The Free Press

As part of our celebration of America at 250, we’ve started a weekly newsletter by historian Jonathan Horn. Learn what happened this week in American history, why it matters, and what else you should see and read in The Free Press and beyond. This week Jonathan looks at how Henry Knox earned his job as artillery commander and the gratitude of all patriots. To get this newsletter in your inbox every week, sign up here.
—The Editors

In our era of credentialism, 25-year-old Henry Knox would never have made it to the interview stage for the position of artillery commander in the Continental Army. A look at his résumé would have shown he had dropped out of school, joined a street gang, gotten wrapped up as a witness in a prominent trial for soldiers accused of firing into a crowd (the Boston Massacre), worked as a bookseller, gone parading in a militia uniform, and wed the daughter of a high-ranking British official. If all that wasn’t enough to kill his chances, there was also this: He had ballooned to more than 250 pounds and accidentally shot off two of his own fingers.

Fortunately for America, General George Washington filled the opening based on talent rather than HR dictates or Pentagon mandates against “fat” commanders. On January 18, 1776—250 years ago this week—the trust in Knox paid off when he arrived at the Continental Army’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in advance of what he called a “noble train of artillery” carrying what many had thought immovable: the guns of Fort Ticonderoga.

It’s Wednesday, January 21. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Ashley Rindsberg on the Wikipedia editors sanitizing the Iranian regime’s atrocities. Is the UK about to end trial by jury? River Page speaks with the child social media star who joined OnlyFans as soon as she turned 18. Madeleine Rowley reports on the social media networks helping migrants navigate Trump’s immigration crackdown.

But first: Meet the “Little Trump” waging war on the Federal Reserve.

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Trump v. Cook, the case brought by Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, to prevent President Donald Trump from firing her, as he has been seeking to do since August.

Under the law, a Fed governor can only be removed “for cause”; Trump’s ostensible rationale is that Cook, an ally of Fed chairman Jerome Powell, is guilty of mortgage fraud, an allegation she has “unequivocally” denied.

Trump is also turning up the heat on Powell, of course—indeed, the administration launched a different investigation against him. Who is behind this ruse? In The Free Press today, Bethany McLean, the business journalist who is often credited with being the first to smell a rat at Enron, offers an answer. His name is Bill Pulte, and he leads a small agency called the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled behemoths that guarantee a staggering 70 percent of all mortgages issued in the U.S.

Bethany’s sources, from Wall Street to Washington to the housing industry, say things like “bull in a china shop” and “dictator” to describe a man who is “widely disliked within the administration” but has the support of Donald Trump Jr. and the president himself. And Pulte appears to view doing Trump’s dirty work as part of his mandate. He has allegedly used his position to get information about mortgages held by people Trump views as his political enemies, like New York attorney general Letitia James and California senator Adam Schiff—and Lisa Cook. Read Bethany’s piece to learn about this largely unknown but powerful official that some call “Little Trump.”

—Joe Nocera

• Asked by a reporter on Tuesday how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, Donald Trump replied, “You’ll find out.” The comment came during a surprise two-hour press briefing today to mark the first full year of his second term. The president highlighted his accomplishments and delivered rambling remarks that perplexed some reporters.

• Canadian prime minister Mark Carney implored the “middle powers” of the world to ally with one another in a Davos speech that received a rare standing ovation. Though he did not mention Trump by name, Carney’s speech heralded the end of Pax Americana and took a firm stand against the president’s bid for Arctic conquest. “We stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark,” he said.

• Also at Davos, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said that artificial intelligence “will destroy humanities jobs” and obviate the need for mass immigration. Vocational workers, however, will become more valuable, “if not irreplaceable,” Karp said.

• The Golden Gate Bridge has not seen a single suicide in the last seven months, reaching what may be its longest stretch without one. The iconic site has seen more than 2,000 suicide leaps from its completion in 1937 through 2025, when the city of San Francisco finished installing a system of nets underneath it.

