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/.

In this show, Chris, Melanie, and Zack consider the different military options being considered to combat Mexican drug cartels. Are the cartels that manufacture and distribute drugs that kill Americans, particularly fentanyl, a threat to US national security? If so, is military action, with or without the approval of the Mexican government, a viable solution? And if a military operation isn’t a great idea, are there other ways to stop the tens of thousands of fentanyl and other drug-related deaths that occur in the United States every year? Melanie remembers Andrew Schwartz, a force of nature at CSIS who passed away earlier this month. The crew has shout outs for Ukraine’s drone manufacturers and researchers Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on “The Locknet,” regarding China’s control of the Internet. Grievances for the Trump administration’s handling of staff cuts at the State Department, and for strong-arming allies regarding a hypothetical conflict with China over Taiwan.

• Dan DePetris and Chris McCallion, “No GWOT-NARCO: The Perils of Making War on Cartels,” Defense Priorities, July 2, 2025

• Simon Shuster, “The Hidden War Over Ukraine’s Lost Children,” Time, July 17, 2025

• Caitlin Doombos, Ronny Reyes, “Trump Discussing Drone ‘Mega Deal’ with Ukraine—As US Tech Lags Behind Adversaries,” New York Post, July 17, 2025

• Neal Urwitz, “Andrew Schwartz Must be Remembered,” National Security Journal, July 18, 2025

• Christopher Preble, “A Credible Grand Strategy: The Urgent Need to Set Priorities,” Stimson Center, January 25, 2024

• Demetri Sevastopulo, “US demands to know what allies would do in event of war over Taiwan,” Financial Times, July 12, 2025

• Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson, “The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters,” ChinaFile, June 30, 2025

Support Net Assessment at https://www.stimson.org/support/

Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss the “nuclear hurricane” sweeping the world. They begin by returning to the question of whether President Trump made the right decision to conduct strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Then they shift to discussing Vipin Narang and Pranay Vaddi’s recent article “How to Survive the New Nuclear Age.” Should American leaders adopt a new nuclear strategy or adjust existing nuclear policies and capabilities? Chris endorses the Trump administration’s rethinking of certain types of aid to Ukraine, Melanie applauds General Dan Caine’s handling of a delicate political situation, and Zack commends Congressman Don Bacon for his leadership.

Show Links:

• Vipin Narang and Pranay Vaddi, “How to Survive the New Nuclear Age: National Security in a World of Proliferating Risks and Eroding Constraints,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2025.

• James Acton, “Optimal Deterrence: How the United States Can Preserve Peace and Prevent a Nuclear Arms Race with China and Russia,” Council on Foreign Relations, June 2025.

• Ankit Panda, Vipin Narang, and Pranay Vaddi, “Nuclear Proliferation Will Haunt ‘America First,’” War on the Rocks, March 10, 2025.

• “80 Years of Nuclear Weapons with Chris Preble,” Global Santa Fe, Wednesday, July 16, 5 pm.

• Geoff Wilson, Christopher Preble, Lucas Ruiz, “Gambling on Armageddon: How U.S. Nuclear Policies Are Undercutting Deterrence and Lowering the Threshold for Nuclear War,” Stimson Center, February 19, 2025.

• Christopher Preble, “The Influence of History on Nuclear Weapons,” Review of Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America’s Atomic Age by Francis J. Gavin, International Studies Review, March 2014.

• Jack Goldsmith, “An Authority to License Illegal Conduct,” Executive Functions Substack, July 3, 2025.

• Gen. Dan Caine, press conference, June 26, 2025.

• Annie Karni, “Breaking with Trump, Bacon Says He Won’t Follow His Party ‘Off the Cliff,’” New York Times, June 8, 2025.

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