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For 67 years, the Castro regime has survived by convincing the world that communism in Cuba is a permanent condition. It rules through fear, propaganda, prisons and repression while generations of Cubans have been forced to live without freedom, prosperity or hope. But, today, that illusion is crumbling.

As the only Cuban-born member of the United States Congress, I never thought I would witness a moment where the dictatorship in Havana appeared this weak, this isolated and this vulnerable. The regime can no longer hide the reality of its failure. Cuba is suffering blackouts that leave entire cities in darkness, hospitals without medicine and food shortages that have become routine.

What is happening in Cuba is not simply a humanitarian crisis. It is a direct national security threat to the United States. The dictatorship in Havana has transformed itself into a strategic outpost for America’s greatest adversaries.

Communist China has expanded its presence on the island through suspected intelligence and surveillance facilities, capable of monitoring sensitive U.S. military activity across the southeastern United States. Russia continues to coordinate both politically and militarily with Havana. Meanwhile, Iran is deepening its influence across Latin America, using anti-American regimes like Cuba and Venezuela as gateways into the hemisphere. The Cuban dictatorship has become a platform for hostile foreign powers operating just 90 miles from our shores.

TRUMP UNDERSTANDS WHAT WASHINGTON POLITICIANS FORGOT: CUBA IS A MAJOR THREAT TO AMERICA

Now, history is catching up to the architects of the dictatorship themselves. Former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro has been indicted by the United States for his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes, one of the most infamous crimes committed by the regime against civilians.

Four innocent men – Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales – were flying unarmed civilian aircraft in international airspace when Cuban military pilots in Soviet-built MiG fighter jets opened fire with missiles. The attack was not accidental. It was a deliberate operation intended to terrorize the Cuban exile community and silence those who dared oppose the regime. For decades, the families of the victims waited for justice while Havana acted with impunity. Today, the dictatorship is finally being forced to answer for its crimes.

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At the center of the regime’s survival is the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the military-controlled conglomerate that dominates nearly every major sector of the Cuban economy. Hotels, ports, construction, banks, retail stores, remittances and tourism all flow through the hands of the military elite while ordinary Cubans struggle to survive.

That is why the recent arrest in Miami of Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of GAESA’s executive president, was so significant. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked her residency status after accusing her of benefiting from life in the United States while helping sustain Havana’s communist apparatus. It exposed the hypocrisy of a regime elite that condemns America publicly while privately enjoying the freedoms and opportunities denied to the Cuban people.

President Donald Trump and Rubio understand something previous administrations refused to accept. Dictatorships do not reform when rewarded. They become stronger. The Obama-era opening handed economic relief and legitimacy to the Cuban regime while political prisoners remained jailed, dissidents were beaten and the military elite expanded its control through entities like GAESA. Strength, not appeasement, is the only language Havana understands.

For decades, the Castro regime cultivated an illusion of absolute invincibility; today, for the first time in a generation, that facade has cracked, leaving the dictatorship profoundly vulnerable thanks to the decisive policies of President Trump.

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A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison Friday in a case that accused him of ordering drone flights over North Korea in an effort to justify his declaration of martial law.

Yoon, 65, was sentenced alongside former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun by the Seoul Central District Court.

The ousted president was previously sentenced to life in prison for leading an insurrection following his declaration of martial law in December 2024.

North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets on three occasions in October 2024.

SOUTH KOREAN LAWMAKERS SUPPORT SUSPENDING PRESIDENT’S POWERS AFTER SHORT-LIVED MARTIAL LAW DECLARATION

Then-Defense Minister Kim initially issued a vague denial before South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could neither confirm nor deny the allegations.

Although tensions between the two Koreas escalated following the incident, the drone flights did not lead to any military clashes.

Prosecutors accused Yoon of attempting to create a crisis with North Korea while plotting an authoritarian power grab aimed at removing political opponents and consolidating control.

SOUTH KOREAN COURT RULES EX‑PRESIDENT YOON SUK YEOL GUILTY IN INSURRECTION TRIAL

Before declaring martial law, Yoon delivered a televised address accusing liberal lawmakers of sympathizing with North Korea.

Yoon has argued that he possessed the constitutional authority to declare martial law and said the move was intended to draw attention to what he viewed as obstruction by opposition parties.

His attempt to impose martial law lasted roughly six hours before lawmakers voted to overturn it amid mass public protests.

Yoon was arrested in July 2025 and continues to face multiple criminal proceedings.

The insurrection verdict has been appealed by both Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought the death penalty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Why does Donald Trump love inflation?

