In a new Wall Street Journal op-ed, senior White House official Peter Navarro argues that the Pentagon’s support for Vulcan Elements and ReElement Technologies is central to breaking China’s chokehold on critical minerals. To explain the administration’s role, he points back to the COVID-era GM-Ventec ventilator partnership. 

But the COVID-era proposal to finance Kodak’s production of pharmaceutical ingredients, which Navarro helped spearhead, may prove the more revealing precedent. The proposed $765 million loan was celebrated before its terms were settled or due diligence was completed. The loan was ultimately never issued, and the episode now looks less like an isolated fiasco than an early prototype for the second Trump administration’s governance by deal and governance by headline.

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For years, Puerto Rico has been unable to import natural gas from the US mainland. Thankfully, that has now changed. According to the International Gas Union’s recently-released 2026 World LNG Report, the United States last year became Puerto Rico’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) supplier, accounting for roughly 35 percent of the island’s imports. And that actually understates matters, as the LNG Puerto Rico imports from Mexico — Puerto Rico’s third-largest supplier — is produced from US natural gas. Counting LNG shipped from Mexico but produced from American natural gas, 59 percent of Puerto Rico’s LNG ultimately originated in the United States.

That remarkable turnaround became possible only because market participants found two ways around the Jones Act, the 1920 law restricting shipments between US points to vessels that are built, flagged, owned, and crewed by Americans. For years, the complete absence of Jones Act-compliant LNG tankers effectively placed abundant American natural gas off-limits to Puerto Rico, forcing the island to import LNG from other countries, including Russia, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, and Egypt.

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As the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) makes its way through Congress, with the Senate set to vote on it later today, it’s important for the public to be made aware of its waste. Such examples include the Golden Dome, the F‑35, and the F‑47. Each weapon and program in this legislation should have clear national security objectives, though many of the weapons in this defense authorization fail at this. 

Yet critics of the NDAA should note what is not included in its current draft. Congress has put forth no proposals to address the sources of the waste and corruption within the defense industry. One source of this waste is the revolving doors between the Pentagon, defense contractors, and Congress.

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Since the Trump administration issued a Jones Act waiver in March for moving energy products and fertilizer, the data it has generated has not done the law’s defenders any favors. It shows substantial volumes moving during the suspension and new domestic commerce being spurred, which is exactly what Jones Act critics have long said would happen without it in place. What was once a largely theoretical argument about suppressed demand is increasingly based on demonstrable facts.

Unsurprisingly, groups that support the Jones Act have stepped up their campaign to kill the waiver.

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After years of fighting back against the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), I’m happy to share that the United States is the first country to prohibit its central bank from creating a CBDC. 

The ban was passed as part of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. As the name suggests, the legislative package is primarily about housing policy—something my colleagues have written about at length. It’s only at the very end that Congress included a prohibition on the creation of both a retail and intermediated CBDC. 

Given the risks of CBDCs, this passage marks a great win for financial freedom. 

At the same time, however, this battle is not over. Unfortunately, Congress decided to have the ban expire at the end of 2030. This decision makes little sense. President Donald Trump already issued an executive order to ban the creation of a CBDC during his presidency. Once a new administration takes office and 2031 rolls around, these protections will disappear, and the door will reopen.

So celebrate today’s win, but don’t mistake it for the end of the story. The fight against the rise of CBDCs is not over yet.

On March 17, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security issued the broadest and longest waiver of the Jones Act since 1950, temporarily suspending the law’s domestic shipping restrictions for vessels transporting 659 types of energy products and fertilizers. Originally set to last 60 days, the waiver was later extended and is now scheduled to expire on August 16.

The waiver offers an interesting public policy experiment, providing a glimpse of how domestic shipping responds when the law’s restrictions are no longer applied and raising intriguing questions. What kinds of cargo are moving, and on which routes? Which ports and which states have seen the most activity? Has it displaced existing vessels operating under the Jones Act or created new and increased volumes of domestic commerce that otherwise wouldn’t take place? 

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On the night of November 14, 2020, Jacob Settle and his wife, Sophronia Whitehead, left their house to visit a friend. They exited through the back door into their yard, where their truck was parked. The yard was “pitch black” as the house did not have working exterior lights. As the couple prepared to leave, two Escambia County, Florida, police officers arrived to serve a warrant. The record contains conflicting accounts as to (1) what was visible from the backyard, (2) when the officers identified themselves, (3) whether Settle’s truck ever moved, and (4) whether Officer David Collier was even in the path the truck would have traveled when he fatally shot Settle.

In November 2022, Settle’s estate filed suit alleging that Collier violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force. The district court denied Collier’s motion for summary judgment, but the Eleventh Circuit reversed based on its improper decision to resolve several factual disputes in lieu of a jury doing so. 

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