associate editor for The Free Press. Follow her on X @madeleinekearns. 

To support The Free Press, become a paid subscriber today: 

And if you’re enjoying The Front Page, consider forwarding it to someone else you think might like it.