"These Are Prickly Times"

There's a new cactus in town

Good Evening:

Swag at a conference I’m attending.

I got up early this morning and flew to Arizona. I’ll be spending the next few days here talking democracy with one of my favorite cross-ideological groups of people. As a consequence, there was no show this morning, and tomorrow’s show will be at 8:00 am Pacific Time, which is to say 11:00 am Eastern time.

---

Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Alicia Wanless and I welcomed the estimable Frédéric Mérand, Professor of Political Science at the University of Montreal, to discuss what happens if we terrorize our northern neighbors until they run away to another continent. We talked about the prospects of Canada joining the EU, what the barriers would be, and what it would mean for global power:

---

The Situation

In yesterday’s “The Situation” column, I offer seven pieces of advice for those looking to defy federal court orders, drawing inspiration from the government’s conduct in ongoing litigation against the administration:

The key overarching point here is that effective defiance of the courts is a subtle art, and it’s not done best with chest-thumping Jacksonian bravado about John Marshall enforcing his orders. It’s done best through plausible deniability, interpretive twists, and tactical ignorance by the people who actually have to appear in front of the judges. It’s about obscuring accountability for compliance. And it’s about making judges so fear catastrophic collapse of their authority that they might find relief in mere erosion.

---

Today On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

Vance Outlines an America First, America Only AI Agenda

Kevin Frazier breaks down Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech at the American Dynamism Summit on artificial intelligence (AI), which focused on deregulation, national security, and the government's role in shaping markets. Frazier characterizes the administration’s doctrine as based on American leadership in AI innovation and a domestic AI industrial base, but questions whether the administration’s approach will yield those results:

The Trump administration's AI strategy, as articulated by Vance in his latest speech, represents a dramatic shift toward an "America First, America Only" approach that aims to unite techno-optimists and populists under a vision of industrial renaissance. However, the contradictions between deregulation and protectionist tariffs, coupled with the administration's reluctance to engage with international allies or, at least so far, invest in worker reskilling, raises serious questions about whether this approach can achieve AI dominance while delivering on its promise to create widespread prosperity for American workers.

Does the Foreign Emoluments Clause Apply to Elon Musk?

Clare Boone considers whether the Foreign Emoluments Clause applies to Elon Musk given his substantial business ventures with foreign states. Boone suggests that the authority and discretion Musk exercises indicates he occupies an “Office of Profit or Trust” covered by the Clause, but notes that enforcement is unlikely given issues with standing and the administration’s resistance to complying with court-ordered remedies:

Given Musk’s substantial ownership interests in these entities, future payments he receives from foreign governments could fall within the definition of emoluments. If so, the question of whether such payments would be unconstitutional would ultimately hinge on whether the Foreign Emoluments Clause applies to Musk in his White House role, working across the government on DOGE matters as an SGE and presidential adviser—if he is one.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Daniel Byman sits down with Steven Heydemann to discuss the fast-changing developments in Syria, including the surge in communal violence the deal between the new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led government and Syria's Kurds, Israel's counterproductive interventions, and U.S. policy toward the new regime in Damascus:

On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson sits down with me and Molly Reynolds to talk through the week’s big national security news, including Congress’s narrow prevention of a government shutdown, increased military operations in the Middle East, and President Donald Trump’s address at the Department of Justice:

---

Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the cockatoo, which we honor today for its latest contribution to science:

Phys.org reports:

Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna are reporting that Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) engage in food flavoring behavior by dunking food into soy yogurt. Experimentally controlled tests have confirmed that the birds selectively dipped food in flavored yogurt rather than neutral alternatives, ruling out alternative explanations such as soaking or cleaning

…

Statistical analysis showed that food was dunked in blueberry yogurt over two times more often than neutral yogurt, while no food was dunked in water. The birds also preferred directly eating blueberry yogurt over the neutral variety.

…

Food preference testing further revealed that the birds preferred the combination of noodles and blueberry yogurt over noodles or yogurt alone. The potatoes were acceptable without flavoring.

This study provides the first experimental evidence of food flavoring behavior outside the primate lineage.

You can read the full paper here, if you’re so inclined. In honor of today’s Beast, don’t deprive yourself. Eat things that taste good.

---

Today’s #BeastoftheDay is not any of these 100 tricksters, which are not eligible to be today’s Beast because they are made of clay, but which are nevertheless Beasts worthy of recognition: