The federal government’s bloated, outdated information systems have finally come under scrutiny. On his first day in office, President Trump signed a series of executive orders to cut waste and boost efficiency. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reinforced that mandate, spending his first 100 days reviewing the Pentagon “from top to bottom to ensure that we're getting more, faster, better, and more efficient.”
Earlier this month, Hegseth announced that in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency, officials had uncovered $5.1 billion in savings — “and that's just the beginning.” That’s a good start. But if the DOGE hopes to prove its worth, it must confront the federal government’s disastrous record on IT spending and performance.
Companies should not have to wade through red tape at every agency — or even within the same agency — to deploy new solutions.
It can’t happen fast enough. A staggering 80% of the annual $100 billion IT spending goes to maintaining decades-old systems. According to the Government Accountability Office, “The older the systems are, the more the upkeep costs — and older systems are more vulnerable to hackers.”
Not only is outdated software expensive to maintain, but it also poses a significant vulnerability for our government — and that is particularly dangerous when it comes to national defense.
The Trump administration should make it a top priority to modernize federal IT infrastructure while also addressing how we got such a dysfunctional IT infrastructure in the first place.
In today’s AI world, government agencies cannot adapt to the most innovative and efficient technology when burdened with regulations often written before the internet even existed.
The Department of Defense is a prime example. The U.S. military buys IT systems in a ridiculously bureaucratic fashion. It takes years and millions of dollars for a company — regardless of size — to get its software approved just to pitch a product to the department. When time and money are of the essence, the only firms that can wade through the red tape are big, entrenched companies with lawyers and lobbyists to throw at outdated rules.
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This procurement model directly clashes with how the private sector works. In the business world, innovators attract investment quickly. The Pentagon, by contrast, consistently favors large, well-connected firms over smaller companies and startups. Promising new technologies get ignored.
It’s the defense contractor model over the SpaceX model — and we’re paying the price.
Fixing the rules isn’t enough. We need to fix the people who enforce them. Right now, overlapping Defense Department bureaucracies oversee the procurement and deployment of new technology. A single point of contact — with one set of rules — would reduce red tape and create a unified standard for the department to follow.
That standard should reach beyond the Defense Department. Companies shouldn’t have to navigate a maze of conflicting rules across agencies — or even within the same agency — just to deploy new solutions. Procurement reform, including better training and clearer rules, must be a core part of the DOGE’s mission.
Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act made some progress, but much more still needs to be done.
Falling behind on technological modernization in defense is not just an economic disadvantage but a threat to national security. As the DOGE takes a much-needed axe to inflated government spending, let’s make sure we also cut burdensome regulations that hinder innovation and improvement. We must unleash the power of American innovation to equip our military with the finest tools — otherwise, our enemies will beat us to it.
The steel-driving man of American legend, John Henry, attempted to beat the machine — and won, though it cost him his life. At the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League's (A2RL) Drone Championship in April, man tried to beat the machine and lost — and the technology responsible could soon claim many a life on battlefields the world over.
There were four race formats at the drone competition co-hosted by the Drone Champions League and A2RL this past April in Abu Dhabi: an autonomous drag race where lightweight flyers fired through multiple gates at speeds of over 93 mph; a multi-drone race; an AI grand challenge; and a match pitting elite DCL human pilots against an autonomous drone.
In the fourth type of race, an autonomous quadcopter drone built and trained by a team of scientists and students at Delft University of Technology's aerospace engineering MAVLab in the Netherlands beat three former DCL world champions, reaching speeds on the winding indoor track of nearly 60 mph.
A2RL concluded in a release that the races demonstrated that "AI, when given the right tools, can make complex, real-time decisions in a dynamic physical world. And it can do so safely, at speed, and at scale."
'Autonomous drone racing is an ideal test case for developing and demonstrating highly efficient, robust AI.'
Footage shows the drone whip effortlessly through a series of 22 indoor gates using only a front-facing camera and a motion sensor.
According to the university, the feat — possible because their "efficient and robust AI system [is] capable of split-second, high-performance control" — was historic.
Humans have been losing in games played virtually to supercomputers for decades. However, the university noted that "this achievement happened in the real world."
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Team lead Christophe De Wagter said in a statement, "I always wondered when AI would be able to compete with human drone racing pilots in real competitions. I'm extremely proud of the team that we were able to make it happen already this year."
"I hope that this achievement and this type of competition in general forms a springboard for real-world robot applications," added De Wagter. "Robot AI is limited by the required computational and energy resources. Autonomous drone racing is an ideal test case for developing and demonstrating highly efficient, robust AI."
The efficacy of autonomous drones on the raceway certainly has implications for the future of warfare.
Already in Ukraine, drones — which Kyiv is on track to produce 2.5 million of annually — have blunted the competitive edge of state-of-the-art bomber aircraft and armor and now reportedly cause an estimated 70% of deaths and injuries. The vast majority of drones in the war are, however, human-operated.
