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The Trump Administration has been in power for six months. At first we thought about writing some sort of report card, but thought this might be a bit of a vacuous exercise. We're sure you have yours in mind as well. And, for the record, here is the Administration's own reckoning of its achievements.

Instead, we thought we would flag the issues we'll be looking at most intensely over the next six months—issues that may not be on everyone's radar.

AI. The White House should publish its "AI action plan" within a few days, and what will come after that will be decisive. The administration received 8,755 comments from stakeholders to inform this plan. The question of export controls will also be very important. As will datacenters. As will energy (more on which below). As will national security. As will manufacturing, as AI is increasingly seen as the way to make manufacturing competitive in the US.

Deportations. The Administration has done superbly in shutting down the border. Deportation numbers, however, have been underwhelming. We were told that this is a combination of statistical artifact (somebody turned away at the border counts as a deportation, but people aren't turning up at the border) and the need for more infrastructure to deal with the Bidenwave. Well, thanks to the OBBBA, the Administration can have all the infrastructure it wants. So, will it operationalize it quickly? And if so, will the deportation numbers finally get up to the numbers that would cause a significant shift in American life? What of self-deportations? And never mind the practical difficulties, or obstruction by judges, what about the politics? Is there a point at which deportations become economically destructive enough that the Administration gets cold feet?

DEI. There have been many high profile actions, from bullying of universities to investigations by the DOJ's new and refurbished Civil Rights Divisions. But extirpating the demon of DEI will require much, much more. It will require relentless effort from the various branches of government, and eternal vigilance, as the thing keeps changing its name and hiding. It's possible to simply remove DEI from American life over the next four years, but it will take vigorous and constant effort to do so.

Energy. Energy is a major plank of this Administration's agenda. It's the heart of their AI agenda, but it's also the heart of their economic agenda overall, since it is one of the major input costs into manufacturing. One part seems obvious: more oil and gas drilling and more pipelines. For this, you only need regulatory reform. Less obvious is talk of a nuclear renaissance. Can you build nuclear with just deregulation? We don't think so. Will the next generation of small reactors come online? Will they be all that the hype says they should be? And will there be enough of them?

Manufacturing/Industrial Policy. Tariffs are only one part of a successful industrial policy. Energy and deregulation are another. But what about workforce retraining? Every expert we talk to says that is crucial, but the Administration doesn't seem to be doing much there. What about industrial policy? And what form does that take?

Family Policy. The OBBBA was an opportunity to do something major on family policy. That opportunity was missed. It doesn't mean that there's nothing left to be done. In everything from education to tech, the Federal government has a role to play. We will be monitoring carefully.

Housing. Housing is, of course, a state and local issue, primarily. But the Administration has clearly taken a stand in favor of building more. How will they try to get that done? And what kind of building will they try to get done? Apartments for childless couples is not what most Americans want.

Antitrust. Finally, we'll throw a wildcard. The Administration has in general tried to strike a very pro-business and deregulatory note. But there are many, both inside and outside the Administration, who would like to see it take a more vigorous stance on antitrust. It will be interesting to see what happens on that front.

These, and many more of course, will be the issues we will be keeping on our radar of the next few months. What are yours? Feel free to reach out.

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Policy News You Need To Know

#RIP — Edward J. Feulner, a titan of the conservative movement, most prominently a founder of the Heritage Foundation, passed away Friday. Here is a beautiful remembrance by Heritage EVP Derrick Morgan, who knew him well. Our prayers are with Mr. Feulner, his family and his loved ones at this time. And: "Onward!"

#Tariffs — The US Treasury has generated $100.5 billion this year from tariffs as of July 14, the latest date where official numbers are available. This is good for the deficit, and more than was projected. This, along with prices being lower than projected, suggests that, once again, the American consumer has a superpower. Foreign countries and manufacturers really are willing to jump through incredible hoops to get access to the American consumer. Which in turn suggests that President Trump was right in key respects in his analysis of the overall trade situation.

#OneWordPlastics — "Soon, representatives of many of the world’s nations will once again convene to negotiate a global treaty aimed at reducing plastic pollution," R Street's Phillip Rossetti informs us. And while plastics pollution is an important problem, this treaty negotiation poses risks, largely because of "negotiators’ insistence on shifting focus away from pollution mitigation to indirect policy solutions, such as capping plastic production." This goes into the "bad green ideas" file for obvious reasons. Plastics are important in countless applications. We shouldn't stop producing plastics, instead we should be looking for ways for it not to get into the wild, and if it does, to retrieve it and recycle it. Anyway, Rossetti's brief is excellent and goes into all these issues.

#BabyFormula #FamilyPolicy #MAHA — Remember the Great Formula Shortage of a few years ago? Where we found out that the US has very restrictive rules on what can be sold as formula, more restrictive than, say, Europe's? This is largely because baby formula is regulated by the FDA, like drugs are, and not as a food product. At Reason, Kelli Pierce covers "Operation Stork Speed", an initiative from RFK, Jr at HHS to update the formula rules.

#Kids #FamilyPolicy #BigTech — Speaking of kids, Bennett Sippel and Zach Rausch have written a comprehensive article detailing how video games have evolved from simple entertainment into complex, potentially harmful digital environments that exploit children. The key change is that gaming shifted from one-time purchases to the so-called "games-as-a-service" (GaaS) model around the 2000s; instead of buying complete games, children now enter "free-to-play" worlds designed for continuous engagement and spending, and these worlds are on the internet, available to strangers. Games now use gambling-like mechanics to get players to buy add-ons and so-called "loot boxes." 10% of teen girls receive unwanted sexual content while gaming, they report.

#FamilyPolicy — New study from Lyman Stone at the Institute for Family Studies, on the marriage preferences of high-status men. "When men have power to influence their mate options, they tend to use that power to find a peer-age woman for companionship in life," Stone finds. What's more: "What is perhaps most striking is that as income rises above the median, higher-earning men disproportionately marry women with identical educational attainment." However, this is not the same thing as so-called power couple dynamics: "There is a correlation between high-income husbands and wives who stay home. For married men in the bottom percent of income, about 15-20% of their wives are stay-at-home wives. But for men in the top 5%, about 40% of wives stay home."

#Numbers #GoodGovernment — Important point from the Gun Facts Project. We all rely on FBI data to assess crime and other social maladies, but FBI data is based on reporting from the various state and local agencies, and not all states have the same participation rate.

#FinReg — A big problem for American consumers, one that isn't too much on the political radar, is financial scams. However, R Street's Caroline Melear informs us about bipartisan efforts currently underway to tackle this issue.

#Healthcare — RAND interviews its scholar Peter Hussey on the big, untouchable question of "how to fix American healthcare." A big part of his answer, which we believe is perfectly correct: "It's prices, stupid."

#Chyna #Trade #AI — At the WSJ, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael Sobolik argues against allowing China access to Nvidia's H20 chips.