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Federalize DC: The Petition

Yesterday we wrote about the horrifying attack on former DOGE staffer Edward XYZ, aka Big Balls, and how it highlights the need to federalize DC.

Today, we've gone further and started a petition. We hope you'll sign it and share it.

A Very Cool OBBBA Provision We'd Missed

Today, the Department of Labor highlighted a very nice provision in the OBBBA which we hadn't noticed during the passage of the bill: from now on, students will be able to use 529 plans for trade schools and career training programs.

529 accounts have long been a subsidy for colleges: contributions grow tax-free, and withdrawals for qualified expenses are exempt from federal taxes. Some states offer additional incentives, like tax deductions on contributions. As of 2025, there are about 17 million 529 accounts holding roughly $525 billion in assets nationwide. The new policy builds on prior expansions by the Trump 1.0 administration, such as the 2017 allowance for up to $10,000 annually for K-12 tuition and the 2019 inclusion of registered apprenticeships, by further broadening eligible uses.

This is obviously a good idea. Hopefully it takes money away from higher education. But more importantly, it should help address the skills gap, which is a huge problem, particularly if you're trying to effect a manufacturing renaissance. When we spoke with Harry Moser, President of the Reshoring Initiative, recently, he told us that workforce development is the single most important issue when it comes to rebuilding America's manufacturing base.

SEE ALSO: Harry Moser, Reshoring Initiative: What Trump's Done Right On Manufacturing, What He's Done Wrong (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts)

The US manufacturing sector is grappling with a persistent skills gap that threatens its growth and competitiveness . As of early 2025, there were approximately 482,000 unfilled manufacturing positions, with projections from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute indicating that this could escalate to 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030 if not addressed. This shortfall stems from several factors, including the retirement of experienced baby boomers, declining interest among younger generations in skilled trades, and the rapid evolution of industry demands toward advanced technologies like automation, robotics, and AI, which require upskilling in areas such as digital literacy and data analysis.

Policy News You Need To Know

#Lawfare — For many years, decades even, BigLaw has essentially served as a kind of shadow activist network, or even a kind of shadow government, through its granting of work hours "pro bono" to NGOs, which overwhelmingly serve leftist causes. The Trump administration has gone to war against this practice, which is a very good idea. The leftist NGO ProPublica is crying about this.

#AmericanManufacturing — Speaking of: Apple has announced a new American Manufacturing Program. Soon, according to the announcement, every iPhone and Apple Watch sold around the world will be built with Kentucky-made Corning cover glass. This means that 100% of the cover glass on iPhone and Apple Watch units sold worldwide will be made in the U.S. for the first time. This comes on the heels of a previous announcement that Apple would buy American-made rare earth magnets developed by MP Materials, the fully integrated rare earth producer in the United States. Apple is also partnering with GlobalWafers America in Sherman, Texas, to produce advanced wafers for use in U.S.-based semiconductor fabs for the first time. American chip fabs like TSMC in Phoenix, Arizona, and Texas Instruments in Sherman, Texas, will use GWA’s 300mm wafers to produce chips for iPhone and iPad devices sold in the U.S. and around the world.

#StateCapacity — Michael Brickman of the Cicero Institute has published a great paper on restoring elitist, merit-based hiring in government, starting at the state level.

#Immigration — Are illegal aliens self-deporting? Political analyst Ryan Girdusky, author of the invaluable National Populist Substack, takes a look at birth data and concludes that they may very well be.

#Immigration — At the Center for Immigration Studies, John Milano has a very well-made policy brief making a convincing argument that the H-1B program was deliberately designed by Congress to foster the replacement of Americans by lower-wage foreigners.

#Census — This is another one from the "I cannot believe that this insane policy existed" files: the President has instructed the Department of Commerce to begin work on a new census not counting illegal aliens. This will obviously lead to a flurry of lawsuits, but should be attempted anyway.

#VibeShift — We are still tracking the vibe shift. In the "woke is not dead" column: in The Lancet, which is supposed to be a medical journal, a Harvard professor has published a "glowing" review of the new book, "Sex is a Spectrum."

#VibeShift — Speaking of, however, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced that Moses Ezekiel's "Reconciliation Monument" sculpture will be returned to Arlington National Cemetery.

#VibeShift — But wait! There's more! Stanford is closing its "Office for Inclusion, Belonging and Intergroup Communication" and laying off the director.

#Tariffs — Politico has published a frankly bizarre piece, alleging that the Trump administration may have to "pay back" the $150 billion it has collected in tariffs. Why? Because there are multiple ongoing lawsuits stating President Trump doesn't have the authority to change tariffs. Putting aside the merits of the case, there is no new news. And it seems a very odd way to frame things. It seems like just scaremongering.

#HigherEd — This might be useful to you or someone you know: the Tikvah Fund has created a new index to "evaluate American colleges and universities in a way that serves Jewish families, students, and donors," according to criteria like "the level of commitment to studying Jewish and Western civilization, the quality of teaching faculty, the vision and courage of university leadership, the preservation of free inquiry and civil discourse, and the vitality of Jewish communal life."