The Free Press
It’s Tuesday, February 25. 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: Suzy Weiss meets the “most English man in the world.” Joe Nocera gives Trump credit for Apple’s big investment. A scandal at the BBC. And more.
But first, the revolution in the White House—and its global fallout.
On one thing, the president’s supporters and detractors can agree: Donald Trump is a disruptor. And amid a whole lot of disruption since he returned to office—from DOGE to his Team of Outsiders cabinet—perhaps the most significant change has come on foreign policy.
It’s not just that the White House is squeezing Ukraine or Canada or Mexico (depending on the day). It’s that America’s entire posture toward the world has changed.
For a sign of the profundity of that change look no further than what happened yesterday at the UN, where the United States was one of just 18 countries, including Russia, North Korea, and Belarus, to vote against a resolution condemning Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Matthew Continetti says: Don’t be shocked. In his essay today, he argues that this is a perfect reflection of the ascendant view inside the White House and across MAGA World more generally.
“America under President Trump no longer acts as a status quo power. It is a revisionist power just as intent on changing the structure of international relations as are Russia and China.”
Trump has managed to pull off this revolution, argues Matt, because he “has settled a long-running debate on the political right. On one side: the “primacists,” who “insist that American leadership and greater defense can revive the postwar order.” On the other side, the “restrainers,” who believe that “America should reduce its overseas commitments and adopt balance-of-power diplomacy toward China and Russia.”
And right now the restrainers are winning.
Read Matthew Continetti: “Trump’s Foreign Policy Revolution.”
Our second story today gives you a sense of what the fallout from that revolution looks like on the ground in Ukraine. War correspondent David Patrikarakos has been covering the conflict there since it began. He’s just back from Odesa, and reports that while many Ukrainians believed that Trump could be just the negotiator to deliver peace with honor, they now feel betrayed. As one soldier explains to David: “We used to wear American flag patches on our body armor as a symbol of the land of freedom. Now, we’ve taken them off.”
Read David Patrikarakos’s dispatch: “Many Ukrainians Believed in Trump. Now They Feel Betrayed.”
How Trump’s Tariff Threat Made Apple Jump
On Monday, Apple announced a $500 billion investment in the United States over the next four years. That’s the largest ever commitment in the company’s history—and, as Joe Nocera argues in The Free Press today, a big win for Donald Trump’s tariff policy and for American workers.
Read Joe on Apple CEO Tim Cook learning how to do business under Trump 2.0 and whether other CEOs will follow suit: “How Trump’s Tariff Threat Made Apple Jump.” (And speaking of tariffs, Trump said Monday that he plans to go ahead with a 25 percent levy on Canadian imports next week.)
Suzy Weiss Meets the Most English Man in the World
Ahead of a recent trip to London, Suzy Weiss started talking to her British colleagues in a Cockney accent so bad that we weren’t sure if it was a hate crime or the start of a medical emergency. Either way, one thing was clear: Suzy needed an education in all things Blighty.
So we arranged for her to have tea with the most English person we could think of: knight of the realm, cricket enthusiast, and former Conservative minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. She came armed with important questions like: Was the Hundred Years’ War real? What the hell was Brexit, anyway? And, does he miss us? For answers to these questions, and to read more about when Suzy met Sir Jacob, click here.
A BBC Documentary—Brought to You by Hamas
In less cheering news from across the pond, the BBC is embroiled in what writer Adam LeBor describes as maybe the biggest scandal over Middle East impartiality in the public broadcaster’s history. At its heart is a documentary about Gaza with so many problems that the BBC has pulled the film from its streaming platform. The revelation that one of the film’s main “child journalists” was in fact the son of a senior Hamas leader has—understandably—triggered outrage. Read Adam LeBor’s deep dive on the scandalous tale of how the BBC came to broadcast Hamas propaganda.
Trump said yesterday that he was in talks with Vladimir Putin about an economic development deal, reversing years of U.S. policy toward Russia since the start of its war on Ukraine. The Biden administration had hamstrung Russia with sanctions and severe economic policies following its invasion, and Trump has significantly shifted Washington’s posture toward Putin. Trump said: “I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia.”
A new economic study released yesterday showed that the American economy is more dependent than ever on the top 10 percent of earners (households making $250,000 and above). That top decile accounts for almost 50 percent of spending today, compared to 36 percent three decades ago.
Andrew Cuomo is expected to enter the race for New York City mayor within the next two weeks. The former New York governor—who resigned in 2021 following accusations of sexual harassment—has been courting city power players ranging from labor leaders to the Orthodox community and black organizers. His moves come in the wake of Mayor Eric Adams’ crumbling administration and legal woes. For more on the mayoral race, read Olivia Reingold’s recent dispatch from the streets of New York, where she gauged peoples’ feelings about the scandal-ridden mayor.
The U.S. Attorney for D.C. described himself and his colleagues as “President Trump’s lawyers” Monday in a post about the Associated Press’s legal case against the Trump administration over access to White House events. The attorney, who is a federal prosecutor and not Trump’s personal attorney, said “As President Trump’s lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first.” We’re old enough to remember a time (2024) when conservatives criticized progressive prosecutors for putting politics ahead of getting violent criminals off the streets.
Television screens at the Department of Housing and Urban Development appeared to have been hacked yesterday. The screens were hijacked to display an AI-generated video of President Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet, with the caption “Long live the real king.” It was quite the creative troll from an agency that Trump has suggested should be cut in half. Workers responsible for everything from disaster recovery to investigations into discriminatory housing practices may be axed. And if this video is anything to go by, it seems they do have some time on their hands.
“I want to be one of the greats,” said Timothée Chalamet when he accepted the SAG Award for Best Actor Sunday night. Chalamet is an Oscar contender for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. In his SAG speech, Chalamet said “the classiest thing would be to downplay how much effort went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is, this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero, and it was the honor of a lifetime playing him.” Some labeled Chalamet “weird” for this unapologetic pursuit of greatness. We say: there’s nothing cooler.
Roberta Flack, the former Washington, D.C., schoolteacher and R&B icon, died yesterday in New York. She was 88. Flack, singer of hits like “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” achieved stardom within weeks of her first album’s release. And of her beguiling, introverted, and powerful voice, Flack said in 1970: “I’ve been told I sound like Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson, Odetta, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, even Mahalia Jackson. If everybody said I sounded like one person, I’d worry. But when they say I sound like them all, I know I’ve got my own style.”
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@bariweiss are we in a war against the West? I have friends here in San Francisco who think not. I'm like "who are you people?!" It's it me?
When will TFP explain to its readers why Israel joined the US and other authoritarian nations in the recent UN vote on Ukraine? I do think that TFP is reasonably balanced, except when it comes to Israel.