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Trump's Anti-Regulation, Pro-Tech Agenda - The Wednesday AM Quickie 1/22/25

By Jacob Silverman —

Naturally, leading Trump foot soldier Kash Patel once had a DEI job. -Jacob

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THE BIG NEWS

Trump's Anti-Regulation, Pro-Tech Agenda Comes Into View

The presidential appointments, executive orders, splashy press conferences, and baroque promises about how Elon Musk is going to revolutionize government are starting to congeal into something like a Trump economic program. And it seems to signal two things: massive deregulation and lots of contracts and opportunities for Trump's big tech allies.

Yesterday, Trump announced a plan by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to invest $100 billion – and perhaps as much as $500 billion – in "artificial intelligence infrastructure" in the United States. In practice, that probably means massive, resource-guzzling, brownout-inducing data centers. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison spoke at a press conference about how AI would cure diseases like cancer – somehow, some day.

Also yesterday, Trump said that he had pardoned Russ Ulbricht, the proprietor of the Silk Road, a popular dark web drug marketplace, who was serving a lengthy prison term for drug trafficking and other crimes. Ulbricht is a hero on the libertarian right and to the crypto world. Saying that he was pardoning Ulbricht in honor of the libertarian movement that supported him, Trump was also giving another sop to his crypto supporters, who see Ulbricht as a maverick free-market entrepreneur who helped pioneer (illegal) use cases for Bitcoin, rather than as a grubby drug trafficker who attempted to hire hitmen to kill several people. (Ulbricht was never charged for the attempted hits, which he unknowingly arranged with a government agent.)

Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is also resolving into focus, and it seems like yet another vehicle to channel contracts to Silicon Valley. Vivek Ramaswamy is out, his debate-kid swagger having annoyed Elon Musk and Trump, but the project rolls on, now codified via executive order. The result seems to be a kind of rebranding of the US Digital Service, a technocratic agency that supports websites and digital services furnished by the US government.

The new DOGE will likely take USDS staff and send them to federal agencies as something like consultants hunting for redundancies and efficiencies to solve. It's not quite as ambitious as lopping off Social Security or the VA – though perhaps that's coming – but it could be quite lucrative for tech companies and for Musk. Already, VCs on X have been talking about how they can't wait for Musk to dump US government data – as much as he can get his hands on – into his Grok AI and see what comes out. Let's hope Dems are serious about fighting back against this blatant – and potentially destructive – cash-and-data grab.

Trump's Pardons Test Law Enforcement Support

Donald Trump's decision to pardon more than 1,500 January 6 protesters, some of whom had been sentenced to long prison terms for assaulting cops, isn't sitting well with law enforcement groups. Former Capitol police officers have blasted the decision. The International Associations of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police released a statement saying that they were "deeply discouraged by the recent pardons and commutations granted by both the Biden and Trump Administrations to individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers." (The Biden mention was presumably in reference to the commutation of Leonard Peltier's sentence, granting him house arrest after 50 years in prison.) A handful of Republicans also criticized the Jan. 6 pardons.

States Sue To Stop Trump's EO On Birthright Citizenship

Twenty-two state attorneys general filed suit in federal court to stop Trump's executive order that would prevent the US-born children of undocumented immigrants from receiving citizenship. The order is one of several ways in which the Trump admin plans to chisel away at the scope and definition of US citizenship, making it more restrictive and white. "It would render them undocumented at birth. It could even render them citizens to no country at all," Washington's attorney general told the New York Times. The lawsuit claims that the executive order is unconstitutional, violating the 14th Amendment.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • After Gaza Ceasefire, Israel Invades the West Bank The Israeli military has been conducting what it calls Operation Iron Wall in the Palestinian city of Jenin this week, in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have attacked Jenin with soldiers, vehicles, bulldozers, drones, and Apache helicopters. At least 9 people have been killed and many wounded, including some doctors and nurses who were fired upon. via Drop Site News.
  • Pete Hegseth Accused Of Abusing His Second Wife Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth's ex-sister-in-law attested in a signed affidavit that Hegseth drank heavily and abused his second wife. The document describes Hegseth's wife hiding from him in a closet and devising an escape plan with a code word that she shared with trusted family members. The Senate may vote on whether to confirm Hegseth on Thursday. via NBC News and Elizabeth Warren/X.
  • Trump Admin Will Arrest Migrants At "Sensitive" Sites The Trump admin has dispensed with guidelines stating that immigration officers shouldn't arrest migrants at schools, churches, hospitals, and other "sensitive locations" that often serve as sites of refuge. The sensitive locations policy was in place during Trump's first term, though he allowed immigration officers to start making arrests at courthouses. via AP News.
  • Costco Workers Vote To Strike Costco workers belonging to the Teamsters union voted to strike earlier this week. The Teamsters represent 18,000 Costco employees in the United States. "We've told Costco that our members won't work a day past January 31 without a historic, industry-leading agreement," said Teamsters president Sean O'Brien. "Costco's greedy executives have less than two weeks to do the right thing." via ABC News.

SOME NUMBER

200,000

That's how many European peacekeeping soldiers would be needed in Ukraine to preserve any ceasefire agreement with Russia, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

1/22: It's Wednesday! Sam and Emma speak with the very writer of this newsletter, Jacob Silverman, to discuss his recent piece in the Baffler entitled "Mr. Grift Goes To Washington." Then, they speak with Usamah Andrabi, communications director & spokesperson for Justice Democrats, to discuss the group's outlook going into the 2nd Trump administration.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Musk Claims He Didn't Give A Nazi Salute

I know what I saw.

Trump Unleashes Harrowing List Of Executive Orders On Day One

The new orders are an aggressive first volley against the administrative state that Trump and his allies have vowed to destroy.

PARTING WORDS

"HB1, I know the program very well. I use the program, maître d's, wine experts, even waiters, high quality waiters. You got to get the best people."

-- President Donald Trump talking about the H1B visa program (which he called HB1). The MAGA right has been divided between its xenophobic anti-immigrant contingent, which opposes H1B immigrants, and its tech-business-billionaire wing, which makes wide use of the H1B program.

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