Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman’s new article “The Weaponized World Economy.” Is the United States, which has been accused of weaponizing the global economy now getting a taste of its own medicine? Should America try to rebuild its economic security state for a world in which adversaries and allies can also employ economic coercion against us? And what are the key risks or challenges that the U.S. government will face if it goes down this path? Grievances for using the National Guard to pick up trash; to President Trump for toying with the idea of running for a third term; and to the Trump administration for botching the relationship with India. Attas to America’s workers on Labor Day – including the millions who came here from outside of the United States; to Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff for their performance in the last Cabinet meeting; and to a German firm, Luxcara’s, decision to drop Chinese technology in a new windfarm.

• Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, “The Weaponized World Economy,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2025.

• Tara Copp, “National Guard troops deployed in D.C. add sanitation, landscaping duties,” The Washington Post, August 27, 2025.

• Paul Kiernan, “How a Historic Immigration Drop Is Changing the Job Market,” Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2025.

• “New Visions for Grand Strategy”

• Marco Rubio, “New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China,” US State Department, May 28, 2025.

• Greg Ip, “The US Marches Toward State Capitalism with American Characteristics,” Wall Street Journal, August, 11, 2025.

• Jonah Goldberg, “The Donald Always Gets His Slice,” The Dispatch, August 27, 2025.

• Howard Lutnik on The Ingraham Angle, X post, August 25, 2025.

• Petra Sorge, “German Wind Farm to Drop China Turbine Order After Backlash,” Bloomberg, August 25, 2025.

• Noah Barkin, LinkedIn post, August 27, 2025.

• Jason Ma, “Rural America is Suffering an Economic Crisis as Crop Prices Plunge — ‘US Soybean Farmers Cannot Survive a Prolonged Trade Dispute,’” MSN.com, August 30, 2025.

• Stimson event on September 17th, New Visions for Grand Strategy.

• Support Stimson, https://www.stimson.org/support/.

Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss Jennifer Lind and Daryl Press’s recent article on strategies of prioritization. They examine the challenges of executing such a strategy and debate whether the Trump administration is actually implementing this approach in practice. Chris commends Emma Ashford for her forthcoming book on multipolarity, Melanie laments attacks on Medal of Honor recipient Florent Groberg, and Zack critiques the Trump administration’s efforts to collect export taxes.

• Jennifer Lind and Daryl G. Press, “Strategies of Prioritization: American Foreign Policy After Primacy,” Foreign Affairs, June 24, 2025

• Jasper Ward, “Trump says Xi told him China will not invade Taiwan while he is US president,” Reuters, August 16, 2025

• Ilya Somin, “Trump’s Unconstitutional Export Tax Is Probably Here to Stay,” The Bulwark, August 15, 2025

• Laura Loomer, X post, August 8, 2025

• Florent Groberg, X post, August 8, 2025

• Medal of Honor citation for Florent Groberg

• Ione Wells, “Bolivia Set to Elect First Non-Left-Wing President in Two Decades,” BBC, August 18, 2025

• Emma Ashford, First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World (Yale University Press, 2025)

• The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century, New York Times

• Support Stimson, https://www.stimson.org/support/

Chris, Zack, and Melanie sit down to chat about the recently-released White House AI Action Plan. Should American AI policy be in pursuit of unchallenged dominance in the field? What kinds of investments and policy choices should the US government be making in order to accelerate AI innovation and deployment? Can the United States become one-stop-shopping for full-stack AI for our friends, in order to counter Chinese supremacy? Do Trump administration policies of the last six months contribute to us achieving our AI goals?

Chris is unhappy with the firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commission Erika McEntarfer, Zack compliments the CCP on getting the Trump administration to capitulate on its trade agenda, and Melanie calls out Senator Josh Hawley for his proposal to give $600 tariff rebate checks when the Trump tariffs are being advertised as a way to bring down the national debt.

• The White House, “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” July 2025.

• Editorial Board, “Trump’s AI Action Plan is a Good Start—but Only a Start,” Washington Post, July 27, 2025.

• Raffaele Huang and Liza Lin, “How China is Girding for an AI Battle With the US,” Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2025.

• Mehdi Alhassani and Anthony Bak, “America is Winning the Wrong AI Race,” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2025.

• Aaron MacLean, “A Warning to the Young: Just Say No to AI,” Engelsberg Ideas, July 9, 2025.

• Jeffrey Ding, “The Innovation Fallacy: In the US-Chinese Tech Race, Diffusion Matters More than Invention,” Foreign Affairs, August 19, 2024.

• “Hawley Introduces Legislation to Send Rebate Checks to Working Americans,” July 28, 2025.

• Nevada Joan Lee and Christopher Preble, “The Quiet Demise of the Rio Treaty,” Stimson Center, August 1, 2025.

• Christopher Preble, “80 Years with the Bomb: The Nuclear Age in Four Moments,” Stimson Center, July 31, 2025.

• The Editorial Board, “The Bureau of Labor Denial,” Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2024.

• Spencer Jakab, “Trump vs. the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Why This Firing Could Burn Your Finances,” Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2025.

• Power Problems, https://www.cato.org/search/category/multimedia+power-problems

• Blue Blaze, https://blueblaze.substack.com/.

• Support Stimson, https://www.stimson.org/support/.