The Free Press
It’s Thursday, April 17. 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 case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Ross Douthat explains why Americans need to find their way back to God. Gold reaches an all-time high. A deodorant scandal rocks the tennis world. And much more.
But first: Joe Biden made more than 600 grants to stop “disinformation.” Now Trump is turning off the spigot.
Disinformation. If you lived through the past decade anywhere that wasn’t under a rock, you’re almost certainly familiar with the term. It was Russian disinformation, we were told, that led to the election of Donald Trump. The Hunter Biden laptop story? Disinformation. The Wuhan lab leak theory? Disinformation. Or misinformation. Either way, it’s obviously bad.
The fight against disinformation and misinformation gave us such memorable moments, from Biden’s FBI pressuring Meta to censor Covid-related material, to MSNBC wine moms accusing Fox News wine moms of being Russian bots on Facebook, to the hiring of a self-described “Mary Poppins of disinformation” at a Department of Homeland Security advisory board.
With so much concern came—shocker!—a lot of Biden administration funds aimed at fighting it.
As a new Free Press investigation reveals, the tap is still running. Today, Gabe Kaminsky and Madeleine Rowley reveal that the Biden administration green-lit more than 600 anti-disinformation programs, including two at the National Institutes of Health aimed at rooting out “misinformation” around Covid and promoting vaccination for racial minorities—that were canceled only after The Free Press contacted the agency for this story.
One grant was worth $22.4 million and went to a progressive Hispanic nonprofit. Now, Trump officials tell The Free Press that the process of reversing Biden’s anti-disinformation program is “just getting started.”
Read the full story: “Joe Biden Made More Than 600 Grants to Stop ‘Disinformation.’ Donald Trump Now Has a Plan for Them.”
The Truth About the Case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia
In early April, the Trump administration—by its own admission—mistakenly deported a Salvadoran national living in Maryland, named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to a Salvadoran megaprison. The case has attracted national attention, and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which unanimously ordered the government to “facilitate” Garcia’s return.
But Garcia hasn’t been returned to the U.S., and yesterday, El Salvador—led by Trump ally Nayib Bukele—went so far as to block Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen from meeting with Garcia in prison. The White House’s position toward Garcia’s case has led many Trump critics to accuse the administration of defying a Supreme Court order. “We are in a constitutional crisis,” one Columbia law professor told Courthouse News Service.
Are they right? Today in The Free Press, Yale constitutional law professor Jed Rubenfeld weighs in.
Read: “No, the President Has Not Defied a Supreme Court Ruling.”
Ross Douthat Wants You to Believe in God
Earlier this year, more than 1,200 people crowded into a theater in Austin, Texas, to watch a Free Press live debate. The question at hand: Does the West Need a Religious Revival? At the beginning of the event, 73 percent said yes. One can imagine the variety of reasons they might have: Religion builds community. It gives people a moral compass by which to live their lives. It gets us through tough times.
But today on Honestly, New York Times columnist and best-selling author Ross Douthat says that people shouldn’t just be religious because it will make society better, but because it’s the best way to understand the world around us. According to Douthat, having faith doesn’t take a great leap of it—it’s rational.
As Easter Sunday approaches, join Bari as she and Ross discuss his new book Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.
Listen to the episode below, or click here to watch our conversation, and follow the Honestly podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
EXCLUSIVE: DHS Cuts Harvard Grants, Threatens Student Visas
Following the administration’s decision to freeze $2.2 billion in contracts, Homeland Security takes its own steps to punish America’s best-known university.
Read the full story by Frannie Block.
Should the Menendez Brothers Be Released?
Decades after their conviction, judges have begun giving lighter sentences to criminals who suffered abuse during childhood. Will they do so this week for the brothers who murdered their parents?
Read the full story by Esther Haynes.
Fight Club: Execute Luigi Mangione?
Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute and Reason editor at large Nick Gillespie duke it out.
Think You Can Guess Trump’s Next Move? Think Again.
Read Matthew Continetti’s column.
California governor and aspiring podcaster Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, arguing that the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China is unlawful. California argues that such tariffs require approval from Congress.
The price of gold hit an all-time high of $3,275 per troy ounce yesterday, amid tariff-related chaos in the stock market and a weakening U.S. dollar. At long last, America’s paranoid, bullion-hoarding uncles have been vindicated, but at what cost?
Police used a stun gun on two protesters, and arrested three others, at a town hall hosted by GOP representative and former controversial Facebook group moderator Marjorie Taylor Greene in Acworth, Georgia, on Tuesday. The protesters were booing and shouting at Greene as she spoke. “Bye!” Greene repeatedly shouted as the protesters were taken out. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has discouraged Republican lawmakers from holding public events in light of a recent onslaught of protests.
Yesterday, a federal judge said that he’d found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders last month to turn around planes carrying migrants to a Salvadoran prison. Judge James Boasberg, who has become a lightning rod on the right for ruling against the Trump administration on immigration issues, warned that he could seek the prosecution of government officials for violating his order.
Yesterday, the Trump administration said it’s suing Maine for allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports—a policy state representative Laurel Libby was censured for speaking out against earlier this year. Read Representative Libby’s full accounting of that controversy, in her own words.
A hygiene controversy has emerged at the Rouen Open in France after a British tennis player asked the umpire to tell her first-round opponent to wear deodorant. “She’s smelling really bad,” Harriet Dart said of her French challenger, Lois Boisson. Dart later apologized and Boisson took it better than I would have, jokingly begging the Dove personal care brand for an endorsement deal on social media.
The British Supreme Court has backed a “biological” definition of sex and woman, ruling that single-sex spaces can exclude transgender people “if it is proportionate to do so.” Still, the court ruled that protections for trans people still remain under the 2010 Equality Act.
New evidence suggests Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, whose home was burned this weekend, may have been targeted because he supports Israel. A new search warrant signed by Pennsylvania police says that suspected arsonist Cody Balmer firebombed the governor’s home because of “what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.” He also added that he would have beaten Shapiro with a hammer if he had encountered him inside the governor’s home.
Cheating (at sports) is a sacred, fundamental right. Mills knows it. Pritzker knows it. Anyone who thinks cheating is wrong is a just a Fascist, MAGA, Republican, Orange (but I repeat myself three times), Nazi cooperator.
This question has an ‘easy’ answer. A democratic congressman, Seth Moulton (D-MA) said “I have two girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” Exactly one Representative (Tom Suozzi D-NY) publicly agreed with him.
Conversely, his campaign manager (Matt Chilliak) resigned. The mayor of Salem, and the Governor of Massachusetts denounced him. There were calls for him to resign. There were public demonstrations against him. The head of the Democratic party in Salem (Liz Bradt) called him a ‘Nazi Cooperator’.
Disinformation and misinformation a product of the internet which allows anyone to be a journalist.