The Free Press

“We love you, J.D.,” a man bellows through a rolled-up “Trump 2024” poster. J.D. Vance—the man of the evening—pulls back for a second, as if to process the surreality of the moment, then shouts back: “I love you too, man.” He once called Trump “America’s Hitler.” But yesterday, the 39-year-old—whose life journey took him from a broken home in the poor, rural Ohio he wrote about in Hillbilly Elegy, to the Marines, to Ohio State, to Yale Law School and to the Senate—was given a hero’s welcome at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Olivia Reingold was on the scene for The Free Press. Read “Hillbilly Veep” at TheFP.com: https://thefp.pub/3Y7lzmW

‼️ Calling all Free Press subscribers in need of some hard-earned advice: We want to hear from YOU! ‼️ We’re putting together an advice show for Honestly, and we’ve assembled an all-star panel—it’s Caitlin Flanagan and Suzy Weiss—to help you get your life straight. Leave us a voicemail at—805-387-2530 or email us at tips@thefp.com—and lay it on us: What's been eating at you? We’re here to dispense advice on parenthood, sisterhood, death, romance, work, love, war, you name it. Be sure to leave your name and the best way to contact you in case our producers need a little more dirt!

On today’s Front Page from The Free Press: Olivia Reingold: Who is the Hillbilly Veep?  Michael Moynihan: The FP goes live from the RNC with 350,000 viewers.  Rupa Subramanya: Behind the Secret Service failure. Jed Rubenfeld: Yale law professor explains Trump’s classified documents case.  Eli Lake: Biden doesn’t lower the temperature with NBC’s Lester Holt. Oliver Wiseman: Morning No Joe. River Page: Who wants a Trump Got Shot tattoo? And much more at TheFP.com:

Questions are being raised about the Secret Service after it failed to protect former president Donald J. Trump from an assassination attempt. “Influential Americans, from lawmakers to commentators, have drawn a link between the almost-catastrophic security breach and the Service’s new DEI policies—specifically, the attempt to increase the number of women it employs,” Rupa Subramanya writes in The Free Press. “Two videos in particular have drawn ire on social media—much of it directed at female agents who appear to be incompetent.” Read “The Secret Service Failed. What’s That Have to Do with DEI?” at TheFP.com:

There are, to be sure, millions of Americans who fear that President Trump, given a second term, won’t defend and uphold the Constitution. That he endangers our democracy. There are also millions of Americans who believe that President Biden has been a disaster—and that he’s the one endangering democracy with his lies about his mental acuity. “So be it,” Peter Savodnik writes in The Free Press. “But we need not succumb to the partisan trap.” Read Peter’s latest piece in full at TheFP.com: https://thefp.pub/4bEPExf

On today’s Front Page from Oliver Wiseman and The Free Press team: David Masci: For the love of country, act now. Niall Ferguson: We were within an inch of a different America. Olivia Reingold: Meet the Zoomers going MAGA.  Eli Lake: It’s 1968 all over again.  Salena Zito joins Michael Moynihan on the Honestly pod. Elliot Ackerman: A former Marine on Trump’s defiance.  Peter Savodnik on the partisan trap. Andy Mills: The questions our president must answer now. Douglas Murray: How to respond to an assassination attempt. Plus: Wise words from Walt Whitman, and much more:

“Hopefully, Saturday’s tragedy won’t go to waste. Hopefully, the American people will demand at least a temporary halt to dangerous rhetoric.” David Masci, editor-in-chief of the Discourse journal, issues a stern warning in his new essay for The Free Press. Read “If You Love This Country, Turn Down the Temperature Now” at TheFP.com:

The year that left two leaders dead and shattered our politics has come back to haunt us. With the specter of political assassinations now haunting the republic, Eli Lake dives deep into the parallels between 1968 and 2024. Read “It’s 1968 All Over Again” at TheFP.com:  

A gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania. Salena Zito was just feet away from the former president when the bullets started flying. She sat down with Michael Moynihan to share what she saw. Listen now: https://thefp.pub/462LFcK

“Some people in the crowd might have thought they heard fireworks. But I knew exactly what it was. I own a gun.” Salena Zito witnessed a gunman's attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. “I looked up at the president. was shocked to see blood on his face. A smear of red across his cheek.” Read ‘I Was Four Feet Away When I Heard the Bullets’ at TheFP.com: