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Hello Reader,
This week, a few words from a podcast hit me like lightning—and the implications are profound. Plus, how 700 million hungry Chinese pigs just devoured billions of American dollars, and why the Supreme Court’s likely upcoming ruling is neither “new” nor “terrifying”.
A More Perfect Union
- Humans Triumph Over Control
- Trump's "Terrifying New Power"
- Intervene, Break Stuff, Repeat
- Trump's Incoherent National Security Strategy
- American Grifter of the Week
Fei-Fei Li’s words hit me like lightning.
On Tim Ferriss’ podcast this week, she said artificial intelligence is driving roughly half of America’s economic growth this year. She should know—many consider her the Godmother of AI.
In April, I predicted Trump’s tariffs would trigger a downturn. Time for the mea culpa: I was spectacularly wrong. Growth keeps defying my gloomy expectations.
But Li’s revelation shows why: America’s innovators are outrunning Trump’s protectionist destruction.
Nobel laureate Robert Lucas—a personal favorite—once said, “Once you start thinking about growth, it’s hard to think about anything else.” He understood what many miss: growth isn’t abstract. 3% annual GDP growth doubles the economy every 24 years. If sustained, a child born today would live in a country twice as prosperous by their mid-twenties. Four times by retirement. My parents’ generation considered air conditioning a luxury. Today’s poor carry smartphones more powerful than ’90s supercomputers. That’s the power of compounding growth.
Trump’s tariffs threaten that miracle. They may lack the brutality of batons cracking skulls, but they crush freedom just the same. Tariffs are economic authoritarianism—barriers between willing buyers and sellers. Economists estimate they will shave 0.5% off GDP growth this year. Compound that loss, and the cost becomes staggering.
Yet here stands proof that human ingenuity can triumph over control. We haven’t seen a productivity explosion yet, but innovators are building tools so powerful that capital is stampeding toward them—AI-related investment now drives half of U.S. growth. Li herself helped revolutionize computer vision; Geoffrey Hinton’s breakthroughs underpin every modern AI model. Both are immigrants, btw.
This is hope incarnate: individuals creating value faster than tyranny can destroy it. Innovation over authoritarianism. Freedom over control.
Even Trump’s trade war cannot extinguish the fire of human creativity.
“Supreme Court Sounds Ready to Give Trump a Terrifying New Power,“ the New Republic wailed this week.
The Court appears poised to grant Trump the power to fire independent agency commissioners at will. But that power isn't new. Presidents held it for 125 years—until Woodrow Wilson arrived.
And here's what I find terrifying:
In 1927, government "experts" forced the sterilization of 70,000 Americans deemed "feebleminded.” In 1992, USDA "experts" pushed a low-fat, high-carb diet—obesity rates tripled. In 2007, EPA "experts" mandated corn ethanol—food prices spiked 32%, emissions barely budged, and consumers paid billions. In 2020, CDC “experts” halted evictions nationwide for 11 million landlords—claiming authority they never possessed—costing property owners billions.
This tyranny of experts began in 1914, when Wilson created commissioners insulated from presidential control. Wilson believed government should be "scientifically taken care of by a small number of gentlemen”— naked contempt for we, the people.
In 1935's Humphrey's Executor, the Supreme Court granted these agencies quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers, stealing authority from Articles I and III. Today, dozens of independent agencies control every aspect of our lives—finance, trade, labor, communication, consumer products, energy. Together, they constitute fourth branch of government never envisioned by the Founders. The FTC alone enforces nearly 50 “rules” it created—effectively laws—serving as legislator and jury.
This newsletter exists to limit executive power and maintain checks and balances—but among three independent branches, not four.
During arguments, Justice Kagan inadvertently undermined her own case. While arguing independent agencies should stay beyond presidential control, she admitted they "do a lot of legislating." She worried Trump could "remove any member he wishes, for any reason or no reason at all."
Damn right. Because unlike unelected commissioners, we can fire this president.
Those condemning SCOTUS today will have no problem using their “new” power once they reclaim the White House.
700 million pigs met their end in China last year—more than twice America's entire population, slaughtered and served.
This year, hundreds of millions more developed a taste for Brazilian cuisine.
Around a quarter of U.S. soybeans went to China in 2024, mostly crushed into meal for Chinese pork operations. When Trump launched his April tariff blitz, Beijing retaliated by adding a devastating 34% duty on U.S. soybeans. Chinese buyers vanished overnight.
U.S. soybean export losses to China alone have topped $5.7 billion through October, with peak harvest season losses still mounting. Brazil and Argentina eagerly filled the void, enabling China to deepen its economic grip on South America.
American farmers had an especially brutal 2025. Crop prices remained depressed after record harvests flooded markets with supply. Farm bankruptcies surged 60% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year. Trump's tariff war accelerated the carnage—Chinese tariffs forced desperate farmers to dump product domestically at devastating losses.
On Monday, Trump announced a $12 billion farm bailout funded by tariff revenue.
It's the same tired playbook. Government intervenes in the economy. Things go awry. Government intervenes more—then hails themselves as heroes for solving the crisis they created.
After four years of Biden and nearly one more of Trump, I'm sick of writing the same story.
"We will assert and enforce a 'Trump Corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine." Trump's new National Security Strategy prioritizes the Western Hemisphere over grave threats while ceding spheres of influence to authoritarian rivals—and abandoning democracy promotion entirely.
For the first time since 1988, an American strategy neither condemns authoritarian governance nor pledges democratic reform. The document rejects "imposing democratic change," reversing Biden's 2022 strategy framing competition as "democracy versus autocracy." Trump's approach: "We will no longer prioritize democratic reforms when engaging with foreign states."
The strategy was less isolationist than feared—it identifies Ukraine's survival and Taiwan's defense as core interests. Yet stunning blind spots betray warped priorities: drugs and migration rank among America's "gravest threats" while China's Belt and Road exporting authoritarian surveillance to 60 nations barely rates. Al-Qaeda's Sahel resurgence—responsible for half of global terrorism deaths—doesn't appear. China's nuclear arsenal tripled to 600 warheads, racing toward 1,000 by 2030, yet the strategy treats trade deficits as greater dangers.
Most grotesque is Russia. The strategy pursues "strategic stability" with Moscow—code for accepting Russia as legitimate equal—while criticizing Europeans for "unrealistic expectations." This isn't realism; it's moral capitulation.
The strategy condemns European censorship. But comparing European illiberalism to Chinese and Russian aggression is obscene. Europe hasn't enslaved one million Uyghurs. Europe hasn't murdered tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. Treating Beijing, Moscow, and Brussels as equal threats while pursuing "strategic stability" with an aggressor waging genocidal war abandons America's founding principles.
The president who promised "peace through strength" now offers neutrality toward evil.
American Grifter of the Week: Henry Cuellar
This week, the dark forces of American politics steal the spotlight. American Renegade returns next week.
In January 2022, FBI agents smashed through Henry Cuellar's Laredo door at dawn. Inside, they found evidence of a decade-long bribery scheme that would make a cartel boss blush.
The 69-year-old Democratic congressman had been Azerbaijan's man in Washington since 2013, when a Turkish businessman flew Cuellar and his wife Imelda on an all-expenses-paid trip to Baku. Within a year, prosecutors say, the couple forged their corrupt bargain: Azerbaijan's state-controlled oil company would funnel $60,000 through shell companies owned by Imelda. Hundreds of thousands more would follow.
Imelda performed "little or no legitimate work," prosecutors charged. But Henry delivered. As congressman, he championed Azerbaijan's interests on Capitol Hill while the bribes paid for $49,000 in federal taxes, $58,000 in credit card bills, and a $12,000 custom gown for Imelda.
The scheme continued for years. When the FBI finally raided his home weeks before his 2024 primary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood by him. He won reelection even under indictment.
Then came Trump's pardon last week. Trump saw Cuellar as a martyr—the lone House Democrat opposing abortion rights, a consistent advocate for border security when his party wanted open borders. Perfect for winning Republican votes in South Texas. The president claimed Cuellar was persecuted for defying Biden on immigration.
When Cuellar filed to run as a Democrat anyway, Trump erupted: "Such a lack of LOYALTY...Oh' well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!"
Senator Ted Cruz defended Trump: "President Trump is rightly concerned about the politicization of the Department of Justice."
Cruz was right to be concerned. He's just wrong about which side deserves concern now.
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