• French president Emmanuel Macron declined to join Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza on Monday. In response to Macron’s denial, Trump told reporters he plans to put a “200 percent tariff” on French wines and champagne, “and he’ll join.”

• A GOP PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pledging $40 million to help reelect Susan Collins of Maine to the Senate this year. President Trump rebuked Collins for siding with Democrats to curb his military powers in Venezuela, declaring that she—and other dissenters—“should never be elected to office again.”

• The Justice Department served subpoenas yesterday on Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to impede immigration enforcement in the state. A copy of a subpoena seen by CBS News does not specify which possible criminal violations the department is probing.

• Weather forecasters are warning of a potentially life-threatening ice storm poised to slam the southern U.S. this weekend that could cause large-scale power outages. “If you get a half of an inch of ice—or, heaven forbid, an inch of ice—that could be catastrophic,” one utility company CEO told the Associated Press.

• Second Lady Usha Vance is pregnant with her fourth child, a baby boy. The baby is expected to be born in late July, according to a social media post from Vance’s official account.

In Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, published as America was headed into the turbulence of the 1960s, Milo Minderbinder is seen as a comic nuisance, until everyone realizes that his unremarkable position in the bureaucracy has given him incredible power.

In today’s Washington, the real-world parallel might be Bill Pulte. Pulte runs a government agency that most people don’t know exists and is widely disliked in both Washington and Wall Street. Nevertheless, he has made himself into a force.

The morning after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell issued a video statement criticizing subpoenas issued to the central bank—which indicated that federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation of Powell—Bloomberg reported that had instigated the investigation. He had flown to Palm Beach, Florida, on Air Force One with Donald Trump, and mocked up a “wanted” poster with Powell on it, according to The Washington Post.

Pulte has denied knowing anything about the probe into the Fed, but this wouldn’t be the first time he has catapulted himself into the spotlight over a criminal investigation into someone perceived by Trump as an enemy. Nor is it the first time Pulte has taken on the central bank. In August, he posted on X that the agency he heads, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), had referred a criminal case alleging mortgage fraud by Fed governor Lisa Cook to the Justice Department. “Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social two hours later. The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether the president has the power to fire her.

“You can’t be boring,” said Piper Rockelle. “You have to get people to talk. This industry is about being relevant.”

And if Rockelle knows anything, it’s how to get people to talk. The 18-year-old spent her childhood amassing millions of followers on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram under the tutelage of her controversial stage mother, Tiffany Smith. Most of the content revolved around Rockelle’s day-to-day life and her “squad”: Think Real Housewives, but everyone is in the ninth grade.

Now that she’s officially an adult, Rockelle is amping it up. On New Year’s Day, just months after her 18th birthday, she joined OnlyFans. “Everyone told me not to do this but here we are. . . time to take it ALL OFF for you bbys,” her OnlyFans profile reads. Her page largely consists of pictures of her posing seductively around her house in skimpy lingerie, but her pinned posts says that nude content can be purchased by tipping $150.

“a lot of u have been messaging me saying ‘how can i see ur nudies content’ ‘how can i get a custom’ ‘how can i get priority messaging?’ ” Rockelle writes on the site. “sooo i decided to launch my VIP EXPERIENCE.”

People in Britain like to think that the concept of a jury trial, as we know it today, goes back nearly a thousand years. While it’s true that King Henry II established a jury of 12 local knights to settle disputes over the ownership of land in the 1100s, jury trials have changed immeasurably in the centuries since.

But now, the British government, without making a public case and lacking a popular mandate, is set to change it all. Faced with crumbling infrastructure and overwhelmed courts, the Labour government announced plans at the end of last year to remove jury trials for criminal cases where the guidelines dictate a sentence of less than three years. Defendants in these cases would no longer be allowed to choose to be judged by their peers.

