| In the American system, an active federal government is supposed to regulate markets and protect the public welfare when private industries develop products with the potential to cause catastrophic harm. President Trump has taken a different view. |
| On Monday, Trump posted that fears about AI are “even wilder than the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, or the Global Warming Scam.” He argued that strict regulation would drive the industry “into oblivion and bankruptcy,” and insisted that the U.S. relies on the industry for economic growth. |
| “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” he posted. |
| In other words, the president proposed himself as the regulatory framework. |
| Indeed, his own vice president, J.D. Vance, said otherwise earlier on Monday. Vance suggested to reporters that additional regulation of artificial intelligence was necessary, noting that “the best way to do it would be a consensus between both Congress and the administration.” |
| Also yesterday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia refused to permit the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, remade this year with the president’s appointees, to add Trump’s name to the facade of the building or to rename its plaza for him. Anastasia Tsioulcas of NPR reported that in a 22-page decision, Cooper wrote: “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.” |
| In other words, a board the president appointed asked a court to let it do what the law says it may not, and the court said no. The Justice Department appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit the same day. |
| Minutes after the ruling, the board voted to close the main building for two years. Trump posted that the building was “destined to doom” without his name, adding that he alone could save it “because I have the ability to raise the money, and the ability to construct, that few others have. I also have the strength and power of the Presidency.” He added that the renovation, for which Congress has appropriated $257 million, “cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name.” |
| Trump called into the board meeting after the ruling, according to Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex-officio member of the board who sued over the takeover of the center. When he called her “dumb” and “incompetent,” she said she answered: “I know you’re incompetent.” |
| The power of the purse had its own hearing yesterday. Under the Constitution, Congress holds the power of the purse and oversees how the government collects and spends revenue. On January 9, Trump signed Executive Order 14373 directing the Treasury Secretary to hold the proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil and to move them as the Secretary of State directed. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to answer questions from Representative Sean Casten (D-IL) about where that money is. |
| In January, Reuters reported, the United States completed its first sale of seized Venezuelan oil, valued at $500 million. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 28 that the money had been deposited in a bank account in Qatar, not the U.S. Treasury. Casten has asked Bessent where it went in February, in March, and again yesterday. Bessent said yesterday that he did not know how much money from Venezuelan assets had flowed through accounts managed by the Treasury since January, or whether the money was flowing to “the U.S. government, U.S. persons, or U.S. corporations.” |
| In other words, half a billion dollars belongs to the United States and the Secretary of the Treasury cannot say where it is. |
| And then there is the Federal Reserve. Congress created it in 1913 to set the nation’s monetary policy on economic data, insulated from the president. Today the Federal Open Market Committee voted 12–0 to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, to a range of 3.75% to 4%, the first increase since 2023. “Inflation remains elevated,” the committee said in its statement. The vote included Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom Trump chose for the job. Trump responded within hours. |
| “Interest Rates in the United States should be 1%, or less, because we are the Best Credit in the World, BY FAR,” he posted. “LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!” At a political rally in North Carolina, he said, “They’re raising the rates to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do.” |
| 1887 |
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| In the late nineteenth century, Americans faced a similar crisis during the rapid expansion of railroads and heavy industry. Before the Civil War, the American economy was largely local, but the explosion of railroad networks created a national market. A handful of industrialists amassed unprecedented fortunes by consolidating industries and monopolizing markets. |
| These men and their political allies argued that any government regulation would destroy the economy. They embraced the philosophy of Social Darwinism, which adapted the theory of evolution to society, arguing that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few was the natural result of the “survival of the fittest.” Interference with that concentration, they claimed, would drag down the progress of human civilization. |
| But everyday Americans realized the system was rigged. Farmers in the Midwest saw railroads charging exorbitant freight rates to transport crops to market, while secretly offering rebates to large corporations like Standard Oil, driving small competitors out of business. Ordinary people recognized that allowing a few men to control the nation’s economic arteries concentrated too much power at the top, threatening the equality of opportunity that lay at the heart of the American system. |
| They used the government to push back, forcing Congress to pass the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which created the first federal regulatory agency, and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. |
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| The Senate passed the Sherman Act 51 to 1. The House passed it 242 to 0. |
Boots in the muck,
Muckrake Letter. |
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| History is written from the letters people leave behind, and this one isn’t finished until you’ve had your say. If something in today’s letter matches what you’re seeing where you live, or doesn’t, write back and tell me. |
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| How did we do today? |
| Choose the picture that best describes today’s letter. |
 |  |  |  |  | 1
Poor | 2
Fair | 3
Okay | 4
Good | 5
Excellent |
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| These letters exist to serve you, and I would like to know how well this one did. If you would tell me, from one to five, and add a word on what would serve you better, I would be grateful. |
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| Notes |
| https://www.ft.com/content/bab5c4c5-5377-4dd0-8b46-d8c4ce9a36d5 |
| https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/4728133/bernie-sanders-big-tech-oligarchs-taking-charge-ai-development/ |
| https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/4728634/bernie-sanders-steve-bannon-truce-pro-human-assembly-china-disagreement/ |
| https://www.axios.com/2026/09/15/ai-alarm-bernie-sanders-bannon-dc-summit |
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/09/15/judge-bars-kennedy-center-adding-trumps-name-building/ |
| https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/arts/music/kennedy-center-trump-name-inscription-judge-ruling.html |
| https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/16/fed-rate-decision-september-2026.html |
| https://www.rawstory.com/trump-interest-rates-2677870207/ |
| https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-completes-first-venezuelan-oil-sales-valued-500-million-us-official-says-2026-01-14/ |
| Trump’s Truth: statuses/41742, statuses/41744, statuses/40064 |
