The Free Press
It’s Wednesday, March 5. 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: The beauty of Dolly Parton’s hidden marriage; Larry Summers on Trump’s “irrational” tariffs; Columbia’s standoff with the Trump administration. And much more.
But first: Donald Trump faces the nation.
Wow, what a show. Or at least, what a long show. And no intermission. Donald Trump’s speech last night was the longest ever presidential address to Congress, clocking in at an hour and 40 minutes.
That meant there was time for Trump to do a lot. But first, before Trump really got going, the Democrats made their presence felt in the form of an old man shaking a stick. Texas Representative Al Green, 77, heckled Trump repeatedly, cane in hand, until he was eventually kicked out by Speaker Mike Johnson. It was the first in a series of visuals that didn’t exactly scream “The Democrats are back.” Trump reveled in the confrontation with Democrats, who, with many wearing pink jackets and holding little round signs that said things like “False” and “Musk Steals,” looked utterly lost.
“I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” said Trump early on. “Nothing I can do.”
State of the Union addresses—something this technically wasn’t, for arcane reasons—are supposed to involve presidents suggesting to Congress laws it might pass. There was a bit of that. Trump asked the House of Representatives to sign the “Take It Down Act,” which aims to combat revenge porn, including fake images created by AI. He also asked for money to fund his deportation efforts, and called on Congress to repeal Biden’s CHIPS Act.
But Trump was more focused on the actions he has taken via executive order without Congress’s help. Or as he put it: “swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.”
Trump touted the work of DOGE, citing wasteful programs it has rooted out that funded things like transgender operations for mice, “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” “lavish fish monitoring,” and a program to improve “learning outcomes in Asia.”
“Asia is doing very well with learning,” Trump remarked.
Trump also trumpeted a quieter southern border, and declared “our country will be woke no longer.”
Trump even revealed a new executive order during the address, one he said he’d signed just moments before taking the stage: The order renames a wildlife refuge near Galveston, Texas, after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Houston girl tragically raped and murdered, allegedly by two illegal Venezuelan immigrants. Her mother was invited to the speech as a guest of First Lady Melania Trump.
That wasn’t the only grand gesture Trump made for an invited guest. Perhaps the most Trumpian, given the president’s eye for good television, was his onscreen enlistment of a terminally ill 13-year-old boy into the Secret Service, as an honorary member.
Trump made a lot of promises last night. He swore to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits—and he also says he will make interest payments on car loans tax-deductible, so long as the cars are made in America. He pledged to plant the American flag on Mars. And then he promised something even more ambitious: a balanced budget.
Perhaps the most newsworthy moment of the night came toward the end, when Trump revealed that he had received a letter from Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky earlier that day. “The letter reads: ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” said Trump. He also said Zelensky was ready to sign the minerals deal that was supposed to be inked at the White House last week, before it all went wrong.
Have I missed anything? Yes, probably by the dozen. After all, he spoke for an hour and 40 minutes. Was it a clearly defined program for governing over the next four years? No. But it was a reminder of Trump’s appeal. He combined entertainment with the kind of commonsense policies—no biological men in women’s sports, a secure border, merit over DEI—that are overwhelmingly popular. Still, one is still left unclear on what exactly the Trump administration will actually do next, particularly given cleavages in its own party, the limits of executive power, and the unpredictability of the man at the center of it all.
Our lead story today offers a clearer sense of how Trump might govern. Historian Victor David Hanson looks at the promise and perils of Trump’s second term. He argues that while the voters backed Trump because of their positive view of his first term, it will be much harder for Trump to succeed in implementing his agenda the second time around.
Read Victor Davis Hanson on the paradoxes of Trump 2.0—and the challenges the president faces: “Can Trump Revolutionize America?”
Larry Summers on Trump’s “Inexplicable” Tariffs
America is at war—well, a trade war, anyway. Yesterday, Trump implemented a 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods and also introduced an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. China and Canada have retaliated. Trump has threatened further escalation. (Though his commerce secretary has hinted at a tactical retreat.) The markets are spooked at these massive protectionist measures, with many warning they could increase inflation and slow growth.