Why does Donald Trump keep saying the Iran war is about to end – and then tell a Fox reporter he’s going to "bomb the s—- out of them"? 

Why does Donald Trump try to revive the controversial slush fund after saying it’s dead?

Why does he insist on putting an unqualified housing hack in charge of national intelligence despite an outcry from his own party?

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: REBELS THREATEN TO UPEND GOP AGENDA AMID GROWING FRUSTRATIONS WITH TRUMP

Something strange is happening here–but what?

Is Trump "increasingly frustrated with everyone," as Politico quotes a MAGA operative close to the White House? "He’s pissed and people are not recognizing the level of pissed that he is."

If there is connecting tissue here, it’s that Trump and his far-reaching agenda are running smack into reality.

STATE OF WAR: HOW TRUMP IS FIGHTING A 9-FRONT BATTLE

He even got blamed for his presence causing the Knicks to lose Game 3 of the NBA Finals (while Taylor Swift’s T-shirt got credit for Wednesday’s miracle comeback).

The opposition, led by the courts, has blocked much of what the president wants to do. His name is coming off the Kennedy Center. His prized ballroom is tied up, as is his proposed 250-foot arch. 

Republicans were so upset with his temporary appointment of Bill Pulte, who launched mortgage fraud investigations of Trump’s enemies, as director of national intelligence that they refused to renew an expiring domestic surveillance law. After digging in, the president bowed to political reality yesterday and nominated Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

TRUMP DOWNPLAYS SIGNS OF MAGA UNREST OVER POSSIBLE MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN

Publicly, Trump dismissed the Jeffrey Epstein uproar as a "hoax" perpetrated by the Democrats and a few renegade Republicans. But he and his team were privately obsessed with the scandal, according to a new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. 

Trump refused to do what most advisers were urging him to do, which was to get ahead of the Epstein disclosures before Congress made the files public. He insisted his MAGA base was behind him, when in fact many of its members were angry over his past ties to the late pedophile and complaining of a coverup.  

Trump accused California of running a rigged election on Tuesday. But when late ballots boosted his candidate, former Fox host Steve Hilton, into one of two November slots, he took credit for it.

TRUMP, DEMOCRATS LOCKED IN ENDLESS CYCLES OF PAYBACK AFTER COMEY INDICTMENT AND TARGETING PRESIDENT'S ENEMIES

In fact, Trump’s insistence, a half-dozen years later, that he actually won the 2020 election, despite never providing a shred of evidence in court, remains a classic example of him seeing the world as he wants it to be. The same goes for the Jan. 6 rioters that he is trying to recast as patriots. That was the impetus for the $1.8-billion "anti-weaponization" fund, to get money into their pockets, although we all watched on live television as many of them attacked police officers and threatened lawmakers. 

Now, why would the president make the politically clunky comment that "I love the inflation"? Especially when the annual rate just surged to 4.2 percent, the highest in three years? 

Trump’s explanation: "Do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran — until right now."

HOW TRUMP HANDED THE DEMOCRATS A GIFT BY SEEMING TO DISMISS FINANCIAL WORRIES OF AMERICANS

Yet this was no secret. The New York Times reported it last month.

The war offers the most vivid illustration of Trump’s fierce tendency to see a foggy picture through blurry glasses. For more than two months, the president has declared again and again that he was close to making a deal with Iran, that they were desperate for an agreement, that he was giving the mullahs a few more days. And yet no deal emerged.

Instead, the administration and Tehran wound up trading bombing attacks in the wake of the downing of a U.S. helicopter, with the crew quite fortunately rescued. Yet Trump clung to the fiction of an ongoing ceasefire.

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

In a call to "Fox & Friends" yesterday, he took aim at one of his favorite targets.

The problem was "fake news," he said. The media are "crooked," he said. "The New York Times writes stories like they’re doing great, and they’re not," he said of Iran. He included CNN and MSNOW in that indictment.

"The press just covers it so crazily."

WHY TRUMP IS DENOUNCING THE MEDIA’S IRAN WAR COVERAGE AS TOO NEGATIVE – BOOSTED BY RHETORICAL FCC BACKING

While media hostility toward Trump has influenced some war coverage, what I’ve seen most recently is an attempt to reflect the zig-zag nature of Trump’s actions and pronouncements on Iran. If Iran’s defenses are so depleted, as Trump says virtually every day, how did the terror state manage to shoot down an Army helicopter? 

He also said he plans to take over Kharg Island, the epicenter of Iran’s oil infrastructure.