“The latest Ministry of Justice proposal presages one of the most radical and revolutionary events in English legal history,” said Geoffrey Rivlin, a retired judge giving evidence to a parliamentary committee examining the changes. “Yet it has not appeared in any manifesto; it has not been put out for consultation.”

While Iranian security forces have killed up to 20,000 protesters since December 2025—with the real toll feared much higher—another battle is being fought in the digital realm. As internet blackouts prevent Iranians from documenting their own repression, pro-regime editors on Wikipedia are working to control how these events, and Iranian history more broadly, are recorded and read by the rest of the world.

It’s a deliberate dual strategy: Kinetic violence silences dissent at home, and digital propaganda shapes the narrative abroad. Together, they form what Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calls “vindication jihad”—a soft war in the information space designed to rewrite reality itself.

“Can a person who removed the ankle bracelet leave the country without consequences?”

That question was asked recently in a private Facebook group called CBP ONE (Latinos, ayuda e información), or “Latinos, help and information,” which has almost 168,000 members. CBP One was a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol smartphone app used by the Joe Biden administration to allow immigrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The app still exists—but has a new name and purpose to go along with the Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. It is now called CBP Home, shows people how to self-deport to their country of origin “quickly and easily” in four steps, and promises to pay for a plane ticket and an “exit bonus” of $1,000.

“I instantly went numb.”

Jay Asher is describing the moment he knew his career was over.

It was February 2018, and the rumors had been swirling for days, as a #MeToo reckoning descended upon the world of young adult fiction. At that time, in that world, Asher was a star: the acclaimed author of four novels, including the internationally best-selling Thirteen Reasons Why, which had been adapted into a hit Netflix show that was about to release its second season.

He doesn’t talk about that show now, or about his career as an author. Instead, when he meets new people, he pretends he’s never written anything at all. “I hide that part of me from everyone I meet because it leads to questions,” he told me. “I don’t let myself get into getting-to-know-you conversations anymore.”

All because of accusations made eight years ago, in the comments section of a blog post from School Library Journal, a publishing trade magazine. To be clear: Asher has never been formally accused, in any forum, of harassing or harming a woman—nor ever investigated, let alone found guilty, for such an offense. But he has lost pretty much everything—not just his identity as an author but his agent, his publisher, his livelihood, and his reputation. His marriage is over. He’s been virtually unemployable since it happened, he says (do an internet search for his name and you’ll understand why) and his life savings are gone. And his downfall started with anonymous comments like these:

I find it bizarre and horrifying that nobody has named Jay Asher.

I heard about Jay Asher back in 2005. It is so well known, his agent HAS to know.

People want us to name names. They want to know ”who.” I will say the name from my story: Jay Asher. Happy, now?

I, too, experienced predatory behavior from Jay Asher. . . . When I discovered his true nature, I cut off all communication and tried to warn other women through the whisper network. He found out and used threats and intimidation to quiet me. Well, Mr. Asher, the intimidation stops NOW. We will no longer whisper.

Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where the first official visit to China by our prime minister since 2017 shows how much our relationship with the United States has hit the rocks, we are getting real about being realistic, and more. Let’s get to it!

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney stepped onto a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People last Thursday and reviewed a ceremonial honor guard of China’s People’s Liberation Army. Flanked by senior Chinese officials, he walked slowly past rows of soldiers standing at rigid attention as a military band played the Canadian and Chinese national anthems.

It was Carney’s first full day in Beijing, where no Canadian prime minister had paid an official visit since Justin Trudeau in 2017. Even the idea had seemed unimaginable since 2021, when Canada-China relations collapsed after the arrest of Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, known as the “two Michaels.” In 2018, they were detained in China on vague espionage charges, a move widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the U.S.

It’s Tuesday, January 20. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: A video report on the activists smuggling Starlink terminals into Iran. Can the sports betting genie be put back in the bottle? Arthur Brooks on how public intellectuals lost America’s trust. And much more.

