Thrilled to have this paper out in the world. We can't restore democracy without restoring faith in its ability to deliver for people. Public options are part of the toolkit we need to do that.

Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed — how tech turned to oligarchy Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff pinpoint the SpaceX entrepreneur’s clever leveraging of state support to exert influence over government itself

Congrats to @quinnslobodian.com and @bentarnoff.com on the publication of Muskism. Exciting to see this out in the world and be an FT Best Book of the Week.
www.ft.com/content/3394...

Macron Snaps Back at Trump’s Mockery and Criticism of NATO

#LifeGoals

Macron: “When we’re serious, we don’t say the opposite of what we said the day before every day, and maybe one shouldn’t speak every day."
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/w...

To this point: the justification for the tariffs was the National Trade Estimate report, which is chock full of Chamber of Commerce deregulatory asks. Coalition for New Trade goes into it here: static1.squarespace.com/static/69b18...

The Public Options Tool Kit: Ensuring Access, Public Value, and Accountability in the Economy Market-only solutions aren't enough. Suzanne Kahn shows how "Public Options" can fix our cost-of-living crisis and put people over corporate profits.

If the era of neoliberalism and distrust in government is to end, then what comes next?

Government has to shape markets to foster democracy. Read the full report by @suzmkahn.bsky.social to see how we build a stable, equitable future. 🔗

Tomorrow marks one year since this administration’s tariff frenzy began.

What started with declaring trade “emergencies” culminated in the Supreme Court striking down the tariffs as unconstitutional.

All the while, families paid the price and manufacturers got no real path to reshoring jobs ⬇️

Typo in the second item in the thread: the second "Canada" should be "China."

The New US Trade Agenda: Institutionalizing Middle-Out Economics in Foreign Commercial Policy - Roosevelt Institute The Roosevelt Institute convened a study commission of scholars, former policymakers, and labor leaders on the future of trade policy and the office of the US Trade Representative. In a new report, we...

Trump won't be around forever. We need to have a conversation about what kind of trade policy and administrative state we want left at the end of all of this.

From way back in 2024, here are some ideas. END
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Todd N. Tucker on X: "We're seeing an unfortunate pattern where: 1) Trump uses underappreciated tools of FDR's administrative state towards short-termist ends; 2) Liberals use process arguments to misrepresent their FDR legacy - willfully or inadvertently - for short-termist #Resistance wins." / X We're seeing an unfortunate pattern where: 1) Trump uses underappreciated tools of FDR's administrative state towards short-termist ends; 2) Liberals use process arguments to misrepresent their FDR legacy - willfully or inadvertently - for short-termist #Resistance wins.

Now, we see an unfortunate pattern developing, whereby Trump uses FDR legacy authority for short-termist ends, and gets sued by liberals pursuing short-termist wins. This month, it was on energy and the Defense Production Act.
x.com/toddntucker/...

Trump’s Attacks on SCOTUS Are Personal—But Real Court Reform Should Be a Progressive Priority An analysis of Trump’s unprecedented attacks on the Supreme Court, the Roberts Court’s pro–Big Business record, and why real progressive court reform must become a political priority.

Ironically, Trump showed greater anger at SCOTUS over all of this than his predecessors had, even thought the Roberts Court had used the major questions doctrine primarily against progressive priorities. (See @shahrzadshams.bsky.social and me 👇.)
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/trumps-...

Now That That’s All Out of the Way, a 2026 Economic Preview More than two weeks into the year is arguably late to preview major economic issues for 2026, but given all that’s happened since the ball dropped, it’s arguably a better time than December.

So while little price relief came for American families (see @mikemadowitz.bsky.social 👇), the real consequences are for future governance. IEEPA once allowed flexible tools for novel emergencies. Climate would have been a big one. Now that avenue is gone.
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/now-tha...

SCOTUS Strikes Down Trump’s Tariffs, Failing to Solve Any Problems and Creating New Ones The Supreme Court expanded the “major questions” doctrine to strike down Trump’s tariffs, signaling broader limits on executive power.

The Supreme Court handed down its decision in February 2026, striking down IEEPA tariffs in their entirety.

The consequences for Trump weren't huge. He had bog standard trade complaints and other statutes allow him to impose tariffs for those.
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/scotus-...

Opponents of Trump’s tariffs should be wary of relying on the courts Judicial limits on the executive today will bind the hands of future presidents tomorrow

The anti-regulatory "major questions" doctrine thus became the judicial vehicle for second-guessing the executive branch's tariffs, even though Congress knew it had delegated that power. (As explored in depth in the above 👆 brief.)
www.ft.com/content/0ede...

As the Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Trump’s “Emergency” Tariffs, Few Good Outcomes Await - Roosevelt Institute In a new brief, Roosevelt Institute’s director of industrial policy and trade Todd N. Tucker explores the legal and political stakes of Trump’s emergency tariffs as SCOTUS prepares its ruling, which w...

They found some takers for this argument in the courts, even though Nixon had used IEEPA's predecessor authority for 10% tariffs. And right-wing judges appeared worried that future progressive administrations might use IEEPA for carbon tariffs.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

In Constitutional Clash Between Trump and Courts on Tariffs, Risks Ahead for Progressive Policies - Roosevelt Institute Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in two lawsuits brought against the Trump administration’s chaotic deployment of tariffs. To some observers, these cases may...

