Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The Man Behind Trump’s Attack on the Fed. Plus. . .
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The Man Behind Trump’s Attack on the Fed. Plus. . .
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
CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 20, 2026. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)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.
View all episodes
By Bari WeissIt’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
CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 20, 2026. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)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.