And then came the ultimate in blame-shifting…to his fellow countrymen.

TRUMP PIVOTS ON STRIKES WHILE DANGLING IRAN DEAL, TESTING WHETHER TEHRAN BLINKS

"I don’t know that America has the stomach for it…I think they’d like to see us come home," he told Fox. "I’m not sure the country has the appetite for it."

That may well be true, but it’s not something a leader would generally say out loud. 

Still, Trump posted that Iran would be "HIT VERY HARD TONIGHT."

TRUMP PUSHED IRAN TO THE BRINK — BUT DID WE WIN ANYTHING THAT LASTS?

And then, yesterday afternoon, as I was finishing this column, Trump flipped again, canceling the threatened airstrikes.

He said the negotiations had been "brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved." The stock market "likes the deal." There would be a signing "very soon," maybe in the next few days.

I never believed that Trump would actually attempt to destroy Iranian civilization. His heart wasn’t in it. That’s not how he wants to be remembered by history. It’s always been a pressure tactic.

Now I’m not one of those people who writes off Trump, having spent decades watching him bounce back from a thousand different investigations and controversies. He’s the Houdini of politics.

None of this is exactly helping the Republicans keep control of the House in the midterms. But if Trump gets out of Iran, even with an arrangement that is sharply criticized for not definitively ruling out nuclear weapons, the country may move on and the environment may feel very different in November.

The overriding question is whether the president will see his preferred vision of the world or recognize the actual landscape with all its roadblocks and frustrations.

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Congressional Republicans spent four years opposing the Biden administration’s energy policies, asserting that they raised prices from the gas pump to our utility bills. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn to hit President Donald Trump on energy affordability, and they can point to the boost in the price of gasoline since the start of the Iran war as well as still-rising electric rates. But Trump is doing the one thing absolutely essential to affordability over the long-term, and that is dismantling the climate change agenda.

Despite the rhetorical pivot to affordability, supporters of climate policy can’t help but take us in the opposite direction. Their entire agenda is based on the premise that fossil fuels – the coal, oil and natural gas that provide about 80% of America’s energy needs – are far too cheap for our own good because the price we pay fails to account for the environmental damage they inflict.

For those supporters, preventing the apocalypse starts with making these energy sources more expensive, if not unavailable at any price. Of course, this viewpoint is at odds with the vast majority of Americans who want access to the cheapest sources of energy.  

Everything this agenda touched was becoming less affordable. The regulatory crackdown on coal-fired power plants added to retirements of existing facilities while discouraging construction of any new ones. This undoubtedly contributed to the upward pressure on electric rates.

THE REAL REASON YOUR ELECTRIC BILL IS SOARING THIS SUMMER WILL SURPRISE YOU

Natural gas was also a regulatory target, including its use in home appliances like furnaces and water heaters (a similar assault on gas stoves in 2023 met with a strong public backlash and was shelved). Ironically, the same Biden Department of Energy cranking out the rules discouraging natural gas appliances in favor of electric versions admitted that using gas costs only a third as much as electricity on a per-unit energy basis.

Even today’s gasoline prices are a better deal for drivers than a return to the climate agenda. President Joe Biden was curtailing oil leasing on federal lands and offshore areas while blocking much-needed oil pipelines.

At the same time, he was raising sticker prices for gasoline-powered cars via regulations – now being repealed by Trump – designed to push us towards electric vehicles that most people reject due to high overall costs as well as range and charging issues. The temporary jump at the pump from the Iran war is harmless compared to the permanent pain that would be imposed by these climate measures.

ANTARES REACHES REACTOR CRITICALITY UNDER TRUMP PILOT PROGRAM, MARKING MAJOR NUCLEAR MILESTONE

In addition to strangling conventional fossil energy sources with regulations, taxes, permitting roadblocks and other price-hiking measures, Washington’s climate crusaders also heaped big handouts on wind, solar and other favorites of the so-called clean energy transition. They now tout this transition as a means to reduce electric bills as well as emissions – and criticize Trump for opposing it.  

But how can alternatives too expensive to compete without hefty subsidies be the solution to affordability? Good question. They can’t, unless you ignore the fact that the subsidies are also coming out of our pockets – and that the vast sums already spent on green energy just to buy them a small share of the electricity mix are a mere down payment on what it would take to complete the hoped-for transition away from fossil fuels.

