Latest / Hoover Daily Report / Hoover Daily Report | May 12, 2026

Transcript

Hoover Daily Report | May 12, 2026 · Hoover Daily Report

• 0:00
  Welcome to "the Hoover Daily Report". Ideas Advancing
• 0:03
  Freedom. It's Tuesday, May 12th, twenty twenty six .
• 0:06
  Today, the GoodFellows speak with author Sarah Isgur about the dynamics of the
• 0:09
  Supreme Court, and whether it’s time for radical reform. Matt Pottinger, Liza
• 0:13
  Tobin, and H.R. McMaster write about how the Trump administration should handle
• 0:17
  its trip to China. And Hoover convenes a room full of scholars tracking the ways
• 0:21
  the executive branch is evolving and how it interacts with the other branches of
• 0:25
  government.
• 0:25
  ‘Deciders,’ ‘Honey Badgers,’ and ‘Lonely Liberals’: Sarah Izgur on a Divided
• 0:30
  Supreme Court.
• 0:31
  Is it time to rethink the configuration of the US Supreme Court—not nine justices
• 0:37
  divided along lockstep ideological lines, but three groups of three justices, each
• 0:42
  clique with a different approach to jurisprudence? So argues court watcher
• 0:47
  and legal analyst Sarah Izgur, who discusses her new book, Last Branch
• 0:51
  Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's
• 0:56
  Supreme Court, and explains where the justices stand on a series of contentious
• 1:02
  issues (birthright citizenship, the administrative state, abortion, the
• 1:06
  court’s relationship with an antagonistic president on matters like tariffs and
• 1:11
  executive authority, plus maintaining a semblance of impartiality in a polarized
• 1:16
  Washington). After that: the three fellows discuss what’s next in Iran with
• 1:21
  peace negotiations seemingly at an impasse, what to expect from this week’s
• 1:26
  US-China summit in Beijing, plus what challenges lie ahead for Hoover fellow
• 1:31
  Kevin Warsh as he takes over as the Federal Reserve’s new chair.
• 1:35
  Resisting Xi’s Designs in the Year of the (Trojan) Horse.
• 1:38
  President Trump will enter his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping with
• 1:42
  several key advantages, principally the US lead in artificial intelligence and
• 1:47
  the strength of the US consumer economy. Xi, for his part, is likely to tempt the
• 1:51
  American president with several “gifts”: a proposal to increase Chinese investment
• 1:56
  in the United States, a bid to free AI chips of export restrictions, and a
• 2:00
  “peace” gesture concerning Taiwan. Trump should reject these overtures, write
• 2:04
  Distinguished Visiting Fellow Matt Pottinger and Liza Tobin, because they
• 2:08
  aim to lower US defenses to several of Beijing’s long-term offensives. The
• 2:12
  United States would be harmed by increasing its reliance on China for
• 2:16
  energy infrastructure, for instance. America also should resist any
• 2:19
  inducements to undercut its support for Taiwan, ground zero for technological
• 2:23
  growth and a key ally, they write. And most of all, the president must refuse
• 2:28
  any “gifts” that would erode America’s clear but fragile lead in AI.
• 2:31
  Trump’s First Visit to Beijing and This One.
• 2:34
  At his Substack, Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster reflects on his time as US
• 2:39
  national security adviser when President Trump traveled to China in 2017. On that
• 2:44
  trip, he says, their hosts tried very hard to whitewash their own history,
• 2:48
  using many of the events of the trip as another way to announce China’s arrival
• 2:53
  on the world stage. Since then, he says, China has behaved in a sinister manner
• 2:58
  abroad, supporting all of America’s adversaries in one way or another, from
• 3:02
  Russia’s war in Ukraine to Iranian targeters seeking satellite intelligence
• 3:07
  and rocket propellant. But the economic picture in China is slowing, and he says
• 3:12
  Trump and his delegation should stand their ground in the visit. “Those who
• 3:16
  witness the [Chinese Communist Party’s] efforts to use the visit to appear strong
• 3:21
  should be deeply skeptical. And the United States and its allies should
• 3:26
  realize that they have a tremendous opportunity before them to prevail
• 3:30
