Executive Functions Chat
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- 6 Nov 2026
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Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discuss news about the presidency.
Épisodes 72
An Extraordinary Vindication of the Electoral Process
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discuss Bob’s recent piece, “Why the Trump Election Interference Strategy Failed.” Bob describes three factors: flawed strategy resting on a “constitutionally doomed” theory of …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discuss Bob’s recent piece, “Why the Trump Election Interference Strategy Failed.” Bob describes three factors: flawed strategy resting on a “constitutionally doomed” theory of executive power over federal elections and on tenuous noncitizen-voting claims; the courts, which repeatedly ruled against the administration, capped by the Supreme Court’s same-day denial in the California ballot-segregation case; and a decentralized election system whose officials, in red and blue states alike, carried out their work as in any other election. Bauer and Goldsmith also chat about the solicitor general’s final emergency application, and how the president’s political weakness and the polls’ forecast of decisive Democratic win decreased the viability of election denialism.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeCaleb Nelson on Slaughter and the “Dictatorial Presidency”
Jack interviews Caleb Nelson, the Emerson G. Spies Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, about his working paper, “Against the Dictatorial Presidency.” They discuss the …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack interviews Caleb Nelson, the Emerson G. Spies Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, about his working paper, “Against the Dictatorial Presidency.” They discuss the modern history of unitary executive theory, Nelson’s criticisms of the theory in Slaughter, the relevance of the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the dangers of Slaughter, with special focus on the civil service. Goldsmith and Nelson close by discussing the Court’s unexplained Fed carve-out, with Nelson lamenting the Court’s selective willingness to consider consequences in crafting the unitary executive.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeThe Politics of Tit-for-Tat
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discuss Jack’s October 19 piece on Senator Elissa Slotkin’s recent viral remarks at the University of Chicago, where she said she wanted accountability for the people who enabled …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discuss Jack’s October 19 piece on Senator Elissa Slotkin’s recent viral remarks at the University of Chicago, where she said she wanted accountability for the people who enabled President Trump, at least in part with the goal of sending a “deterrence message” to new graduates who might consider working for the administration. Jack explains why he thinks Senator Slotkin’s remarks were imprudent, and why he finds the prevailing reaction from pro-Trump quarters hypocritical. Bob presses on whether congressional investigation is different from weaponizing law enforcement, and whether worry about retaliation could lead to the most lawless conduct going unanswered. They also discuss Jack’s prediction that Trump will issue thousands of pardons, his case for prioritizing transparency, and why it is, and will continue to be, incredibly challenging for either side to de-escalate.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeFrancis Fukuyama Reflects on His Career and the Challenges Facing Liberal Democracy
Bob Bauer interviews Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and author of The End of History and the Last Man. They discuss his …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob Bauer interviews Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and author of The End of History and the Last Man. They discuss his new memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man, which, among other things, seeks to address misconceptions about the argument for which he is best known and to depict his intellectual arc; how excessive proceduralism fetters American government and drives voters toward populist candidates; whether reform would take a crisis; why Fukuyama posits that the post-Trump years may bring civil service and permitting reforms that were previously out of reach; and the necessity of educating young people on liberal values. Bauer and Fukuyama close by discussing changing one’s mind: the psychological barriers to it (particularly in an insular group setting), the liberation that expressing it can bring, and the interpersonal costs it involved in the case of Fukuyama’s departure from the neoconservative movement.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeScrambling to Regulate a Sensitive Dual-Use Technology
Jack interviews attorney and historian Catherine Grace Katz about her new book, Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War. They discuss how a 1925 U.S. ban on helium exports …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack interviews attorney and historian Catherine Grace Katz about her new book, Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War. They discuss how a 1925 U.S. ban on helium exports required German airships to fly on flammable hydrogen, leading to the famous 1937 explosion over New Jersey. They also cover the Nazi takeover of the struggling Zeppelin company and the subsequent use of its airships as propaganda tools, and the later controversy surrounding whether to sell helium to Germany even after Congress relaxed the export ban. Katz closes by noting parallels to AI and other dual-use technologies, the necessity of balancing civilian risk against potential benefits, and the hubris that often accompanies large-scale innovation.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeAI, Elections, and the Liar’s Dividend
Bob interviews Nate Persily, the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and co-director of the Stanford Law AI Initiative, about artificial intelligence and democracy, with particular …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob interviews Nate Persily, the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and co-director of the Stanford Law AI Initiative, about artificial intelligence and democracy, with particular attention to elections. They discuss what’s driving American anxiety about AI, why Republican and Democratic users alike rate AI models as left of center, and why Persily thinks the greater danger from deepfakes is not voters who are fooled but voters who stop believing what’s true—the “liar’s dividend.” They also take up the risks of relying on chatbots for voting information, state laws requiring disclosure of AI in political ads, and why Persily, though not “an unrepentant doomer,” thinks the time to regulate AI may be running out rapidly.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeElection Administration Under Pressure
