It’s Thursday, April 2. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Jed Rubenfeld on Trump’s birthright citizenship case. Should we scrap presidential libraries? Kemi Badenoch on why Britain won’t tackle antisemitism. Is your home making you sick? And much more.
But first: Trump’s speech—and the state of the war.
Ahead of Donald Trump’s widely anticipated speech to the nation last night, some wondered if the president was about to declare the Iran war over and announce a deal with Tehran. Others speculated about boots on the ground or some other major change in course after a month spent fighting. But Trump delivered no such surprises last night: Instead, he restated the case for the war, declared that America was on track to meet its military objectives, and pledged to hit Iran “extremely hard” in the next two to three weeks before wrapping things up.
Eli Lake was watching the speech, and breaks it down in a piece for us this morning. Read his analysis on what Trump said, and what he is thinking:
The president was optimistic about the war last night. Was he right to be? To historian Victor Davis Hanson, the answer is a resounding yes. “The campaign has been brilliantly conducted,” he writes in our pages today, and will be over soon. And yet, he notes, the conflict’s critics make the “Orwellian” argument that we are losing. It’s just one of the ways in which the real hurdles for Donald Trump in this fight are not military, but political.
Reacting to Trump’s speech last night, Victor unpacks the war against the war, and lists the biggest challenges for the president in what he says will be the final few weeks of the conflict. Read his essay to understand where things stand in Operation Epic Fury—and where they’re headed.
Middle East expert and former George W. Bush adviser Elliott Abrams has a war-related question for the president. Why is he so quick to commend Israel as a staunch ally, yet so reluctant to acknowledge the help the war effort is receiving from Ukraine?
Yes, cooperation between Israel and the U.S. “surpasses any partnership in arms in the past several decades.” But Ukraine has supplied intelligence about Russia’s role in helping Iran, and has sent 200 counter-drone specialists to Middle Eastern countries that Iran is attacking—even as they are fighting their own war against Russia. The administration, writes Abrams, needs a “new understanding and appreciation of Ukraine.”
Trump Will Lose on Birthright Citizenship—but an Immigration Win Is Coming |
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The Supreme Court just heard arguments in two important Trump immigration policy cases—ending birthright citizenship and curtailing asylum claims. For all the ink spilled over a rogue Supreme Court, writes Jed Rubenfeld, the cases are likely to show that the rule of law is alive and well in America. The Court looks like it’s going to hand the administration one loss and one win in these two cases—and if that’s what happens, the Court will be right in both. Read Jed’s explanation of why. | | |
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Who Needs a Presidential Library? |
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This week, President Donald Trump unveiled the first renderings of his planned presidential library, which, if all goes according to plan, will be the tallest structure in Miami. Meanwhile, former president Barack Obama is preparing to open his long-delayed library, which Trump has called “woke” and “a disaster.” Today, Free Press editors Nicholas Clairmont and Mene Ukueberuwa debate: Are presidential libraries really necessary? Or should we scrap the whole idea? | | |
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In Finland, Promoting Biblical Views Is Now Illegal |
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In Finland, it is now illegal to defend traditional Christian teaching about homosexuality. In a shocking court ruling last week, the country’s highest court convicted a Christian parliamentarian of hate speech for writing and circulating a 2004 pamphlet outlining the church’s stances on gay marriage and adoption. Today, Rod Dreher writes on the ruling, and the state of free speech in Europe. | | |
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Your Home Could Be Making You Sick |
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Doctors ask their patients plenty of questions about their lifestyle—do they smoke? Do they drink? What do they do for work?—but there’s one thing they often don’t ask that can explain persistent discomfort: What is your living environment like? “We are trained to think of health as something that happens largely inside the body,” writes Dr. Charlotte Grinberg. But before we prescribe treatments, she adds, “it’s worth thinking through our habitats.” Read her piece, the latest in her series on what they don’t teach you in med school, on the things in your house that might make you sick, and how to improve your health from the outside in. | | |
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