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The new transmission lines needed to incorporate more wind- and solar-generated electricity come with cost estimates into the trillions of dollars. And since these electricity sources don’t work 24/7 like coal, natural gas or nuclear can, they will necessitate investments in battery storage that may tack on trillions more.  And that’s on top of the cost to build all of these new green power plants, none of which have ever moved forward without generous taxpayer contributions. 

The misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included up to $4.7 trillion for this stuff. But three years later, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut back on many of the giveaways.

Even if the subsidies are fully restored and wind and solar generation is greatly expanded, would it actually lead to lower electric bills for homeowners and businesses? That hasn’t happened anywhere it has been tried – not in the U.S., where California and other states with the most aggressive climate policies also have the nation’s highest electric rates, nor in climate-obsessed Western Europe, where costs are higher still.

Swapping out the energy sources that have succeeded in the marketplace with those favored by government for their supposed climate friendliness is a recipe for higher costs, not lower ones. We can have affordable energy, or we can have intrusive climate change policy, but we can never have both. Trump has chosen the former, and doing so may prove to be the most important part of his legacy.

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Even if you’re sick of hearing about Jeffrey Epstein – and who among us hasn’t felt that way at times – President Donald Trump and his team have been far more fixated on the relentless controversy than they have ever acknowledged.

That (and plenty of other juicy revelations) is based on three years of reporting for a forthcoming book. "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" is by New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and slated to be published in two weeks.

Whether you’re a Trump supporter or detractor, the book is packed with facts that make clear that most or all of the major participants cooperated with them. The president also granted Haberman and Swan an hour-long interview in March.

One major takeaway: Even as Trump and White House officials repeatedly tried to dismiss the endless brawl, which stems from Trump’s long-ago friendship with the late pedophile and sex offender, as old or irrelevant news, they repeatedly met in the Situation Room to try to manage the crisis.

WHY MELANIA TRUMP IS DENYING ALLEGED SMEARS RELATED TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN–AND WANTS VICTIMS TO TESTIFY

In the initial meetings, Vice President JD Vance argued strenuously that more detailed allegations about Trump – some suspect or totally unconfirmed – were going to surface eventually, and they should get out ahead of the story.

Some argued that Vance "appeared panicked," according to the book, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who led the meetings, told others he was a conspiracy theorist. But Vance said Congress would force the release of the complete Epstein files no matter what they did.

In my view, the vice president was proven right.

REVEALED: TRUMP CALLED POLICE CHIEF TO SUPPORT EPSTEIN PROBE, AND LAWMAKERS NAMED 6 MEN SHIELDED FROM EXPOSURE

At another meeting, talk turned to whether Trump should pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s enabler, who has defended Trump and is now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking of a minor. 

"Pardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge P.R. problem," Communications Director Steven Cheung warned.

Trump posted that he had asked his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek release of grand jury testimony – which is almost never approved – "based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein." 

At a session last summer, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who had demanded release of the files as a podcaster, started shouting at Bondi, according to the book.

"You f----- this thing up from the start," he declared. "The way you’ve been talking about this — that dumb f------ charade with the Epstein files, the ‘They’re on my desk’ nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there."

Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel told a White House official that Bondi needed to resign.   

At a meeting with Wiles meant to smooth things over, Bongino accused the White House of ignoring his warnings, in which he predicted what would happen, and burst out of the Situation Room.

Bongino resigned in December and returned to his podcasting business, where he felt he’d given up millions of dollars. Trump fired Bondi in April.

Separately, Trump scolded conservative activist Charlie Kirk for allowing one of his events to turn into a "grievance fest" over the Epstein files. Kirk was tragically murdered in September.

HOW PAM BONDI AND THE DEMOCRATS TURNED A HEARING INTO HYSTERIA, RIGHT IN FRONT OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S VICTIMS

One other allegation is drawing media attention and is almost certainly untrue, given the accuser’s lack of credibility. It comes second-hand from a woman who had already made claims about sexual abuse and then retracted them.

This woman, who was named by the Times, had claimed in an email that she knew a second woman who alleged that Trump had a special focus on nipples. One official called these discussions "surreal."

Here’s my analysis: 

Donald Trump did not want to do what his advisors wanted him to do. He resisted at every turn.

By last summer, the president started calling the Epstein matter a "SCAM" and a "hoax" by Democrats, and attacked some pro-release members of his own party as "weaklings" – while later helping to oust them in primaries.

His public stance was that the whole thing was a nuisance, even as his private frustrations kept growing.

Part of the behind-the-scenes friction focused on whether average voters cared about the mess.