Bob Bauer interviews Tammy Patrick, Chief Executive Officer for Programs at the Election Center and former Federal Compliance Officer for the Maricopa County Elections Department, about how election officials …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob Bauer interviews Tammy Patrick, Chief Executive Officer for Programs at the Election Center and former Federal Compliance Officer for the Maricopa County Elections Department, about how election officials are preparing for the midterm elections. They discuss differences between an imperfect election and an illegitimate one, the decentralized patchwork of thousands of local offices that administers the vote, the checks set up to constrain partisan officials or rogue insiders, and why federal intervention now tops the list of concerns for many officials. Tammy closes with advice for voters: make a plan, vote early, and don’t mistake a slow count for a rigged one.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeAdvertising the President on the Taxpayer’s Dime
Jack and Bob discuss the legality of the three advertisements praising President Trump that have recently aired with the tag “Paid for by the U.S. Government” and were reportedly paid for with Department of …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack and Bob discuss the legality of the three advertisements praising President Trump that have recently aired with the tag “Paid for by the U.S. Government” and were reportedly paid for with Department of Homeland Security funds. They explain why the advertisements run afoul of the annually enacted appropriations rider barring the use of public money for publicity or propaganda purposes, and examine how the Government Accountability Office’s categories of impermissible propaganda apply to each of the three ads. They also touch on the less-clear relevance of the Hatch Act, why the applicable enforcement mechanisms are unlikely to be used, and what might explain an administration with ample party funds spending public money on advertisements that leading members of its own party have criticized.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeIs Trump Media’s Early-Access Feed Lawful?
Jack Goldsmith interviews John Coates, the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School and former general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, about Trump Media’s sale …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack Goldsmith interviews John Coates, the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School and former general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, about Trump Media’s sale of early access to the president’s Truth Social posts—up to $100,000 a month for a roughly 50-millisecond head start on market-moving announcements. They discuss how the arrangement differs from the low-latency data feeds Bloomberg and Dow Jones lawfully sell, how the STOCK Act applies the insider trading laws to the president by name, and who may bear legal risk: the subscribers, the president, or both. They also take up potential enforcement by a future administration, under New York’s Martin Act, or through private suits.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeSCOTUS Leaves the Ballot-Mail Rule Blocked
Bob Bauer discusses the Supreme Court’s order declining to stay the injunction against the Postal Service’s ballot-mail rule, issued the previous evening over a brief concurrence from Justice Kavanaugh and a …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob Bauer discusses the Supreme Court’s order declining to stay the injunction against the Postal Service’s ballot-mail rule, issued the previous evening over a brief concurrence from Justice Kavanaugh and a longer dissent from Justices Alito and Thomas. He reads the Court’s order as a possible signal that eleventh-hour executive interventions in the electoral process would meet skepticism; notes the measure of bipartisanship in the record, including red-state election officials who told the Court the rule could not be implemented in time; and cautions that the rule’s application to the 2028 (and later) elections remains an open question.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeRepublican Pushback on the Administration's Election Program
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith cover three sites of Republican pushback against the administration's election interventions: the Missouri dispute over which congressional map governs November, Justice Department …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith cover three sites of Republican pushback against the administration's election interventions: the Missouri dispute over which congressional map governs November, Justice Department election monitors in Wyoming, and a Supreme Court brief from 38 current and former election officials, several from deep-red states, arguing the mail-ballot rule cannot be implemented in time for the midterms.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeElizabeth Sherwood-Randall on Bioweapons in the Age of AI
Jack interviews Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the Ashton B. Carter Visiting Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and formerly Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack interviews Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the Ashton B. Carter Visiting Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and formerly Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor, about her new Kennedy School report, Deterrence by Resilience: Securing the United States and Promoting Innovation in the Age of Bioconvergence. They discuss how artificial intelligence has changed the biological threat landscape since ChatGPT, the scenarios that worry her most, and the report's recommendations across prevention, detection, attribution, readiness, response, and resilience—among them a nationwide early warning system, rapid attribution, a federally chartered National Institute for Bioresilience, and an Operation Warp Speed-style partnership with industry built before the crisis rather than during it. They also take up the legislation this would require, what the frontier AI labs might make of it, and the surveillance and privacy tradeoffs the program implies.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeThe Postal Service and the 2026 Elections