A special report published earlier this month by the Institute for the Study of War noted that "Russia and Ukraine are engaged in an active technological race to develop and deploy drones with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities" as doing so would reduce their reliance on human drone operators and defenders, overcome human limitations in target identification, and accelerate decision-making processes involved in drone warfare.
The warring nations have reportedly demonstrated some integration of AI capabilities into drones as of last month but have not deployed them on scale in the battlefield.
In one instance, a Ukrainian electronic and radio warfare expert observed Russian forces field a swarm of six drones, each of which carry a 6.6 pound warhead and have a range of up to 50 miles.
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ISW noted that Ukrainian forces, on the other hand, deployed a new AI-powered "mother drone" on the frontlines in late May — a drone that can reportedly deploy two first-person-view drones and launch a strike at a range of 186 miles.
The mothership was created by the Ukrainian startup Strategy Force Solutions.
The CTO of the company, who identified himself only as Andrii, told Forbes, "A $10,000 mission replaces what previously required $3-$5 million missile systems."
"By pairing them [small FPV type drones] with AI mothership drones, we can guarantee precision strikes," added Andrii.
The TU Delft drone evidences a technological leap that if utilized in the warring nation's UAVs could mean greater effectiveness when attacking in dynamic combat zones as greater difficulty on the part of targets to evade or shoot them down.
The Dutch university indicated that one of the novel aspects of the racer drone's AI is its use of a deep neural network originally developed by the Advanced Concepts Team at the European Space Agency, which enables the system to bypass a traditional human controller and direct commands straight to the motors.
"Traditional, human-engineered algorithms for optimal control were computationally so expensive that they would never be able to run onboard resource-constrained systems such as drones or satellites," said the university. "ESA found that deep neural networks were able to mimic the outcomes of traditional algorithms, while requiring orders of magnitude less processing time."
"We now train the deep neural networks with reinforcement learning, a form of learning by trial and error," said De Wagter. "This allows the drone to more closely approach the physical limits of the system. To get there, though, we had to redesign not only the training procedure for the control but also how we can learn about the drone's dynamics from its own onboard sensory data."
According to a MarketDigits 2023 projection, the autonomous drone market will reach $53.4 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 18.9% during the forecast period.
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The Congressional Budget Office released a report Wednesday detailing the budgetary and economic impact of President Trump’s tariffs. The top-line result: Even the Democrat-controlled CBO concedes that tariffs will reduce the deficit over the next decade.
Trump has every reason to celebrate. Tariffs shrink the deficit in one of two ways. They either raise revenue directly — as tariffs are a form of tax — or they do so indirectly, by reshoring industry and expanding GDP.
History suggests both outcomes are likely. But if Trump stays the course and keeps tariffs high and stable, the United States could seize the opportunity of a generation: reindustrialize the economy, grow GDP, and restore prosperity for our grandkids.
In the 1960s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel ran an experiment on self-control. Children were given a choice: Eat one marshmallow now or wait and receive two later. Those who delayed gratification generally fared better in life. Intelligence and future success correlated with restraint.
The implications extended beyond childhood. Researchers found similar behavior in animals, with more intelligent species — like crows — choosing delayed rewards.
Delayed gratification builds successful investors, entrepreneurs, and nations.
No one pretends tariffs deliver instant gratification. They don’t. They aren’t supposed to.
Tariffs function much the same way. They impose short-term pain in exchange for long-term gain. Like the marshmallow test, this moment asks whether Americans will accept some present discomfort to secure a far more prosperous future.
Fortunately, patience pays. Economic logic and historical evidence both show that tariffs expand the gross domestic product and create jobs over time.
In 2024, America posted a net trade deficit of $918 billion. That figure represents more than a statistic. It reflects real, physical production now taking place elsewhere — mostly in China.
The math is simple: If Americans didn’t buy those goods from abroad, they would need to produce them at home.
Reshoring that production would raise GDP accordingly. When demand remains steady and supply shifts from overseas to domestic producers, GDP rises.
Demand drives supply. That’s basic economics.
This principle played out throughout American history. For over a century, high tariffs protected domestic industry. America’s economy grew faster than the global average. Consumption increased. Industrial output soared. Not until the 1970s, when the country embraced so-called “free trade” and abandoned the gold standard, did growth begin to stagnate.
Industrial production also benefits from increasing returns to scale. The more you produce, the cheaper each unit becomes. Part of the reason Chinese goods seem inexpensive lies in our own underproduction. As American firms ramp up supply, the cost gap narrows.
Financing habits support this trend. Americans fund trade deficits by selling assets or issuing debt. Those mechanisms would remain available in a closed trade system. True, consumers might get less “bang for their buck” in the short term, but the willingness to spend wouldn’t change.
Most Americans will continue to consume, no matter where production occurs. That behavior ensures demand will remain steady — providing the economic incentive for supply to shift back home.
