Hello Reader,
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When cronyism masquerades as national security, governors use secrecy to build prisons, and the FBI monitors senators' phones—who's defending liberty?
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The answer may come from the independent voices rebuilding media credibility—from the bottom up.

1. Trump's Industrial Power Grab
2. FBI Targets Yesterday's Abuses
3. Ron Desantis and the Prisoners of Alcatraz
4. America's Doors Slam Shut
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Color Key: 🟢 Advances liberty 🔴 Restricts liberty

One Trump ally woke up Tuesday morning $70 million richer. Billionaire and Trump megadonor John Paulson’s stake in Trilogy Metals tripled overnight when the federal government purchased a 10% stake for $35.6 million.
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The administration calls it an "investment" in national security, touting it as a boost for taxpayers—never mind that few Americans would freely choose to invest in a Canadian mining company with five employees, zero revenue, and $9.2 billion in losses.
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Copper powers EVs and data centers. Cobalt fuels the lithium-ion batteries running everything from smartphones to fighter jets. China controls 80% of global cobalt refining capacity, a chokepoint that could strangle American industry during any future conflict—a legitimate concern. Credit the administration for approving permits for the 211-mile access road to Alaska's Ambler mining district—removing bureaucratic barriers is government's proper role.
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But government ownership invites cronyism. Paulson's windfall proves the point: well-connected investors reap rewards while taxpayers assume risk. Worse, state ownership kills accountability. Private investors demand profits or cut losses. Government investors protect failures to avoid political embarrassment. Trilogy can now lose billions more knowing bailouts will follow, justified by "national security."
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America didn't defeat Nazi Germany by having Roosevelt pick winners. We won because government-guided competition forced suppliers to innovate or die. Ford, GM, and Chrysler slashed costs competing for Army contracts. The M4 Sherman rolled off lines in five months because companies fought to prove superiority. That pressure buried the Soviet Union, whose state-run mines never matched American productivity.
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Washington could secure minerals through purchase guarantees—committing to buy cobalt at fixed prices from any certified source. Fracking followed that path: federal research and incentives, not equity. The result was energy revolution, not political windfall.
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Trump's state capitalism increasingly mirrors Beijing's failing model of state control. Competition and innovation will be the first casualties.

In 2023, federal agents monitoring Republican senators' cellular records knew exactly which numbers they dialed, from where each call originated, and where it was received. According to internal reports reviewed by congressional investigators, “Operation Arctic Frost” tracked the phone movements of nine lawmakers under Jack Smith’s FBI team—though not the contents of their calls.
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Federal prosecutors used the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team to map nearly 13,000 location points during the week surrounding January 6, 2021, as Senators debated whether to certify election results—precisely the kind of legislative activity the Speech or Debate Clause was designed to protect.
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That clause in Article I, Section 6 prevents the executive branch from intimidating Congress or interfering with legislative duties. The Framers learned from centuries of conflict between Parliament and the Crown, where monarchs used criminal law to suppress critical legislators. By monitoring senators’ phone records during deliberations, Smith’s team crossed a vital separation-of-powers line.
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The Fourth Amendment compounds the problem. In Carpenter v. United States (2018), the Supreme Court held that obtaining historical cell-site location data normally requires a warrant supported by probable cause. Smith’s team instead used grand jury subpoenas requiring only “reasonable grounds”—a far looser standard.
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While the legality remains in dispute, media scrutiny was nearly nonexistent. Politico's primary concern was correcting Josh Hawley's characterization of "tapping" rather than scrutinizing Smith’s methods. His defenders insist the data collection was legal—part of mapping January 6 communications, not targeting legislators for their votes.
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Semantics aside, the episode reminds us neither party holds a monopoly on federal overreach. Under Director Kash Patel, the FBI has fired the employees involved and disbanded the CR-15 unit. That’s welcome accountability for yesterday's abuses—albeit from an administration busy engineering tomorrow's.

Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention camp emerged from a web of emergency decrees and deliberate secrecy, raising profound questions about executive authority.
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An analysis by Reason this week revealed Governor Ron DeSantis declared a "state of emergency" in 2023 over Cuban and Haitian migrants landing in the Florida Keys—landings Reason claims "hardly constituted a major disaster". That declaration, renewed every 60 days since, unlocked a $2 billion "Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund" the governor can tap without legislative oversight. This established the legal foundation for unilateral seizure of public land and construction of a massive detention facility—sans legislative approval.
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The secrecy was systematic. When detainees arrived, they essentially disappeared—not showing up on ICE’s online locator, since ICE classified them as state detainees—a jurisdictional shell game that made it impossible to determine who bore legal responsibility. For more than a month, neither of the two nearest federal immigration courts would accept jurisdiction, leaving prisoners in limbo without recourse.
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Florida even clawed back public data about state contracts for Alligator Alcatraz once reporters began investigating. Both state and federal agencies withheld 287(g) agreements until court orders forced their release.
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The legal justification is dubious at best. The Supreme Court has long held—most recently in Arizona v. United States—that states can’t create their own criminal offenses for federal immigration violations. Yet Florida enacted precisely such a law in February. A federal judge blocked its enforcement in April and held Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt in June for urging police to ignore the ruling.
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This contempt for judicial authority proved the point: Florida was determined to pursue its detention ambitions regardless of constitutional limits—building the camp before courts could act, concealing records from attorneys and legislators, and creating a black hole where due process vanished.

For the first time since the 1950s, more people may leave America than arrive in 2025. Net immigration—which stood at 2.5 million annually under Biden—could hit zero or turn negative this year.
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Biden's border chaos demanded a response. But Trump's enforcement now strikes beyond illegal crossings. ICE raids at construction sites in Brownsville and flood control projects in New Orleans have left legitimate businesses scrambling, while a New Mexico dairy lost 35 of its 55 workers in a single raid—cows still need milking twice daily. In Washington state cherry orchards, operations that normally employ 150 pickers are down to 20, not from actual raids but from fear alone.
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Trump proposes charging $100,000 for H-1B visas—the pathway that brought four of the Magnificent Seven tech CEOs to American soil. Three-quarters of U.S. scientists now consider leaving the country.
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​The Economist reports immigrants are responsible for a third of American innovation when measured by patents and their collaboration with native-born inventors. The proposed visa fee would devastate university postdoctoral positions, where salaries cannot justify $100,000 permits even when their discoveries carry massive economic value.
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America is slamming the door on 75 years of its richest source of dynamism.

American Renegade of the Week: Bari Weiss

"I've gone in the last year from being the most progressive person at The Wall Street Journal, to being the most right-winged person at The New York Times."
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Bari Weiss issued this declaration of independence upon joining the Times in 2017. This week, her renegade spirit delivered a breathtaking reversal in media power.
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On Monday, Paramount announced it would acquire The Free Press—the insurgent media outlet Weiss founded on Substack—for $150 million and install the 41-year-old journalist as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Legacy media immediately diagnosed the move as capitulation to Trump. MSNBC warned Paramount was giving "Trump an ally with a big legacy media platform." David Klion wrote in The Guardian that Weiss's hiring rewarded the Trump administration's “de facto ally."
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While this framing reveals insecurity about legacy media’s waning influence, the appointment does come in the wake of Paramount’s recent $16 million settlement with Trump—fuel for speculation of behind-the-scenes pressure.
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But Weiss’ record suggests otherwise. Weiss left the WSJ in 2017 after editors resisted op-eds they deemed “too anti-Trump.” She voted for Clinton and Biden. Her publication recently criticized Trump's "coercion" of ABC. What frightens establishment media isn't that Weiss serves Trump—it's that she refuses to serve anyone's ideological program, applying intellectual rigor wherever it leads.
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The acquisition accelerates a seismic shift already underway. Only 28% of Americans now trust traditional media—a damning verdict on outlets that routinely subordinate truth-seeking to ideological conformity.
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It’s a hopeful sign Americans are now demanding intellectual rigor over tribal allegiance. The number of Substack journalists earning over $1 million a year has doubled in a year. Joe Rogan's long-form, ideologically promiscuous podcast garners over 50 million downloads a month, eclipsing CNN's entire primetime audience.
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Weiss embodies the defiance reshaping modern journalism—an editor who refuses to let identity dictate ideology. She’s defended Israel, challenged aspects of transgender policy, and championed free speech absolutism even when it isolates her from every camp.
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This isn’t Paramount appeasing Trump; it’s a legacy institution conceding that intellectual rebellion now drives credibility.

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