Jack and Bob discuss litigation over the Trump administration’s executive order on the Postal Service and election integrity, and the recent final rule that the Postal Service issued to implement the order …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack and Bob discuss litigation over the Trump administration’s executive order on the Postal Service and election integrity, and the recent final rule that the Postal Service issued to implement the order. They explain what the Trump administration is seeking to accomplish with these maneuvers and examine the fate of two cases challenging the final rule that are pending in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts. They also analyze the practical difficulties in implementing the rule before the fall election, the role of federal criminal enforcement as a source of pressure on the states, and how the Purcell principle bears on litigation brought this close to an election.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeStates’ Protection of Their Elections
Bob speaks with Danielle Friedman, Legal Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, about the Initiatives’ recently published analysis of state criminal laws …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob speaks with Danielle Friedman, Legal Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, about the Initiatives’ recently published analysis of state criminal laws that could apply to potential federal government interference in the 2026 and future elections. They discuss laws, varying from state to state, that address deployment of military or other armed forces at the polls; actions to delay or disrupt the delivery of election mail, such as registration forms and ballots; and the seizure and removal of voting materials from election offices. Their discussion covers the likely federal government defenses against state criminal prosecutions of this kind.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeJeh Johnson on Presidential War Powers and Congressional Retreat
Jack Goldsmith interviews former Homeland Security Secretary and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson about the article he co-authored in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, "Presidential War …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack Goldsmith interviews former Homeland Security Secretary and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson about the article he co-authored in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, "Presidential War Powers, Executive Expansion, and Congressional Retreat." They discuss how Congress's power over war has eroded, the constitutional and practical obstacles to reasserting it, and the war in Iran as a live example.
Mentioned:
* Jeh Johnson and Ethan Klaris, Presidential War Powers: Executive Expansion and Congressional Retreat (2026)
* Cyrus Vance, Striking the Balance: Congress and the President Under the War Powers Resolution (1984)
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeTrump and the Midterms
As the 2026 midterms approach, Jack and Bob give a big-picture overview of the Trump administration’s efforts to use federal law enforcement and executive power to influence the congressional elections. They …
Notes de l’épisode
As the 2026 midterms approach, Jack and Bob give a big-picture overview of the Trump administration’s efforts to use federal law enforcement and executive power to influence the congressional elections. They discuss the constitutional limits on presidential authority over election rules, the administration’s novel tactics and mounting losses in court thus far, and the potential deployment of the military or ICE to the polls. They also examine the effects of the administration’s agenda on voter turnout, public confidence in the electoral process, and the risk of contested results.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeSai Prakash on Slaughter and Cook
Jack speaks with University of Virginia School of Law Professor Saikrishna Prakash about the implications of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook. They discussed the breadth of …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack speaks with University of Virginia School of Law Professor Saikrishna Prakash about the implications of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook. They discussed the breadth of the holding in Slaughter; its implications for the president’s control over inferior officers, civil servants, and non-Article III courts; and its broader import for the non-delegation doctrine, the major questions doctrine, and other mechanisms that could constrain the now-more-broadly-empowered unitary executive. They also discussed the validity of the carve-out in both cases for the Federal Reserve.
Relevant reading:
- “The Executive Power of Removal” by Aditya Bamzai and Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash (Harvard Law Review, 2023)
- “New Light on the Decision of 1789” by Saikrishna Prakash (Cornell Law Review, 2006)
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeThe God Test
Jack chats with Robert Wright about his forthcoming book, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. They discuss why Wright views AI through an evolutionary lens, the promises and …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack chats with Robert Wright about his forthcoming book, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. They discuss why Wright views AI through an evolutionary lens, the promises and perils of increasingly capable AI systems, and the prospects for international cooperation—particularly between the U.S. and China—in managing AI-related risks. They also examine Wright’s argument that successfully governing AI may require a modest moral upgrade across society, including individual efforts to preserve cognitive sovereignty and mitigate the biases and tribal instincts that can hinder global cooperation.
Mentioned:
- Robert Wright, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning (2026)
- “When AI Builds Itself” (Anthropic, June 4, 2026)
- “US National Security Agency using Anthropic’s Mythos for cyber attacks,” by Cristina Criddle and Demetri Sevastopulo (Financial Times, June 4, 2026)
- “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security,” (The White House, June 2, 2026)
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeAttorney General Todd Blanche?
