The Dynamist

In President Trump’s second term, federal agencies are navigating uncharted territory. Two Supreme Court cases from June 2024 fundamentally changed how agencies can operate: Loper Bright ended Chevron deference—meaning courts no longer automatically defer to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous laws—and Jarkesy limited agencies' ability to impose civil penalties without jury trials.At the same time, President Trump is consolidating control over agencies that were traditionally seen as independent from the executive branch. He's fired commissioners from the FTC, NLRB, and other agencies as part of his push for a "unitary executive." Former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter is fighting her dismissal, and the Supreme Court recently allowed the firing to stand while it reviews the case.The fundamental tension? Courts are stripping power from agencies just as Trump is trying to bring those agencies under tighter presidential control. Will Loper Bright and Jarkesy make these agencies less useful tools for implementing Trump's agenda, even if he wins the fight to end their independence? And how will these cases impact the FCC’s authority looks to reform its broadband subsidy programs while fighting illegal robocalls?Evan is joined by Tom Johnson, former general counsel of the FCC under Chairman Pai and now a partner at Wiley Rein. He is the author of a new paper for Digital Progress Institute on ways to reform the Universal Service Fund.

In this follow-up to his interview with Senator Joni Ernst, Evan dives into the legislative weeds of government efficiency reform with FAI scholars Dan Lips and Lars Schönander. While DOGE grabbed headlines with federal worker layoffs and chainsaw imagery, the real lasting impact may come from less flashy but more fundamental fixes: stopping the Treasury Department from sending checks to dead people, preventing Chinese-linked companies from exploiting small business research programs, and codifying anti-fraud measures that could save tens of billions annually.The conversation reveals how Ernst's decade-long crusade against government waste has created a legislative roadmap for the Trump administration's efficiency agenda. From strengthening the Treasury's "Do Not Pay" database to reforming the compromised Small Business Innovation Research program, these aren't partisan talking points but bipartisan solutions with Obama-era origins that have been stalled by bureaucratic inertia and special interests. With Ernst's retirement creating a 15-month window and SBIR authorization expiring next week, the episode captures a pivotal moment when policy wonk proposals might finally become permanent law—or get lost in the political shuffle once again.

For over a decade, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has been a persistent voice against government waste, issuing "squeal awards" that exposed bureaucratic excess when few were paying attention. What began as a somewhat thankless crusade has now become the intellectual foundation for one of the Trump administration's signature initiatives. As Chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus, Ernst finds herself in the position of watching her longstanding concerns become White House priorities—from fraudulent payments to foreign exploitation of small business research programs. She’s working to implement solutions she's spent years developing, including a blueprint for $2 trillion in potential taxpayer savings.Ernst recently announced that she won’t be seeking reelection, creating a 15-month timeline for her to put her stamp on the U.S. Congress. The convergence of her institutional knowledge and Trump's reform mandate, with her lame-duck freedom to take risks, positions her as a unique figure in determining whether and how DOGE leaves a lasting impact on the federal government. The question isn't just what she hopes to accomplish in her remaining tenure, but what the government efficiency movement may look like without its most dedicated practitioner. Senator Ernst joins Evan to discuss her legislative efforts to root out government waste and what she hopes to accomplish before she leaves the Senate.

Not too long ago, NVIDIA was a niche tech company known for the graphics cards that powered computer gaming. Thanks to skyrocketing growth over the past few years, today, it’s a $4 trillion behemoth that designs cutting-edge chips necessary for frontier AI development. It’s an American company based in Santa Clara, CA. But, like so many other companies, it relies on foreign firms to manufacture its designs—primarily Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.Intel is the only major American company that manufactures its own advanced semiconductors, or chips, but the once iconic firm is on an opposite trajectory. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Intel’s microprocessors powered over 90% of PCs and the company was one of the world’s most valuable. But intel missed the boat on two major tech developments—smartphones and AI—leaving the company a shell of its former glory.NVIDIA soared while Intel declined, but the two share in common a rollercoaster relationship with Washington and the Trump Administration over their ties to China.  After moving to ban NVIDIA from exporting its H20 chip to China, President Trump reversed the ban in exchange for NVIDIA giving a 15% cut of the sales to the US government. Last month, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan came under fire for his ties to and investments in Chinese companies, leading Trump to call for his immediate resignation. A few weeks later, Trump announced that the US government would take a 10% stake in Intel for about $10 billion in outstanding CHIPS Act grants, and Trump praised Tan for his affirmed commitments to US interests.The two companies are at the heart of the most significant tech policy debates in the world—from industrial policy to how to balance a desire to export American technology with the need to safeguard trade secrets and AI advantages. Evan is joined by Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of American Compass. Oren has been a staunch supporter of the CHIPS Act and industrial policies that he believes are necessary to restore high-tech American manufacturing, particularly in semiconductors. He’s also been highly critical of the Administration’s recent moves to allow NVIDIA to export more of its chips to China. Read his op-ed in The Washington Post on NVIDIA’s H20 and his newsletter on the topic, as well as his recent op-ed in Commonplace on NVIDIA’s potential antitrust problems. See his newsletter here for more on his reaction to the U.S. government’s equity stake in Intel.

This week, we're crossposting this episode where our own Evan Swarztrauber joined American Moment CEO Nick Solheim on the Moment of Truth podcast to discuss the evolving politics of Big Tech on both left and right.Evan draws on his FCC experience during the net neutrality debates to explore how conservative thinking on tech regulation has shifted. He and Nick discuss key moments like the Parler de-platforming and examine whether recent conservative support for antitrust enforcement represents a genuine policy evolution or short-term political expediency.From Google's search dominance to content moderation battles, they unpack the tension between free market principles and concerns about corporate power over speech. The discussion offers insights into how tech policy debates are reshaping both ideology and regulatory approaches. 