  against the axis of aggressors.”.
• 3:32
  Scholars Discuss Evolving Scope of Presidential Power with PEPCON Conference
• 3:36
  at Hoover.
• 3:36
  Scholars gathered at Hoover Institution for the Presidency and Executive Politics
• 3:41
  Conference (PEPCON 2026) on April 16-17, 2026, to examine the evolving balance of
• 3:46
  power between the presidency and other branches of government, spotlighting new
• 3:50
  research on executive authority, bureaucracy, and media dynamics. The goal
• 3:55
  was to highlight innovative research in executive politics and promote dialogue
• 4:00
  within political science. The conference also offered opportunities for mentorship
• 4:04
  and scholarly collaboration at all career stages. Visiting fellows Andrew Reeves
• 4:09
  and Sharece Thrower took the lead in organizing the conference, with
• 4:13
  supporting roles by the other PEPCON organizers. “It’s so heartening to think
• 4:18
  about where the field was in the 1990s when I was in graduate school and then to
• 4:22
  think of where it is now, and see the growth in the interest in [studying] the
• 4:27
  US presidency,” said Brandice Canes-Wrone, director of Hoover’s Center
• 4:31
  for Revitalizing American Institutions.
• 4:33
  New York Judge Says There Is No Tort of ‘Misgendering’.
• 4:37
  At the Volokh Conspiracy, Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh writes about a decision
• 4:42
  where a judge in Manhattan ruled that repeatedly misgendering a person, in this
• 4:47
  case calling someone “him” who had asked to be called “them,” does not mean the
• 4:52
  misgender-er is liable for damages. The misgendered party asked the judge to
• 4:57
  order the misgender-er to use the preferred pronoun and sought damages for
• 5:02
  each “instance of deliberate misgendering that has occurred and continued to
• 5:07
  occur.” The judge disagreed. “There is no showing of any actual ‘misgendering’ or
• 5:13
  any legally cognizable injury arising from it,” Judge Gerald Lebovits wrote.
• 5:18
  “New York recognizes no tort of ‘misgendering.’”.
• 5:21
  The Peril and Promise of Local Journalism in American Democracy.
• 5:24
  News media have undergone massive change in recent decades. A variety of new
• 5:29
  information platforms have emerged, while traditional news outlets have at times
• 5:33
  struggled to make the transition into a digital-native era. These developments
• 5:37
  have been particularly acute at the local level, where many Americans now live in
• 5:42
  “news deserts.” On May 14 in Hoover’s Hauck Auditorium, Neil Chase of
• 5:46
  CalMatters, Elizabeth Green of Civic News Company, Vicki Liviakis of KRON4 News,
• 5:50
  and Stanford communications professor Janine Zacharia will discuss how these
• 5:54
  developments have fundamentally altered American politics, including regional
• 5:58
  disparities in representation, the accountability of government officials,
• 6:03
  and electoral campaigns.
• 6:04
  Featured Hoover Podcast.
• 6:06
  China Considered.
• 6:07
  China Considered with Elizabeth Economy is a Hoover Institution podcast series
• 6:12
  that features in-depth conversations with leading political figures, scholars, and
• 6:17
  activists from around the world. The series explores the ideas, events, and
• 6:22
  forces shaping China’s future and its global relationships, offering high-level
• 6:27
  expertise, clear-eyed analysis, and valuable insights to demystify China’s
• 6:32
  evolving dynamics and what they may mean for ordinary citizens and key decision
• 6:37
  makers across societies, governments, and the private sector.
• 6:41
  That’s your Hoover Daily Report for Tuesday, May 12th, twenty twenty six.
• 6:45
  Each weekday, we bring you research, analysis, and commentary focused on
• 6:49
  public policy, national security, and the ideas shaping American society and
• 6:53
  government.
• 6:54
  The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is grounded in constitutional
• 6:57
  principles with a commitment to sustaining the safeguards of the American
• 7:01
  way of life.
• 7:01
  Thank you for listening.
• 7:03
  For links to all the articles and interviews mentioned today, visit
• 7:07
  hoover.org slash, HDR.