America’s industrial potential remains far from exhausted. Millions of citizens remain unemployed or underemployed. Hundreds of billions of dollars in productive capital sit idle.
The infrastructure exists. The labor pool exists. The only thing missing has been the incentive to build again. Or more accurately, the disincentive to rely on foreign labor.
The United States thrived for generations as a self-sufficient manufacturing power. It can do so again.
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Production follows consumption. That truism holds in both individual and national economies. No one works because they love harvesting wheat or running a forge. People work because they want to eat, live, and flourish.
In a globalized economy, countries can consume without producing. But once that system breaks — or gets reshaped by political will — production must rise to meet domestic demand. It cannot work the other way around.
This logic exposes a hard truth: America’s trade deficit reflects lost potential. We haven’t stopped consuming. We’ve just stopped building.
Trump’s tariffs aim to reverse that trend. By shrinking the trade deficit, the policy raises GDP. With production comes employment. With employment comes prosperity.
No one pretends tariffs deliver instant gratification. They don’t. They aren’t supposed to.
Tariffs offer a national test of will. Do Americans want long-term sovereignty, security, and wealth badly enough to endure a temporary adjustment? Or will they flinch the moment cheap consumer goods rise in price?
This question lies at the heart of the national debate. And the outcome will shape whether America reclaims its manufacturing base — or continues hemorrhaging power to rival nations.
The evidence favors success. But only if we stay the course.
Conservatives and nationalists should recognize what’s at stake. Tariffs don’t just serve economic goals. They advance a moral imperative — to rebuild the country we inherited and preserve it for those who follow.
The marshmallow test may sound childish. But its lessons hold: The future belongs to those who can delay gratification today to build something greater tomorrow.
America stands at that threshold now. As I show in “Reshore: How Tariffs Will Bring Our Jobs Home and Revive the American Dream,” reindustrialization isn’t a fantasy. It’s within reach. But it requires courage, consistency, and sacrifice.
Trump’s tariffs have set the stage. The numbers now support the policy. The question remains: Will the American people pass the test?
Let’s hope so. Because this country doesn’t belong only to us. It belongs to our children, our grandchildren, and every generation still to come.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un attended the communist regime's launch ceremony of the second of its two new Choe Hyon-class destroyers at the Cheongjin shipyard in eastern port city of Chongjin on May 21. The side-launch went really, really poorly.
Jong Un looked on as his brand-new, 5,511-ton, 144-meter warship immediately capsized.
After laying on its side for weeks, North Korean state media now claims the ship was been righted. Nevertheless, the damage has been done — both literally and figuratively.
'Criminal act caused by sheer callousness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism.'
The Korean Central News Agency attributed the failure to "inexperienced command and operational carelessness in the course of the launch," claiming that "the launch slide of the stern departed first and stranded as the [hydro-pneumatic catapult] failed to move in parallel, holes made at some sections of the warship's bottom disrupted its balance, and the bow failed to leave the slipway, leading to a serious accident."
Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector who helms the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told the Guardian, "It appears the dock was hastily constructed, and multiple issues may have arisen during the shipbuilding process."
Jong Un rushed to the conclusion that the incident was a "criminal act caused by sheer callousness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism, which should never occur and could not be tolerated."
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While the communist regime lost face over the accident, the individual it scapegoated — Ri Hyong Son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee — will likely lose a great deal more. Son was arrested and deemed "greatly responsible," according to state media.
38 North, a project of the Stimson Center, a peace-oriented think tank, indicated that in the wake of the accident, there were desperate efforts in recent days to manually right the ship. Satellite imagery revealed that numerous barrage balloons were employed to keep the communist ship afloat while cables were fastened to the destroyer to stabilize its position.
Additional satellite images reportedly indicate damage to the sonar bow section, which will require significant repairs at a dry dock.
State media claimed Friday — and satellite imagery confirms — that the ship had been balanced and launched the previous day and can now stay afloat, moored at the pier.
The South Korean military reportedly indicated that the battered and bruised vessel may have been developed with the help of the Russians in exchange for the regime sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
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A recent study out of MIT Media Lab shows that students using ChatGPT and other AI tools to write essays may be acquiring “cognitive debt” at a higher rate than students using searching engines or only their brains. According to the study, “Cognitive debt defers mental effort in the short term but results in long-term […]
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The Trump Organization announced Monday the launch of a new mobile phone service, Trump Mobile. “We’ve been working for a long time trying to deliver for the American people, trying to do something unique for people who have been underserved, and today we’re here to introduce Trump Mobile,” Donald Trump […]
Unless parents make a concerted effort to deal with the smartphone, the great majority of kids will never come close to reaching their full potential.
The libertarian tech bros creating neo-eugenics startups seem totally unaware of the moral monstrosities they are conjuring up.
After years of parents attempting to implement content controls, screen time limits, and other half measures, Morell is ready to cut the Gordian Knot.
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