President Trump and NBC’s Kristen Welker have managed to turn two ordinary words—“mixed results”—into a national argument about political influence, media bias, federal authority, and the First Amendment. Apparently, Washington had a quiet moment and needed something to do. The dispute began when Welker, appearing in a live promotional segment on NBC-owned WRC-TV before Meet…
AI Data Centers and the Future of Local Economies
President Trump has a characteristically understated message for communities resisting AI data centers: Accept them or risk becoming “backwards and poor.” He says the facilities will bring jobs, prosperity, and lower taxes, while opposition will please China and kill America’s technological “Golden Goose.” Subtle it’s not. Still, beneath the presidential megaphone is a serious question.…
Oil, Power, and the New U.S.–Venezuela Agreement
President Trump announced what he calls the biggest oil deal in history: an agreement that could give the United States a controlling interest in the output from 17 Venezuelan oil fields containing a reported 65 billion barrels. The arrangement could reshape American energy security, revive Venezuela’s battered petroleum industry, and shift influence in the Western…
Lake Ontario or Lake America? The Politics of a Name
Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to replace “Lake Ontario” with “Lake America” in federal maps, contracts, documents, and communications within 30 days. The order can’t force Canada, international organizations, private mapmakers, state governments, or ordinary people to follow along. It…
Trump’s Bulk-Power Emergency Order and the Security of the U.S. Grid
President Trump has declared a national emergency involving foreign-made equipment used in America’s bulk-power system. The executive order seeks to prevent certain equipment associated with foreign governments or entities from being purchased, imported, installed, or operated when federal officials determine that it presents an unacceptable security risk. Despite the more dramatic headlines, this isn’t a…
Ghislaine Maxwell’s Latest Challenge: Finality, Fairness, and the Epstein Files
The Jeffrey Epstein saga has produced an almost endless supply of sealed files, suspicious timing, institutional embarrassment, political opportunism, and questions that refuse to die. This week, however, a federal judge answered one question quite firmly: Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction is staying put. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer rejected Maxwell’s attempt to overturn her five…
The $103,265 H-1B Fee Proposal and the Future of Skilled Immigration
Washington has discovered a way to make immigration paperwork cost more than some houses. As The Hill reports, the Department of Homeland Security formally published a proposed rule yesterday that would add a $103,265 fee to every cap-subject H-1B petition, including petitions under the advanced-degree exemption. The charge would come on top of the filing…
The U.S.-Canada Tariff Dispute and Its Economic Stakes
For two countries that share the world’s longest international border, the United States and Canada are doing a remarkable impression of neighbors arguing over whose tree dropped leaves into whose yard. Unfortunately, this disagreement involves 50 percent tariffs, billions of dollars in trade, and enough economic collateral damage to make an ordinary property-line dispute look…
The New Cuba Sanctions: Security, Sovereignty, and Economic Pressure
The Trump administration has opened another front in its pressure campaign against Cuba. Yesterday, the United States sanctioned three leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, commonly known as ICAP, along with nine government entities operating in construction, mining, metals, imports, tourism supply, and labor contracting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accuses…
The Constitutional Fight Over the Federal Ghost-Gun Rule
A federal judge in Texas has reopened the legal battle over the federal government’s regulation of so-called “ghost guns,” ruling that key portions of a Biden-era rule violate both the Second Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process. The decision may sound like a direct rejection of the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling upholding…
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