When Stanford students Elsa Johnson and Garret Molloy began investigating Chinese intelligence operations on their campus for the Stanford Review, they uncovered something far more extensive than expected: a systematic intelligence network that has transformed thousands of Chinese students into assets for Beijing's technology collection efforts. Their investigation revealed that between 20,000 and 50,000 Chinese students studying in America receive funding from Beijing's China Scholarship Council, with many maintaining contact with "handlers" who expect regular intelligence reports.This discovery exposes a fundamental asymmetry in how China and America approach academic exchange. Beijing leverages our relatively open research environment through "nontraditional collection"—crowdsourced intelligence gathering through students and researchers—while maintaining strict control over their own institutions. China wants access to our openness while preserving their own secrecy.But America's response threatens to undermine the very qualities that make our universities innovative. The trade-off seems impossible: remain vulnerable to systematic exploitation or adopt surveillance methods that mirror authoritarian systems. Can universities maintain their innovative edge while protecting sensitive research? Johnson and Molloy's investigation reveals how these questions will shape the future of American higher education in an age of great power competition.Note: The Stanford Review was erroneously referred to as the "Stanford Economic Review" once in this episode.

While Silicon Valley builds advanced AI models and Beijing integrates them into state power, Washington faces an uncomfortable reality: America's innovation machine might not be enough to win the AI race on its own. The problem isn't our technology—it's our government's ability to deploy it.The White House recently released “America’s AI Action Plan,” which aims to change this dynamic, calling for everything from "Manhattan Project-style" coordination to federal AI sandboxes. But with the Trump Administration now moving to implement these initiatives, the question becomes: can American democracy move fast enough to compete with authoritarian efficiency? And should it?Charles Clancy, Chief Technology Officer of MITRE, knows the challenges well. His organization serves as a bridge between government needs and technical solutions, and he’s seen firsthand how regulatory fragmentation, procurement bottlenecks, and institutional silos turn America's AI advantages into operational disadvantages. His team also finds that Chinese open-weight models outperform American ones on key benchmarks—a potential warning sign as the U.S. and China compete to proliferate their technology across the globe.Clancy argues the solution is not for the U.S. to become China, but rather to take a uniquely American approach—establish federal frontier labs, moonshot challenges, and market incentives that harness private innovation for public missions. He and FAI’s Josh Levine join Evan to explore whether democratic institutions can compete with authoritarian efficiency without sacrificing democratic values. View Mitre’s proposals for the White House’s plan here, and more of Charle’s research here. 

Quantum computing has been "five years away" for decades, but when NVIDIA's Jensen Huang says we've hit an inflection point, Congress listens and stocks soar. The reality? We're still building very expensive proof-of-concepts. Today's quantum computers run on 100 qubits—impressive to physicists, useless to you. Commercial viability needs a million qubits, a 10,000x leap that's not incremental progress but a complete reinvention.Unlike the familiar tech story where room-sized computers became pocket devices, quantum is binary: it either works at massive scale or it's an elaborate academic exercise. There's no quantum equivalent of early PCs that could at least balance your checkbook—no useful middle ground between 100 qubits and a million.China wants quantum for cryptography: the master key to any lock. America's lead exists mostly on paper—in research publications and VC rounds, not deployed systems. Dr. Peter Shadbolt from PsiQuantum, fresh from congressional testimony, argues America must commit now or risk losing a race that could redefine pharmaceutical research and financial security. The real question: can a democracy sustain long-term investment in technologies that offer zero immediate gratification?

Is free speech in global decline? A new survey suggests public support for free expression is dropping worldwide, with citizens in authoritarian countries like Venezuela and Hungary showing stronger commitment to free speech than many living in democracies.From the unfulfilled digital promises of the Arab Spring to Europe's controversial Digital Services Act, the Internet hasn't necessarily delivered the free speech revolution many predicted. Americans under 30 are less committed to free speech principles than previous generations, while both of the U.S.’s major political parties face accusations of using government power to control information.As AI reshapes how we communicate and governments worldwide rethink speech regulations, what does this mean for the future of human expression? Are we witnessing a fundamental shift in how societies value free speech, or simply recycling ancient debates in digital form?Evan is joined by Jacob Mchangama, Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt, and author of Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media, and Ashkhen Kazaryan, Senior Legal Fellow at The Future of Free Speech. Previously, she was the lead for North and Latin America on the content regulation team at Meta.

Gail Slater is the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Department of Justice (DOJ). She was nominated in December of last year and confirmed by the Senate in March on a bipartisan 78-19 vote. She inherited some major antitrust cases brought by prior administrations—including against Google, Apple, Visa, and LiveNation. And in her short time, she has launched probes, brought and settled cases, and offered the DoJ’s opinion in private litigation. But beyond her role as a law enforcer, Slater is a manifestation of the realignment of not just politics generally, but antitrust policy specifically. Her first speech in her new role was titled “The Conservative Roots of America First Antitrust Enforcement.” And in recent interviews, she has shed light on how she sees her approach to antitrust contrasting with the laissez-faire approach of the Chicago school and the aggressive posture of her predecessors in the Biden Administration.When it comes to technology, Slater has taken a strong view that antitrust and US competitiveness are not at odds, but rather that antitrust makes the US more competitive vis-a-vis China. And just recently, she announced action the DoJ has taken at the intersection of antitrust and free speech, another key area of focus. Evan and Slater discuss what “America First Antitrust” means, how the approach is similar and different from her predecessor in the Biden Administration, and the relationship between antitrust and national security.