BILL GATES SAYS EPSTEIN TRIED TO USE HIS MARITAL AFFAIRS TO GAIN 'LEVERAGE' OVER HIM

What Trump seemed to have difficulty grasping is that his MAGA base indeed cared deeply about the issue. There was something about it that touched a raw nerve. Some podcasters, such as Megyn Kelly, were criticizing the president for not releasing all the documents.

Trump aides debated putting it all on a website, but as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche pointed out, the files included child porn that obviously could not be made public.

A memo from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, said "Epstein files" was the sixth most important issue named, and discussed negatively, by focus groups – behind such matters as inflation and foreign policy but ahead of such issues as crime and the military.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE'S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY'S HOTTEST STORIES

The fiasco was back in the news yesterday when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates testified on the Hill that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes but showed poor judgment in associating with him – and, according to Politico, said he was pressured by Epstein, who had discovered he had been unfaithful to his wife. They are now divorced.

What’s clear is that the publication of this book will add further fuel to the fire.

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The New York Knicks outscored the San Antonio Spurs by 28 points after the Wu-Tang Clan's halftime performance to complete the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.

Down by 29 at one point, the Knicks stormed all the way back, putting Madison Square Garden into a frenzy.

But before that, just about every ounce of momentum was in the Spurs' hands - and the Knicks had few answers.

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So, how did they just become the victims of one of the greatest collapses in the history of sports?

"We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half," Victor Wembanyama admitted.

Wembanyama was once again Public Enemy No. 1 in New York, getting booed in intros and treated to expletives from the crowd. When a defensive foul on him early was reversed to an offensive foul he drew, he again was jeered. It obviously continued throughout the night.

But after Mitchell Robinson was called for a flagrant foul for hitting Wembanyama, he appeared to relish the moment.

"I'm in your head!" cameras caught Wembanyama saying.

Wembanyama was in the Knicks' heads. Wembanyama was in the Knicks' fans' heads. And after winning two games on the road to begin the series, losing all the momentum was in the Knicks' heads.

But the Spurs scored just 30 points in the second half and turned the ball over nine times in the final 24 minutes. A 20-point lead in the fourth quarter vanished in minutes.

KNICKS OWNER, MAMDANI TRADE BARBS OVER CANCELED KNICKS WATCH PARTY OUTSIDE MSG: 'DON'T WANT THE CELEBRATION'

"To put as much good work into that first half as we did and get the lead that we had and not finish the job, it's disappointing to say the least..." Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said after the game. "We got away from playing the brand of basketball that got us the lead. And then you saw at times, the aggressiveness and conviction that we played with early on dissipated and they made some shots. We needed a couple of more tough-minded plays to finish the job."

"It was painful, of course. It feels like we worked too hard and give up our leads. It's as simple as that. It just hurts," Wembanyama added.

Now, the Spurs have no choice but to be the hungrier team, as they need to win three games in a row to avoid the Knicks winning their first NBA championship since 1973.

"It’s going to go one of two ways: a bad one and a good one. The bad one will be giving up. The good one will be getting stronger through this, getting more together and that’s what we’re going to do," Wembanyama said.

"Holding each other accountable, communicating, not pointing fingers. After that, we either got it or we don’t. We’ve proven that we can surpass these difficulties but even though we haven’t been there it before, I’m convinced we are built this way. We’re going to get better from this and It’s going to tighten us up."

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For too long, the debate over permitting reform has been confined to the wonky world of Washington insiders — endless discussions about transmission lines, pipelines, lawsuits, and administrative procedures. Policymakers fixate on the bark while missing the trees, let alone the forest. The stakes are far higher than connecting a natural gas plant, wind farm or data center to the grid. The most important reason for permitting reform is to grow the U.S. defense industrial base at the speed, scale and cost efficiency needed to deter a major conflict with China, and to quickly prevail if deterrence fails.

This imperative requires a sustained U.S. capability to outperform our adversaries in the production of weapons, ships, munitions, and material. Yet for more than two decades, America’s national security, economic policies, and stifling environmental review processes hollowed out domestic manufacturing and largely transferred our defense-related industrial capabilities and control of global supply chains to China.

The results are stark. China dominates global manufacturing, particularly those industries indispensable to defense. Its steel production exceeds America’s by roughly 12-to-1. In shipbuilding, China possesses capacity roughly 230 times that of the United States. A single major Chinese shipyard can exceed the total output of the entire U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry. American policymakers — both Democrats and Republicans — have been comatose on this front for far too long.