Bob and Jack discuss President Trump’s nomination of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the current acting attorney general, to become Attorney General. They review Blanche’s record at DOJ, including his …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob and Jack discuss President Trump’s nomination of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the current acting attorney general, to become Attorney General. They review Blanche’s record at DOJ, including his role in political weaponization, ethics concerns, and the fallout from the proposed Anti-Weaponization Fund. They also examine why Trump is forcing a confirmation fight when Blanche could plausibly lead the Justice Department for the rest of Trump’s term without Senate confirmation. What’s at stake, they discuss, is whether the Senate will endorse, and thus take responsibility for, Trump’s DOJ weaponization campaign.
Mentioned:
* “The High Stakes of the Blanche Nomination” by Bob Bauer (Executive Functions, June 9, 2026)
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeWhat Exactly is Bill Pulte’s New Job as Acting Director of National Intelligence?
Following President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence, Bob Bauer asks Avril Haines, who held the position during the Biden administration, to explain the …
Notes de l’épisode
Following President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence, Bob Bauer asks Avril Haines, who held the position during the Biden administration, to explain the history behind the establishment of the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the role of the director as leader of the intelligence community. They also discuss why the law requires nominees for the director to have “extensive national security experience” when there is no such requirement for the director of the CIA; the significance of ODNI appointments for U.S. cooperation with allies on intelligence intelligence gathering and collaboration; and the importance of the position in congressional oversight of the intelligence community.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeThe Anti-Weaponization Fund and Tax Immunity Gambits
Bob and Jack discuss the Justice Department and IRS “settlement” with President Trump and his family, which created a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” for Trump allies and immunized Trump and others …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob and Jack discuss the Justice Department and IRS “settlement” with President Trump and his family, which created a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” for Trump allies and immunized Trump and others from IRS scrutiny and penalties for past conduct. They discuss how the episode combines two hallmarks of the Trump presidency: abuse of government power and self-enrichment. They also consider possible judicial remedies and the causes and possible consequences of the sharp congressional reaction, including from many Republicans.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeThe Many Challenges of AI Safety
Jack chats with Sebastian Mallaby, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about his new book The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence. They discuss current …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack chats with Sebastian Mallaby, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about his new book The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence. They discuss current challenges in AI safety, the U.S.-China race and prospects for cooperation, and the emerging risks posed by powerful new models like Anthropic’s Mythos. They also talk about tensions between frontier labs and the U.S. government, and the trajectory toward greater government control.
Mentioned:
* Sebastian Mallaby, The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence (2026)
Thumbnail: President Trump delivers remarks at the White House AI Summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
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This is an edited transcript of an episode of “Executive Functions Chat.” You can listen to the full conversation by following or subscribing to the show on Substack, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jack Goldsmith: Today I’m chatting with Sebastian Mallaby, who’s a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an acclaimed biographer and writer. And we’re going to be talking about his newest book, which is called The Infinity Machine. Sebastian, thanks for talking with me.
Sebastian Mallaby: Thank you, Jack. Nice to be with you.
So tell us what the book is about. Who is Demis Hassabis, and why did you write a book about him?
So the book is about artificial intelligence, and it’s centered on this character, Demis Hassabis, who is, in a way, the OG sort of AI lab leader, right? He starts DeepMind, this startup in London, back in 2010, before AI could even recognize the photograph of a cat—like nothing worked. It was full AI winter.
So this is five years before Sam Altman and Elon Musk start OpenAI. It’s fully 11 years before Anthropic gets started. So he was extremely early.
So if you wanted to tell the story of the making of modern AI through a personality, you know, Demis’s career and intellectual development maps perfectly onto that story.
So the thing that’s most interesting to me about him is that, as you emphasize in the book, his real interest in this, I think it’s fair to say, is scientific and not profit-making. And he, at least at the outset, and I think even today, has a rather idealistic—to me anyway, idealistic or optimistic—conception of the technology and how it can be used.
But the story I also see is someone who—and I don’t mean this uncharitably—but who has basically engaged in a series of compromises or fudges with regard to those values as he’s gotten deeper and deeper into the AI competition.
So is that fair? And can you talk about that arc?
Yes. I mean, he started DeepMind in 2010 with an absolute focus on AI safety. In fact, he met his scientific co-founder, Shane Legg, at a safety lecture in which Shane projected that by 2030 or so, AIs would be sophisticated enough—cleverer than humans—have their own sort of objective functions, and would maybe start to threaten humans.