To make sense of this extraordinary step, Oliver Wiseman called former Treasury secretary Larry Summers for his take. A taste of what he thinks? Summers tells Olly he has “never seen as irrational a consequential policy put in place by an American administration.”
Read the full Q&A here: “Larry Summers Thinks Trump’s Tariffs Are a Disaster.”
Exclusive: Trump Threatens Columbia University over Alleged Jew-Hate on Campus
Last November, we reported on the Stand Columbia Society, a group of Columbia University alumni and former professors, and their warning that if Donald Trump were elected to office and followed through on his promises to cut federal funding, it could cause an “an existential crisis” for the school.
Today, their dire prediction is a lot closer to becoming a reality. The Free Press has obtained a letter from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong, warning that the college could lose $5 billion in federal funding for active grants if it fails to address antisemitism on its campus.
And that’s just the start of it.
Read Maya Sulkin’s full report: “Trump to Columbia: Fix Campus Antisemitism or Lose $5 Billion in Federal Funds.”
The Anti-Power Couple
The longtime owner of a Tennessee asphalt paving business died earlier this week. He was 82 and his name was Carl Dean—and for 60 years he was married to one of America’s most prolific and widely beloved singer-songwriters, Dolly Parton.
You’ve probably never heard of him, and that’s no accident. He intentionally shunned the spotlight for decades. And that’s all too rare among the rich and famous today, argues Batya Ungar-Sargon.
In the age of the power couple, Carl Dean chose to be a regular man. And as Batya notes in her latest Free Press column, there’s something very moving about that.
Read “Dolly Parton’s Disappearing Husband.”
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Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, laid out a plan to ramp up European military spending by up to $843 billion in response to Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Zelensky. Europe is seeking both to support Ukraine and plan for a broader, postwar defense, and von der Leyen stated Europe’s situation plainly: “We are in an era of rearmament.”
The Supreme Court dealt another blow to the EPA yesterday in a decision that will make it harder to regulate and limit water pollution. The court ruled that the EPA does not have the authority to set generic prohibitions against violating water quality standards. San Francisco had brought the suit against the EPA after the agency found the city violated the terms of a permit required to discharge pollution from its wastewater system into the ocean. For more on the EPA, read our bombshell report: “A $20 Billion Slush Fund—Paid by You to Progressive Nonprofits.”
The American investment firm BlackRock struck a deal to gain control of the ports on either end of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong–based group, aiding Trump in his mission to retake control of the waterway. “China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” said Trump in his second inaugural address.
At least seven prisoners in New York State have died since a statewide prison guard strike began on February 17. More than 14,000 corrections officers are striking to oppose a 2021 law that limits the use of solitary confinement, a move that the guards’ union said created unsafe working conditions. One prisoner named Jose Colon told The New York Times that a prison uprising like the violent Attica riot in 1971, which killed 43, could occur if the strike doesn’t end soon: “I don’t want to be here for the next Attica riot, because it’s going to come,” Colon said. The circumstances prisoners have seen over the past few weeks “can mobilize a population,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has told GOP lawmakers to skip town halls after an onslaught of protests decrying the Trump administration’s slashing of federal government grants and personnel. “They’re professional protesters,” Johnson said. “So why would we give them a forum to do that right now?” Probably because avoiding angry protesters looks spineless and insisting they’re all paid actors looks like cope.
South Carolina plans to execute a man via firing squad on March 7, the first execution of its kind in the state and the first in the country in 15 years. They plan to do this indoors, for some reason, and experts are questioning whether or not the setup is safe for onlookers. All these advances in modern technology and we’re still killing people like it’s 1776. For Christ’s sake, just dust off the CIA’s heart attack gun and get it over with!
JESUS, MARY & JOSEPH …
“A FORMER Treasury Secretary interviewed by Oliver Wiseman” — now THAT RiGHT THERE will tell you the God’s Truth about just “HOW ignorant Orange Man Bad really is!”
The Free Press really thinks they are offering “fair & balance” by trotting out the RABID “TDS” INFECTED to “tell us the REAL truth about Trump.”
Democrats have explained that wearing pink was a protest against Trump policies that adversely affect women. Does anyone have a list of these policies (and maybe explanations of how they negatively affect women)? (I'm thinking opposition to abortion is a benefit to half of those who would otherwise have been aborted; women)