'THIS IS NO DRILL': CHINA'S DOMINANCE OVER US SHIPBUILDING SPARKS BIPARTISAN EFFORT

Recent conflicts offer sobering previews of how profoundly these disparities matter in wartime. In Ukraine, U.S. and allied munitions production has struggled to keep pace with demand. For example, America ramped 155mm artillery shell output from about 14,000 per month to around 40,000, falling far short of Ukraine’s needs — estimated at 150,000–200,000 shells monthly — and exposing fragile, just-in-time supply chains. Similar constraints appear in meeting our own requirements and supporting Israel against Iranian-backed threats. Peacetime atrophy — dormant production lines, retired skilled workers, overseas dependence, and regulatory bottlenecks — has left the U.S. defense industrial base ill-equipped for sustained, high-intensity conflict.

History underscores the danger of underestimating industrial power. Nazi Germany developed formidable new technologies during World War II: the Me 262 jet fighter, V-2 ballistic missiles, and advanced tanks. These "wonder weapons" stunned Allied forces when they appeared on the battlefield. Yet America’s overwhelming manufacturing juggernaut is what proved decisive. Mobilizing factories across the heartland, the United States produced nearly 300,000 aircraft, 86,000 tanks, and thousands of ships, vastly outproducing the Axis powers combined.

Similarly, in the Civil War, 90 percent of our manufacturing economy was in the North — which produced 20 times more pig iron and 32 times more firearms than the South — which was still primarily an agrarian economy. Perhaps more ominously is the lesson we can draw from the North’s embrace of mechanization, which allowed threshing to be done 12 times faster than slave labor. Today’s corollary is Artificial Intelligence (AI) — the Great Power which dominates AI will gain the upper hand easily in any conflict, just like the North did, dominating the South which clung to the morally repugnant — but also ineffective — manual labor. Both mechanization and AI need reliable, dispatchable power to provide their economic and industrial benefits.

Today, China enjoys the advantage once held by America. China’s defense industrial base and supporting infrastructure can much more easily shift to a wartime footing, surging output of ships, munitions, and material with little or no bureaucratic or legal constraints.

RAPID RISE OF AI PUTS NEW URGENCY ON CONGRESS TO UNLEASH AMERICAN ENERGY

Reversing America’s defense industrial decline requires more than a tweak to an administrative process, increasing permitting staff, or changing deadlines for filing lawsuits. It demands a fundamental change in mindset of how, and why, government places so many obstacles in the way of the rapid expansion and rebuilding of our defense industrial base. Roads, bridges, ports, rail, power generation and delivery and computing infrastructure are foundational infrastructure. Factories cannot hum without affordable and reliable power. Mines and processing facilities for critical materiels — essential for munitions, electronics, and advanced weapons — cannot secure funding and achieve necessary scale amid regulatory paralysis.

Without this complex industrial ecosystem, we risk strategic vulnerability no amount of technological innovation can offset. American spirit and ingenuity are real assets, but cannot conjure raw materials and weapons systems from thin air when supply chains falter and projects languish in endless reviews. Congress and the administration must treat permitting modernization as a core national security priority.

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The most important element is time. Time is power — China builds three times faster than we do. Time is money — Chinese defense output costs a fraction of ours. Every year a U.S. defense infrastructure project is hung up in permitting adds 10-20 % to its final cost. Typical delays of more than five years lead to projects costing two or three times more than they need to. Eliminating this delay would not only unleash defense production with the speed and scale needed to keep the peace, but deliver it while saving hundreds of billions of dollars in defense spending.

To accomplish this, Congress and the states must reach across the aisle and legislatively approve maintenance, replacement and new construction of defense industrial supply chains and preclude any further environmental review, permitting, and judicial review of such process.

I’ve worked with sincere Democrats like Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) to build consensus and extend my thanks and trust to them. We all are committed to assuring environmental protection and reaffirm these industries must comply with all specified environmental performance requirements. They will remain subject to the full array of legal requirements for monitoring, reporting, inspection, enforcement, citizen suits, judicial review and punitive civil, criminal, and damages liability for any noncompliance. Ample bipartisan precedent for this approach has long been in place in non-security related laws such as health and safety, financial transactions, and border construction, while recent targeted federal and state laws waived permitting for public housing, fracking, pipelines, and chip manufacturing plants.

The need to tackle the challenges of this permitting reform forest is clear: America’s ability to deter conflict, or to win if deterrence fails, rests on American industrial might. Permitting reform is the essential first step toward rebuilding it. The time for tepid measures and insider debates is over.

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