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| By The Free Press |
It’s Monday, July 7. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Will NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani survive fresh scrutiny; inside a grassroots effort to sabotage ICE; Salena Zito and Peter Savodnik talk Trump on the latest Free Press livestream. And much more.
But first: Newt Gingrich, Larry Summers, Tyler Cowen, Jason Furman, and others on what they think of the Republicans’ megabill.
America had an expensive Fourth of July this year. No, not because the prices of hot dogs have gone up. But because on Friday afternoon, while most of America was grilling, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
It’s a behemoth of a bill that, among other changes, extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts, adds work requirements to Medicaid, introduces tax deductions for tips and overtime, and increases spending on defense and border security. It will also, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, add some $3 trillion to the public debt. (That’s a lot.) Republicans say the legislation will help trigger a new American golden age. Democrats say Trump is robbing from the poor to pay the rich. (And Elon Musk is so angry at the hit to the nation’s finances that he says he’s starting a new political party.)
Americans might have tuned out of the debates over the legislation on its long and winding path into law. But as its wide-ranging changes come into effect—and with both parties looking to use it against each other ahead of next year’s midterms—they are soon going to be hearing a lot more about the OBBBA.
So what does the bill do—and is it really beautiful? Or beastly? We asked a wide range of economic and political commentators for their take. And we got a wide range of responses. Larry Summers says it is “grotesque.” Newt Gingrich calls it “an amazing achievement.” Tyler Cowen thinks it is “one of the most radical experiments in fiscal policy in my lifetime.” Click below to read their full takes, as well as the views of Jason Furman, Kyla Scanlon, Reihan Salam, Christopher Caldwell, and others.
—The Editors
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Tune In: Salena Zito on the Near Assassination of President Trump
A year ago this month, Salena Zito was just four feet away from Trump when an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That same day, Salena wrote an extraordinary first-hand account of that tragedy, in which one member of the audience was killed, for The Free Press. Now, 12 months on, Salena has written a book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland. Salena will be joining Peter Savodnik for a livestream chat about her new book at 4 p.m. Eastern time today. Join the conversation with Salena and Peter about that dramatic day in Butler, and everything that followed. Click here to tune in.
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Zohran Mamdani’s Identity Games | ||||||
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Snitching on ICE Goes Mainstream | ||||||
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She Lost Her Husband. I Lost My Wife. Now We’re a Couple. | ||||||
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