The Free Press
It’s Thursday, March 6. 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: Kat Rosenfield on Alec Baldwin’s disgraceful new reality show, Eli Lake on the National Endowment for Democracy’s lawsuit, SCOTUS scuttles Trump’s freeze on international aid, and more.
But first: Will NIH cuts hurt Americans?
Yesterday, friend of The Free Press Dr. Jay Bhattacharya testified before the Senate in a confirmation hearing as President Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health.
In his opening remarks, Bhattacharya, who was denounced by government health officials during Covid, said that the NIH had overseen “a culture of coverup, obfuscation, and a lack of tolerance for ideas that differed from theirs.” He promised to create an agency that would tolerate and even encourage dissent.
On the subject of vaccines, which his likely future boss—Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—has spent much of his career criticizing, he said, “I fully support children being vaccinated for diseases like measles.” As for the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, which Kennedy has long believed, Bhattacharya said, “I don’t generally believe that there is a link, based on my reading of literature.”
However, he said he still believed that the NIH should fund research on the issue.
Bhattacharya was also asked about how the Trump administration’s anti-DEI crusade might affect scientific research. For example, would efforts to include minorities in clinical trials be undermined? Bhattacharya said no.
He was less direct when it came to questions about DOGE-directed cuts to NIH funding of scientific research.
Asked about alleged misuse of taxpayer money, he said that “The broader problem is we have deep distrust by the American people of universities and the scientific establishment, earned during the pandemic. To address that, transparency is the key.”
In response to another question about the cuts, he punted at first—“I am not involved in the decisions of the NIH up to now,” he said—but then committed to ensuring NIH researchers have the resources they need.
But are these cuts actually a good idea? That’s the subject two oncologists, David Andorsky and Vinay Prasad, debate in The Free Press today.
Will paring back the NIH’s funding force the agency to make better choices about the research it sponsors? Or will patients lose out on potential lifesaving treatments that NIH support has long made possible?
Read: “Will NIH Cuts Boost Public Health—or Destroy It?”
The DOGE Cuts Aren’t Enough
The NIH cuts are part of a larger conversation about DOGE. In fewer than two months, Elon Musk and his team of mostly young employees have transformed the federal bureaucracy. Some think this is a positive development, some don’t, and others are concerned that Elon Musk is taking a chainsaw to the bureaucracy when a scalpel would be the better tool.
But today in The Free Press, our editors say that DOGE should be praised for exposing a hilarious litany of taxpayer-funded waste, like grants for Bearded Ladies Cabaret shows and money to shore up voter confidence in Liberia. But for all of DOGE’s fat trimming, they write, “Perhaps the biggest issue with DOGE is what it’s not cutting.
“It’s time America had a serious discussion about what to do about our essentially untouchable entitlement programs, namely Medicare and Social Security.”
Read the full piece from our editors here: “Two Cheers for DOGE.”
Exclusive #1: The National Endowment for Democracy Is Suing to Get Its Funding Unfrozen
A notable target of DOGE is the National Endowment for Democracy, which is nearing complete collapse since Elon’s task force froze its funding on January 22. The agency has furloughed 75 percent of its workforce.
And now, it’s suing.
Our Free Press colleague Eli Lake has obtained the court filings. In them, NED says it’s been given no reason for the funding freeze, and that the federal government lacks the authority to cut off the tap.
Read Eli’s exclusive report: “DOGE Cut Off Funds to NED. Now They’re Suing.”
Exclusive #2: DOJ Opens Antisemitism Investigation Into the University of California System
The Free Press has learned that the Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the University of California system over concerns that one of the country’s largest public university systems might be discriminating against “employees who are or are perceived to be Jewish or Israeli.” This comes just one day after we reported that a similar probe was underway at Columbia.
Read the details in Gabe Kaminsky’s new report.
Exclusive #3: Where’s the $20 Billion?
On Tuesday, our Madeleine Rowley reported that shortly after Kamala Harris lost the election, the Environmental Protection Agency rushed $20 billion out the door to eight nonprofit groups—something a secretly recorded former EPA official said was akin to “tossing gold bars off the Titanic.”
Now, The Free Press has learned that the EPA has sent letters to the same eight nonprofits in an effort to track down the money and, perhaps, begin the process of getting it back.
Read Madeleine’s exclusive report, “The EPA Demands an Accounting of the $20 Billion Climate Fund.”
The Shameful Art of Never Going Away
The year 2021 did not go well for the Baldwins. Alec accidentally shot and killed the cinematographer on the set of a Western movie he was starring in and producing, and his wife Hilaria (née Hillary)—or as I call her, Raquel Dolezál—was credibly accused of pretending to be a Spanish lady. They could have faded into obscurity, but instead, they chose to create a reality show.
It would be hard to imagine a show in worse taste, but as Kat Rosenfield explains in her latest column for The Free Press, it’s not exactly unexpected.
“This is the era of showing, not telling,” Kat writes, “and the show must go on.”
Read “Alec Baldwin Killed Someone, Then Made a Show About It.”
The Supreme Court denied President Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in federal aid. It was a 5–4 decision, with Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices. The administration must now comply with a district court order directing them to release the money. So if you’re looking to get a USAID-subsidized circumcision in Mozambique, now’s the time!
The Chinese embassy in the U.S. threatened war over X following Trump’s imposition of tariffs, posting “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced it will cut over 80,000 jobs in order to return to 2019 employment levels. Biden expanded the agency during his tenure, and the Trump administration wants to scale it back. The White House said that it “refuses to accept the VA bureaucracy and bloat that has hindered veterans’ ability to receive timely and quality care.”
An Afghan man who allegedly participated in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American soldiers and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared in a Virginia court yesterday to face trial for his alleged crimes. Mohammad Sharifullah was delivered to the United States by Pakistan, where he was arrested. FBI interrogators said he admitted to being a member of ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate group that carried out the 2021 attack.
Shortly after a meeting with top U.S. automakers, Trump announced a one-month delay on the planned 25 percent tariff on cars imported from Canada and Mexico. The plan applies to Ford, General Motors, Stellantis—a conglomerate that owns popular brands like Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep—and other brands with production facilities in the three countries.
Florida police have arrested a career criminal with 48 outstanding warrants in Colorado alone after he swallowed two pairs of earrings stolen from Tiffany & Co. in Orlando. Jaythan Gilder, 32, reportedly gained access to the jewels, worth over $700,000, after posing as a representative of an NBA player. So many questions here, like: Do they really want the earrings back? Will they resell them? What’s the cleaning process? Also, wait, there’s a Tiffany’s in Orlando?
Trump issued a new ultimatum for Hamas, calling them “sick and twisted.” Here was Trump’s post on Truth Social: “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you.”
Always fascinating to me how the FP is so open-minded on most things, and agrees with “questioning the science,” and yet flat out refuses to have the vaccine conversation. They will question everything except vaccines - as if there aren’t differing opinions, as if they have carefully checked all the research including what has been hidden from the public, as if what big pharma has shown them on this, and only this, topic MUST be true.
The VA Secretary stated that they're cutting those positions but also hiring an additional 300,000 physicians' network wide. I imagine the 80,000 are in administrative roles, but with today's automation do you really need 80,000 administrative assistants?