But first: The president really wants Greenland.

It reads like something out of a #NeverTrump fever dream: Donald Trump pressuring a European prime minister to hand over Greenland to the United States, in part because he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s exactly what happened late on Sunday.

Here’s the message Trump sent to Norwegian premier Jonas Gahr Støre:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

Where to start? When the news broke Monday, the reaction in Europe was one of complete shock. Economist Ken Rogoff happened to be in Davos, where Europe’s technocratic and business elite gather every year for the World Economic Forum. In 25 years of attending the summit, he writes in our pages this morning, “I have never heard the Europeans as worked up as they are about Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland this week.”

Trump arrives in Davos on Wednesday and seems set on expanding the territory of the United States by hundreds of thousands of square miles before he leaves. So how will Europe respond? What would a trade war between Europe and America mean for the global economy? And who will blink first? Ken has answers to those questions in his column today.

It’s not just the technocrats hobnobbing in the Swiss Alps who are up in arms about the president’s saber-rattling. As Rod Dreher reports in his column today, the continent’s conservative populist parties are just as outraged. Politicians who ordinarily support Trump are denouncing him and are being forced to reconsider their position because, as Rod puts it, “they are patriots.”

Rod, who voted for Trump, says the president “seems to have lost his mind” and warns that his Greenland bullying “risks destroying America’s reputation abroad,” “threatens European sovereignty,” and drives voters away from the very parties the Trump administration says are key to Europe’s revival. Read Rod and Ken for two perspectives on Trump, Greenland, and Europe.

—Oliver Wiseman

For the past 23 days, Iranian protesters have flooded the streets in the largest anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic’s history. In response, the fundamentalist regime has unleashed a violent crackdown, killing thousands. Internet and phone service have been cut off by the government since January 8.

And yet the outside world has been able to see some images and videos of the atrocities committed in Iran, all thanks to Starlink terminals smuggled into the country that allow the Iranian people to bypass the regime’s internet shutdown. In a Free Press video report, Rafaela Siewert and Tanya Lukyanova go inside the effort to get the story of the Iranian protesters—and the bloody crackdown—out of the country and broadcast to the world. Watch it here:

• At least 40 people were confirmed dead in Sunday night’s high-speed train collision in Spain. The death toll is expected to rise as investigators continue to search for bodies, some of which were found hundreds of yards from the crash site, authorities said. The cause of the crash hasn’t been determined.

• Anti-gay bias among Americans rose 10 percent from the start of 2021 to the end of 2024, new research found. The researchers found that the trend was most robust among Americans under 25.

• Valentino Garavani, the Italian fashion designer famous for high-end clothing and high-society clients, died yesterday at 93. He was best known for dressing First Ladies and movie stars—including Jackie Kennedy and Julia Roberts—and for his signature shade of “Valentino red.”

• China’s birth rate fell to its lowest level since the country began recording the figures in 1949. China’s infamous one-child policy and strict immigration laws, conceived to limit overpopulation, now threaten the economic growth of what was once the world’s most populous nation. China now trails India.

• More than 170 Christians were abducted during church services in northern Nigeria on Sunday, according to Nigeria’s Daily Trust. Nine victims were able to escape, while 163 remained in captivity, according to Joseph John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in its northern region.

• The Justice Department said it will pursue charges against people who interrupted a St. Paul, Minnesota, church service on Sunday to protest ICE. “You are on notice!” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told former CNN host Don Lemon, who responded that he was covering the protest, not participating in it.

• Waistline slimming may soon lead to airline savings as American passengers increase their use of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. A new study from Jefferies Research Services found that if drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy produce a 10 percent slimmer population, airline fuel costs would shrink by 1.5 percent and earnings per share would rise by 4 percent.

• Only one Democrat out of nearly 20 seen as possible presidential contenders in 2028—Rahm Emanuel—gave a clear answer when asked by Axios if boys should be able to play girls’ sports. He said no.