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AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most

What’s Wrong with the Right

Rediscovering Order in an Age of Populism

June 21, 2025

The modern right is increasingly driven only by opposition to left-wing extremism and identity politics. In the latest edition of National Affairs, Ed Feulner and Mike Pence outline conservatism’s foundational principles and warn against straying toward a purely reactionary approach.

 

 

President Donald Trump claims one intention of his protectionist tariff policies is to return manufacturing jobs to Americans. Economic Policy Studies Director Michael R. Strain elaborates on why the administration’s tariff increases will not aid US manufacturing employment and why aiming for more manufacturing jobs is the wrong goal in the first place.

 

Even as the United States seeks protection from Chinese economic threats by means of tariffs, a clear view of China’s terrain of knowledge and skills remains inaccessible. In a new AEI working paper, Nicholas Eberstadt provides a framework for mapping an accurate picture of China’s “knowledge capital.”

 

President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles continues to face legal challenges. Jack Landman Goldsmith dives into the interpretation of an 1827 Supreme Court decision at the center of determining the legality of the president’s actions. 

 

Despite constantly changing social norms, strong families remain a bedrock of human thriving. In a new report from the National Marriage Project, Ian Rowe and Brad Wilcox detail how children in Virginia flourish with a father in the home and provide a path for policymakers to strengthen fatherhood.       


Mind the Children

In the face of increasing rates of mental health challenges in children and teens, understanding the multifaceted changes making kids’ lives more difficult becomes imperative. In a new book from AEI Press, Naomi Schaefer Riley and Sally Satel curate contributions from journalists, researchers, and clinicians to address topics as varied as how schools may paradoxically worsen matters they are trying to address, how political rhetoric may affect children’s ability to cope with ordinary challenges, and how to reverse the shortage of professionals available to help kids. Mind the Children will help parents and policymakers gain a comprehensive understanding of a multifaceted problem, which other experts have been too quick to trace to a single cause.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Mr. Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants victory, and he’s playing President Trump to achieve it.

Leon Aron