Almost immediately, there were lawsuits.

Libertarian legal advocacy groups found sympathetic plaintiffs and argued not just that the emergencies were not real, but that the underlying statute (IEEPA) didn't allow tariffs at all.
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/constit...

How Should Progressives Respond to Trump’s Tariff Threats? - Roosevelt Institute Throughout his campaign and during his first few weeks in office, President Donald Trump has invoked the threat of tariffs on imported products more than perhaps any president in US history. And yet, ...

This followed a mini-"liberation" two months earlier, when Trump announced high tariffs on Canada over a fentanyl emergency few believed to be caused by our Northern neighbor. (He also imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada, more plausibly the cause.)
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Trump’s Tariff Tantrum: How Sweeping Tariffs Came to Be and Why It Matters - Roosevelt Institute President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the global economy on Wednesday by using unusual emergency powers to impose wide tariffs (i.e., trade taxes) on most of the products that the US imports ...

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of "Liberation Day" - Trump's on-again, off-again tariff frenzy.

Here's a recap 🧵.

First, there was this infamous chart👇, which declared that trade surplus and deficit countries alike constituted an emergency.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

What’s Behind Trump’s New World Disorder? A foreign policy freed of liberal pretenses and imperial ambitions could lead to restraint—or, as the Iran attack shows, simply license hit-and-run belligerence.

"Bomb this country? Trump effed around, and we’re all finding out."

Daniel Immerwahr on Trump's turn to regime change nihilism.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Trump says Justices Barrett, Gorsuch ‘sicken me’ after Supreme Court tariff ruling The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, said President Trump did not have authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs.

Trump continues the hate fest on SCOTUS, saying he is sickened by Gorsuch and Barrett over IEEPA ruling, and faults them for not allowing the government to keep revenue it had already collected.
www.cnbc.com/2026/03/26/t...

Definitely a good time to be leaning into policies to support clean energy production/alternatives to the global oil market...

This is from the DPA: "to the maximum extent possible, domestic energy supplies should be augmented through reliance on renewable energy sources (including solar, geothermal, wind, and biomass sources), more efficient energy storage and distribution technologies, and energy conservation measures"

Perhaps of interest to @himself.bsky.social @danielagabor.bsky.social @busbyj2.bsky.social @mbazilian.bsky.social @greenprofgreen.bsky.social @profdavidhart.bsky.social @thiggins.bsky.social @evergreenaction.bsky.social

Roosevelt Institute - Progressive Preemption: How the Defense Production Act Can Override Corporate Extraction, Boost Worker Power, and Expedite the Clean Energy Transition With the 2022 passage of major industrial policy laws, the policy conversation has shifted to implementation. Among the chief concerns being aired from across the political spectrum: how to execute pr...

Trump is using DPA to preempt California environmental regulations, but the same tool could be used to preempt anti-union laws or local permitting snags, as we showed in earlier work with Joel Michaels & @lenorepalladino.bsky.social.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Trump Wields Defense Production Act to Promote Fossil Fuels. It Could Instead Be Used to Promote All-of-the-Above Energy Abundance. Reasonable people might think the DPA is no longer serving its purpose and should be abandoned. We argue this would be a short-sighted mistake, given the likely severity of the crises the US will soon...

NEW from me and @joeldodge07.bsky.social for @rooseveltinstitute.org / Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator: Trump is using the Defense Production Act to promote fossil fuel of a major donor. We show how it could instead be used to promote clean energy Abundance.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Iran war is the greatest threat to global energy ‘in history’, warns IEA Agency’s head Fatih Birol says recovery of oil and gasfields in Gulf region could take more than six months

IEA: "More oil has been lost than during the twin shocks of the 1970s that triggered recessions and fuel rationing around the world."

The Iran War is "the greatest global energy security threat in history."
www.ft.com/content/0952...

Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms

This policy simultaneously is: 1) a taxpayer funded corporate handout for nothing in return; 2) actively damaging to our national security; and 3) worsening energy affordability in the middle of a self-inflicted energy shock.

So. Much. Winning.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/c...

Trump Officials Look to More Managed Approach to Trade With China

US to propose a formal bilateral mechanism of managed trade: the US-China Board of Trade.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/u...

Grammys politics >> Oscars politics

As policymakers debate the future of the USMCA—the pact that replaced NAFTA—the stakes are still very real.

The upcoming review is a chance to rethink how North American trade works for workers and communities.

Read our Trade Director @toddntucker.com on the auto sector and what needs to change:

Challenges and opportunities for the North American auto industry in the 2026 USMCA renegotiation | Brookings Susan Helper and Todd Tucker analyze challenges and opportunities for the North American auto industry under USMCA.

The paper will have particular importance over the next few months, as policymakers decide whether to renew or seek changes to the USMCA, which replaced NAFTA.

Susan Helper and I wrote about challenges in the auto sector for @brookings.edu last week.
www.brookings.edu/articles/cha...