The Army Needs Good Leaders. Why Is Hegseth Firing Them? Plus. . .
Rod Dreher on the universal appeal of Wendell Berry. A purple-district Democrat on why the DSA is bad news for his party. Did Pennsylvania health officials lie about two measles deaths? And more.
Rod Dreher on the universal appeal of Wendell Berry. A purple-district Democrat on why the DSA is bad news for his party. Did Pennsylvania health officials lie about two measles deaths? And more.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a Mexican Border Defense Medal ceremony at the Pentagon on July 27, 2026. (Annabelle Gordon/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s Wednesday, September 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: Rep. Tom Suozzi on how the DSA could set Democrats back a decade. Alex Berenson on the escalating fight over measles in Pennsylvania. Rod Dreher on why conservatives loved the left-leaning poet Wendell Berry. And much more.
But first: The latest on the fight in Iran—and the Pentagon.
The Iran war—locked in a stalemate for almost all of August—is heating up this week after the U.S. launched new strikes on Iran over the weekend, and again on Tuesday. Oil prices are up and global markets are on edge as Scott Bessent threatens sanctions on countries doing business with Tehran. Meanwhile, on the home front, another fight is escalating inside the Pentagon.
The latest fissure: Army Secretary Dan Driscoll personally tendered his resignation to Donald Trump on Monday following ongoing clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Though the reasoning behind Driscoll’s resignation isn’t publicly known, one Trump official told Eli Lake that the heart of the feud is the Pentagon’s promotion process: Driscoll was trying to preserve it as a meritocracy while Hegseth purged or sidelined senior officers without explanation, instead favoring political allies.
To the Hegseth camp, the purges are necessary to push wokeness out of the military. But in practice, Eli reports, it looks like something else.
Today, Eli probes the divides inside the Pentagon and what it means for the Department of Defense to lose so many leaders while it prosecutes a war against Iran.
Americans are fed up with their country’s political system—and they’re hungry for alternatives. Nothing proves this frustration like the rising popularity of the DSA, says Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, but a platform that includes abolishing the police, prisons, and the Senate is a losing formula for his party. “If Democrats fail to speak out against the DSA and their platform,” writes Suozzi, “the voters we need to win in 2026 may well conclude that our party is too radical to be trusted.” Read his stark warning about the DSA’s threat to his party and the country.
Were the recent highly publicized deaths of two unvaccinated Pennsylvanians really caused by measles? That is the question driving a rift between the CDC and the Pennsylvania department of health—a whole saga that could have been avoided, Alex Berenson argues, were it not for a media blitz to scare the unvaccinated. Read his piece on how the stunt echoes those of the Covid era, how it backfired, and what it will take for public health officials to rebuild trust.
The poet Wendell Berry, who died on Tuesday, was a “New Deal Democrat” according to his wife. So why was he so adored by conservatives? In his latest essay, Rod Dreher, who knew Berry personally, pays tribute to a great writer and unpacks the secret of his unusually broad appeal.
On Tuesday, September 8, join Free Press columnists Aaron MacLean, Elliot Ackerman, and Douglas Murray at the Manhattan Institute and the Community Security Initiative’s event: 25 Years After 9/11.
NYPD officers investigate the scene after police shot a knife-wielding woman accused of stabbing two people in Times Square on August 31, 2026. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Bank of America vice president Erin Piacenti, 32, of New Jersey, was identified as the woman killed in Monday’s Times Square stabbing. Pamela Cisneros, the 49-year-old attacker who was fatally shot by police, had a history of interactions with police during prior mental health episodes, according to her brother.
An anonymous federal whistleblower warned on Tuesday that the system USPS built to carry out Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting risks a “catastrophic failure” that could “derail the midterm elections.” In response, Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal wrote to the postmaster general: “We urge you to abandon this ill-conceived, unconscionable plan and ensure that all Americans can exercise their constitutional right to vote, including by mail, without interference by USPS.”
A Utah judge ruled on Tuesday that 23-year-old Tyler Robinson can be tried for murder in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. After the ruling, Robinson pleaded not guilty to all charges. He could face the death penalty. Kirk, 31, was shot dead last September during a rally held at Utah Valley University.
ICE made 2,100 arrests across New York last month as part of “Operation Rotten Apple,” Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Tuesday. Mullin criticized sanctuary policies enacted by New York governor Kathy Hochul and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, claiming they made it harder to carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian migrant, died by suicide Monday after walking into traffic in Springfield, Ohio, his family said. Bel had been upset after being forced to wear an ICE ankle monitor following the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. The jury deliberations took less than three hours. Davis, who faces a life sentence, has indicated his plan to appeal.
Nicki Minaj will join a panel of judges, including Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and investor Grant Cardone, at the Small Business Administration’s “Million Dollar Pitch Competition” on September 18 in Washington. Five small businesses will compete for a share of $1 million in prize money in a Shark Tank–like competition.
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