Anna Bower, a Senior editor and trial correspondent, Tyler McBrien, Managing editor, and Peter Harrell, an economics expert, dive into pressing national security issues. They discuss the U.S. government’s controversial investment in Intel amid global AI competition. The guests analyze Indian Prime Minister Modi’s diplomatic gestures towards Russia and China, signaling challenges for U.S. relations. Legal battles over the deportation of unaccompanied minors also take center stage, revealing the intricate intersections of immigration law and government policy.
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Chips Grants Converted Into Equity Stake
The Intel deal converts CHIPS Act grants into a 9.9% government equity stake, reducing Intel's obligations to build fabs.
That shifts policy from capacity-building grants toward opportunistic ownership without clear industrial strategy.
insights INSIGHT
Limited Control, Big Governance Risks
The government will vote most of its 10% stake with Intel's board, limiting direct control while discouraging a breakup.
The stake creates governance and favoritism risks without a transparent sovereign-fund structure.
insights INSIGHT
Questionable Statutory Basis For Equity Buys
Legal authority for purchasing domestic equity is thin outside crisis statutes like 2008's ESSA and DFC foreign investment tools.
The administration relies on broad CHIPS Act language and Other Transaction Authority to justify the Intel stake.
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This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Anna Bower, Tyler McBrien, and Peter Harrell to talk through the week’s big national security news stories, including:
“Faginomics.” With the recent announcement that the U.S. government would be taking a 10% stake in the company Intel, the Trump administration has ushered in a new era of state-guided industrial policy, fueled by concerns of major power competition, particularly around the race to AI. How does this new policy intersect with its other novel economic priorities, such as the imposition of tariffs? And how legally viable is it, given present (and potentially future) legal challenges?
“Ménage à Trois.” On the margins of the recent meeting of the China- and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a point of warmly (and very publicly) embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping—a move many have taken as a clear shot across the bow at the Trump administration, which has been in heated economic negotiations with India over tariffs and trade relations. What does this exchange say about the Trump administration’s handling of the U.S. relationship with India—and other key U.S. relationships?
“Midnight Planes Going Nowhere.” In an emergency hearing over the holiday weekend, federal judge Sparkle Sooknanan stopped the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan minor migrants to their home country—a move that the government of Guatemala has now claimed that it invited. What should we make of this move by the Trump administration? And how does it fit within its broader immigration crackdown?
In object lessons, Tyler biked to City Island, NY, discovering a charming little enclave with great food, shops, and beaches. Sticking with the New York theme, Anna recommends “John Proctor is the Villain,” a play by a writer from her Georgia hometown that’s so good it’s making women cry. Scott, meanwhile, left New York behind to live his best Neapolitan life with a new backyard pizza oven that can achieve the appropriate temp for a puffy crust. And Peter’s been reading “When the Clock Broke,” a reminder that the 1990s may have been the dress rehearsal for our current political dumpster fire, all the while keeping an eye on challenges to Trump v. Casa.
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