And this was the lecture over which they bonded. And then in 2014, Demis Hassabis sells his company DeepMind to Google. And part of the sale condition was that AI would not be used for military purposes, that it would be safeguarded by a sort of ethics oversight committee that would be separate from the corporate leadership of Google.
So he took it very seriously. And then this continues for a while. Between 2016 and 2019, he wages a secret battle, a thing called Project Mario, where he’s trying to put pressure on Google’s leadership to have this independent safety oversight board, because Google kind of reneged on the deal at the point of sale in 2014.
And then after 2019, it kind of fades away. And, you know, by now you have Google being willing to provide AI to the national security establishment. In the US, there is no safety and ethics oversight board.
And Demis is left explaining to me, well, you know, I feel as if, you know, if I lean into Google and I’m part of the team there, and I, you know, understand the different pressures that a corporation is under, then I have a seat at the table. And so when push comes to shove, I can chime in in favor of safety. And so I’m a good person—trust me—is kind of the bottom line, which is a sort of flimsy scaffolding of reassurance for an alarmed world.
Especially since—I mean, this was also a time—a lot of this is happening at a time before ChatGPT amazes the world a few years ago with whatever model it was, I can’t remember. And suddenly there’s this massive competition among several frontier models that has been extremely fierce.
And now we’re in a massive competition among those labs and with Chinese firms, and the countries are in fierce competition. And he’s now leading—you talk in the book about how they combined, how Google combined its AI efforts—and he’s leading it.
So he’s really leading, in some sense, this fiercely competitive charge, which isn’t taking—doesn’t appear to be taking—safety all that seriously. Is that fair?
Yeah, it’s fair. And, you know, I think there’s a slight caveat in that his style is to pursue safety ideas secretly. I mean, he doesn’t talk about them.
And Dario Amodei, the leader of Anthropic, is extremely public when he picks a fight with the Pentagon, when he releases this new model called Mythos, where he’s publicly said, you know, this is too dangerous to release generally, so I’m going to release it to a sort of restricted list of people. He likes to be very out there in public with it.
Demis Hassabis, on the other hand, did two important things, to my knowledge, about safety. One was this secret battle I described before, which he was so unkeen to have sort of move into the public sphere that when I discovered it through leaks from other people, you know, I had to talk to his general counsel, who was trying to tell me I wasn’t allowed to publish that. So he really didn’t want that to be public.
And then secondly, he told Rishi Sunak in 2023, after ChatGPT came out, “Mr. Prime Minister, you know, I have an idea for you, which is you could have an international discussion on AI safety—invite the Chinese, invite everybody—start a process that might lead to some kind of understanding internationally on AI safety.”
Demis never told me that he told the Prime Minister that. I only know this because other people, like the Prime Minister’s advisers, told me. So he didn’t advertise what he was doing.
So I think he’s trying to do things now, but they’re not in the public view. So that’s a slight caveat. But basically, you’re right. I mean, he’s leading one of the major labs, Google DeepMind, in frontier AI, racing as fast as he can, even releasing, by the way, open-weight models, which by his own analysis are dangerous because you can’t control them once they’re out there.
And so there is this contradiction—you could call it even hypocrisy—between his stated beliefs about AI safety and what he’s actually doing. And so then the question is, well, how harshly does one judge him? And I’ve just floated the word hypocrisy.
But on the other hand, were he to quit his job and go off and become a professor somewhere and pursue research, which I think is the alternative path for him, it wouldn’t make the world safer, right? There’d still be this race dynamic.
To be clear, I wasn’t judging him. And he seems—I’m trying to understand—he seems like a thoroughly decent, honorable, brilliant guy. I’m just trying to understand the mindset of someone who, from a very young age, had these extraordinary scientific ambitions, which he’s been as important as anyone in making possible.
And—but safety and this kind of benign vision has always been part of it, and it just seems to have been overtaken by reality—mostly competitive, financial, and global competition reality. And I’m just wondering how he processes that. That’s what I’m getting at.
Absolutely. I mean, I was exactl…
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Jack chats with Marty Lederman, professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, about a recent OLC opinion declaring the Presidential …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack chats with Marty Lederman, professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, about a recent OLC opinion declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. They examine what is at stake, the statute’s history, and the constitutional arguments behind the claim. They also discuss a lawsuit challenging the opinion and the hurdles it faces in getting to the merits.
