AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
AEI This Week
AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
POPULISM AND CONSERVATISM
Has Trumpism Changed the GOP?
April 18, 2026
Could it be that traditional conservative commitments to free enterprise, limited government, and American strength abroad are the most popular and effective aspects of the Trump administration’s policies? In a new piece for Financial Times, AEI Economic Policy Studies Director Michael R. Strain makes this case ([link removed] ) —and explains why the future of the GOP is more free market than national populist.
trump_youngkin_gop_governors-1 ([link removed] )
The agricultural sector provides just one example of how the administration’s most populist economic policies—tariffs—have been ineffective and unpopular. In a new AEI report, Joseph W. Glauber evaluates ([link removed] ) the damage the administration’s agricultural tariffs have done one year after Liberation Day.
Both Republicans and Democrats need to pay attention to the results of Hungary’s recent election—which saw longtime illiberal incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán defeated in a landslide. Charles Lane highlights ([link removed] ) how Hungarian voters grew tired of the populist government’s authoritarianism, corruption, and friendliness toward Russia amid an affordability crisis—and opted instead for a more conventionally right-wing alternative.
The release of Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos model last week has thrown into sharp relief that computing power is the most important bottleneck to developing the most advanced artificial intelligence models. In a new article for The National Interest, Ryan Fedasiuk analyzes ([link removed] ) this new development and assesses how China is responding.
Even as the Supreme Court has made important strides in renewing the founders’ vision of separation of powers, Congress still struggles to fulfill its core responsibilities. To address this, AEI is launching the First Branch Society—a bipartisan and bicameral community of congressional staffers dedicated to strengthening Congress and restoring its central place in America’s constitutional system. Visit AEI’s website ([link removed] ) to learn more and get involved.
The Senate's Investor Ban Would Cut Housing Supply and Hurt Low-Income Families
The House of Representatives is currently considering the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—which, among its provisions, includes a significant new limit on the ability of large institutional investors to purchase and own single-family rentals, pushed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (Section 901). In a new report, AEI Housing Center Codirectors Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter provide ([link removed] ) a fact-based assessment of the role institutional investors play in the housing market. Pinto and Peter assess 13 different dimensions of activity in the housing market, including market share, geography, supply, and prices. Large institutional investors own only about 0.65 percent of the nation’s single-family homes, but in localized markets they play an important role in building and rehabilitating distressed properties that are affordable for low- and middle-income renter households. By restricting this role, Section 901 would make housing less affordable for these families.
More from AEI
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Come Back, Blue-State Welfare Funders! ([link removed] )
Matt Weidinger | AEIdeas
If Schools Won’t Form Boys, Social Media Will ([link removed] )
Samuel J. Abrams | AEIdeas
Rationalizing the Federal Taxation of Gambling Income ([link removed] )
Kyle Pomerleau and Alex Durante | Tax Notes
Congress Seeks a Way to Avert the US Postal Service’s Fiscal Collapse ([link removed] )
Kevin R. Kosar | Washington Examiner
Guests of the Nation ([link removed] )
Christopher J. Scalia | The Washington Free Beacon
PODCASTS AND VIDEOS
Moving the Economy On-Chain ([link removed] )
Shane Tews et al. | Explain to Shane
The New Misery ([link removed] )
Nicholas Eberstadt | The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
Drew and Ellie Holcomb ([link removed] )
Ben Sasse et al. | Not Dead Yet
Assessing the Impact of a 10 Percent Rate Cap on Credit Cards ([link removed] )
Paul H. Kupiec | RegFi Podcast
Israel on Trial ([link removed] )
Jonah Goldberg and Roy K. Altman | The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
In the long term, an ambitious China may profit from an environment in which the US seems to be causing more turmoil than it suppresses. In the near term, it may find that it suffers, economically and otherwise, from a vacuum of stability that it is not yet prepared to fill.
—Hal Brands ([link removed] )
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