• U.S. Justice Department Disbands Team Investigating Foreign Election Interference

    DOJ is disbanding the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), established in 2017 to investigate efforts by state actors, such as Russia and China, to influence U.S. public opinion, particularly around elections. Trump has been highly critical of efforts by law enforcement to identify and root out foreign interference in U.S. elections, especially after a report by special counsel Robert Mueller and a bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee found extensive evidence that Russian influence operations had been mounted to benefit Trump’s candidacy during the 2016 presidential election.

  • What’s Going on at the FBI?

    The Trump administration has launched a broad political purge of the FBI, aiming to remove senior officials and field agents who are regarded as insufficiently loyal to President Trump. In addition to forcing the retirement of senior bureau leaders, the FBI’s interim leadership is now trying to identify agents and other personnel who had worked on the Jan. 6 investigations. Benjamin Wittes writes that “A lot of people at the bureau—leadership and street agents, analysts and staff alike—are flirting with heroism right now” by engaging in conscientious objection: they “are upholding the law, which is closely aligned with their own oaths and the FBI’s culture, and the rule of law itself.”

  • Get Rid of FEMA? Trump-appointed Group to Look at Shifting Disaster Response to States.

    Governors and state legislatures may have to bolster their natural disaster response and recovery efforts in the coming years as President Donald Trump looks for ways to shift the federal government’s role onto states.

  • DOE Natural Gas Analysis Released for Public Comment

    The future of U.S. liquified natural gas exports remains complicated as the incoming Trump administration will have to contend with a recent Department of Energy analysis now open for public comment.

  • U.S. Tech-Defense Leaders Want to Upend the Establishment

    Elon Musk wants to cancel the F-35, get rid of manned combat aircraft generally and rely more on drones. But it was no surprise, however, even without Musk’s comments along those lines, that the US Air Force punted any decision on the Next Generation Air Dominance air-combat project to the next administration.

  • Kristi Noem to Be Nominated DHS Secretary

    South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been picked by President-elect Donald Trump s his nominee for Secretary of Department of Homeland Security.

  • Trump Names U.S. 'Border Czar' to Oversee Migrant Deportations

    U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has picked Thomas Homan, his one-time acting immigration chief, to serve as “border czar” and fulfill his campaign vow to deport large numbers of undocumented migrants, potentially millions, back to their home countries.

  • The Best Political Argument for More Immigration Restrictions Just Failed

    Many Republican politicians and their supporters are worried about immigrants and their descendants being permanent Democratic voters. This week’s election returns are dramatic evidence that immigrants and their children are assimilating to American political norms, that they are voting Republican in huge numbers, and that Donald Trump defeated the best politically self-interested argument for Republicans to oppose increased legal immigration.

  • Connecting the U.S. Coast Guard to MIT Sloan

    For the past 50 years, the Coast Guard has nominated a senior officer to apply to the MIT Sloan Fellows MBA program. “When you leave MIT Sloan, you want to change the world,” says one alumnus.

  • Leveraging AI to Enhance U.S. Cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can potentially provide the homeland unprecedented opportunity to enhance its cybersecurity posture. DHS S&T is exploring the possibilities of using new advances in this technology to detect threats, increase resilience and provide more supply chain oversight.

  • The Middle Road: Why the United States Needs a Dynamic Approach to Its Foreign Policy

    The world finds itself in a precarious calm before a potential storm of great power rivalry. The United States is in yet another crucial presidential election cycle. Both tickets offer largely contrasting stances for America’s position on the international stage. However, must America’s approach to its role on the international stage be one of two extremes, or can it be more nuanced?

  • Is the American Empire collapsing?

    The United States remains a global power unparalleled in history. So what would it take for this situation to change? Four possible developments or events seem to be plausible candidates.

  • 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment

    DHS has issued its 2025 threat assessment, focusing on the most direct, pressing threats to the U.S. homeland during the next year. The assessment is organized around DHS missions that most closely align or apply to these threats—public safety, border and immigration, critical infrastructure, and economic security.

  • Amid Multiple Disasters, FEMA Faces Funding Challenges, Misinformation, and Politicization

    Congress gave the agency enough money to last the year. But back-to-back hurricanes are stretching resources thin. Moreover, in the wake of Helene and Milton, FEMA has faced a barrage of brazen lies and distortions concocted by Donald Trump and amplified by his supporters about disaster relief dollars being misused and redirected toward housing migrants.

  • How One Swing-State County Has Escaped Election Conspiracies

    Mercer County, Pennsylvania has avoided the rancor and abuse that have plagued other parts of Pennsylvania. Local Democratic and Republican leaders both vouch for the integrity of the county’s voting system.