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Jack chats with Sarah Isgur about her new book, Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today’s Supreme Court. They unpack her theory of the Court’s decisional dynamics …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack chats with Sarah Isgur about her new book, Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today’s Supreme Court. They unpack her theory of the Court’s decisional dynamics and explore the Court’s approach to executive power in the Trump era, which can be seen as both empowering and constraining the presidency on different dimensions.
Mentioned:
- Sarah Isgur, Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today’s Supreme Court (2026)
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeCan Trump Pull Out of NATO?
In light of President Trump’s recent threats to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty, Jack chats with Professor Curtis Bradley of the University of Chicago Law School about whether Trump …
Notes de l’épisode
In light of President Trump’s recent threats to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty, Jack chats with Professor Curtis Bradley of the University of Chicago Law School about whether Trump has the authority to do so. They discuss the constitutional foundations of treaty termination and the validity of Congress’s 2023 statute that restricts withdrawal absent congressional or senatorial consent. They also examine whether a suit to challenge presidential withdrawal from the treaty could be brought in federal court.
Mentioned:
Curtis A. Bradley, Historical Gloss and Foreign Affairs: Constitutional Authority in Practice (2024)
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Bob and Jack chat about the war with Iran and Congress’s response. They discuss Congress’s failed efforts to halt the conflict, an emerging proposal for a constrained authorization of force, and the Trump …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob and Jack chat about the war with Iran and Congress’s response. They discuss Congress’s failed efforts to halt the conflict, an emerging proposal for a constrained authorization of force, and the Trump administration’s limited engagement with lawmakers. They examine the politics of the conflict, the role of funding and appropriations, the status of the War Powers Resolution, and contemporary legal debates over military operations without congressional authorization, including the scope of Office of Legal Counsel opinions and the broader shift toward a one-man-decides model of war powers.
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Jack speaks with Cass Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, about his new book, Separation of Powers: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times. They discuss why the …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack speaks with Cass Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, about his new book, Separation of Powers: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times. They discuss why the executive is the most dangerous branch of government, the importance of responsible executive branch lawyers, and contemporary debates over the administrative state, including unitary executive theory in light of the Trump v. Slaughter oral argument and the major questions doctrine after the tariffs case, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump.
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In light of the U.S. attacks on Iran over the weekend, Jack speaks with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, former White House Homeland Security Advisor, about how the U.S. government would normally prepare for …
Notes de l’épisode
In light of the U.S. attacks on Iran over the weekend, Jack speaks with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, former White House Homeland Security Advisor, about how the U.S. government would normally prepare for domestic threats during periods of heightened risk. They discuss how the federal homeland security enterprise activates in response to elevated threat levels, including coordination across the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the intelligence community, and state and local law enforcement. They also explore concerns about federal capacity, including a DHS funding lapse, resource diversion away from counterterrorism and toward immigration enforcement, and leadership turnover across key agencies.
Thumbnail: FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force photo. (U.S. Government Work.)
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeThe Tariff Refund Problem
Jack speaks with Matthew Seligman, a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, about the remedial consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating tariffs imposed under the International …
Notes de l’épisode
Jack speaks with Matthew Seligman, a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, about the remedial consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. They walk through how tariff collection works, why repayment is not automatic, and the procedural hurdles importers face in trying to recover what they paid, including major barriers to class-wide or aggregate relief. They also examine the practical and political constraints shaping the process, including institutional capacity, litigation costs, and why many smaller importers may never recover their losses.
Get full access to Executive Functions at www.execfunctions.org/subscribeProsecuting Members of Congress
Bob and Jack chat about a federal court’s preliminary injunction blocking the Defense Department’s attempt to reduce Senator Mark Kelly’s military retirement benefits, along with a grand jury’s refusal to …
Notes de l’épisode
Bob and Jack chat about a federal court’s preliminary injunction blocking the Defense Department’s attempt to reduce Senator Mark Kelly’s military retirement benefits, along with a grand jury’s refusal to indict six Democratic members of Congress, including Kelly, who in a video reminded service members of their duty to refuse unlawful orders. They discuss how Trump administration weaponization can be effective even with court losses, and debate possible reforms to limit politically motivated prosecutions of members of Congress, including Bob’s proposal for a court-appointed special counsel and an alternative that focuses on revising the substance of criminal statutes.
Mentioned:
“The Bad News in the D.C. Grand Jury’s Refusal to Indict Six Members of Congress” by Bob Bauer (Executive Functions, Feb. 12, 2026)
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