■ In this week’s Inner Loop:The Trump administration uses the phrase “the president’s policy priorities” as a sort of magical incantation. It doesn't really mean anything—which is perhaps the point.
On August 7, the White House issued an executive order giving political appointees authority over federal grant-making. This made the nonpartisan experts who have long decided how agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation direct funds subordinate to, well, commissars.
Nestled in the order was a phrase that’s become increasingly familiar to me over the past seven months as I’ve read piles of boring documents issuing from the administration, trying to figure out what it’s doing...
Subscribe today to continue receiving my full newsletter each week. Inner Loop takes you inside the White House, Trumpworld, and the intersection of power between Silicon Valley and old-school DC.
Every week, it's jam-packed with the latest reporting from the WIRED Politics desk and what we’re reading elsewhere.
Come for the inside scoops, stay for the analysis of how these institutions work, and where US politics is heading.
