The new media to politics pipeline

Here are five insights on the "Fox News to White House" pipeline:

1. The traditional separation between media and government is rapidly dissolving, creating new power realities where influence is increasingly communications-driven.

2. Media experience is now a top qualification for governance, especially in Trump 2.0, suggesting that communication skills now outweigh traditional policy expertise.

3. This communications-driven trend represents a fundamental shift in how political capital is built and deployed in American governance.

4. Donald Trump appointing media figures creates an environment where talking points become unified across government and media channels.

5. For businesses, this signals a need to reassess government relations strategies, where communications become the essential way to shape and influence policy.

The recent appointment of podcaster and media personality Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director marks a significant milestone in this communications-driven governance trend. Bongino is Fox News's 20th appointment to the Trump administration.

The Bongino appointment transcends simple political patronage. We are witnessing the emergence of a new governance philosophy where media communication skills are valued far above traditional policy expertise or institutional knowledge.

These Trump 2.0 appointments demand strategic recalibration for business leaders. When media personalities become decision-makers, the dynamics of regulatory influence fundamentally change.

The implications for government relations reach beyond policy concerns. This new Trump 2.0 model represents a structural evolution in how democratic governance functions in a media-saturated environment. The conventional paths to influence—through industry expertise, academic credentials, or bureaucratic experience—are being overrun by direct communications and media know-how.

Forward-thinking leaders should understand how this trend will reshape public affairs, regulatory frameworks, and crisis management.

Executives must ask: Are we prepared for a governance environment where media influence and governmental authority are increasingly intertwined?

Those business leaders who understand this new communications-policymaker dynamic will hold a competitive advantage in navigating Trump 2.0.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

Trump's tariff policies + the Global Great Lakes

As geopolitical and economic dynamics shift under Trump 2.0, business and civic leaders must recognize the potential negative and burdensome impacts on interconnected regional economies. The Global Great Lakes presents a compelling case study of these challenges.

When analyzing potential tariff impacts on this unique cross-border economic ecosystem, there are five critical issues to grasp:

1. Regional integration at risk: The Global Great Lakes is an integrated system where manufacturing, hospitality, technology, finance, and trade form a delicate balance across international boundaries. Once a strength, this interdependence becomes a vulnerability when trade barriers rise.

2. Competitive cost disruption: In manufacturing alone, Trump's tariffs will increase raw material costs throughout the supply chain, putting pressure on margins for businesses of all sizes and accelerating inflation within the region.

3. Tit-for-tat spiral: Trade partners rarely absorb tariffs passively as they cannot ignore their economic sovereignty. The likelihood of countermeasures creates a cascade effect that will amplify economic downsides beyond initial projections.

4. False protection paradox: While tariffs are good politics and a winning issue on the campaign trail, aiming to protect domestic industries and allow national governments to pick the winners and losers of an economy, tariffs are bad economics and create unintended consequences. The resulting friction in business operations and increased consumer costs will outweigh protective benefits and impact the long-term vitality of the Global Great Lakes.

5. Economic growth stifled: The cumulative effect of Trump's tariffs threatens to constrain growth, limit job creation, increase economic uncertainty, and reduce financial security for residents and businesses throughout the Global Great Lakes.

The region's business and civic leaders must confront Trump's tariffs head-on and convey to Washington that these policy shifts will create long-term challenges for the Global Great Lakes.

It is imperative to communicate and engage with political leaders across the aisle and let them know that Trump's economic policies and pro-tariff agenda will have significant negative impacts on the Global Great Lakes region.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

The new economic playbook: What every global leader needs to know

Vladimir Lenin is credited with the phrase " commanding heights, " which he used in a 1922 speech to describe the strategic parts of the Russian economy over which his still-young revolution was determined to maintain control.

Since this speech, free-market champions and those seeking more government engagement to ensure prosperity and stability have waged a battle of ideas to control the "commanding heights" of the economy. This debate on the balance of power between government regulators and free-market capitalists has significantly affected American politics, economics, elections, and culture.

The 2008 global financial crisis resulted from an economic model of lightly regulated financial capitalism. Yet despite widespread anger at Wall Street bailouts and unease about the American economy, there was no great upsurge of left-wing American populism in response—the response was from the right, so powerful that it helped elect Donald Trump as president twice.

I taught a Globalization and American Politics course as an adjunct professor at George Washington University. My task was to explain to the next generation of leaders what the "commanding heights" were and where they were going.

In my decades of advising global leaders, I have rarely seen such consequential economic policy shifts as those we are witnessing today. Trump 2.0 is taking a run at a new version of the " commanding heights" and seeks to crush decades of how the US government has operated and paid its bills.

The new Trump administration's pivot to tariffs as a primary revenue mechanism for funding $4.5 trillion in tax cuts represents nothing less than a fundamental reimagining of America's economic framework.

As I see it, here are the five critical developments of a reimagined American economic framework:

First, this tariff-funded tax strategy signals a decisive break from decades of free trade orthodoxy. This new American tax strategy isn't simply a policy adjustment for multinational operations—it's a paradigm shift requiring complete supply chain recalibration.

Second, Wall Street's serious discussions of a "Mar-a-Lago Accord" to restructure Treasury holdings show how financial market traders are prepping for new sovereign debt innovations outside traditional frameworks. This new trading reality could rewrite risk assessment models across your investment portfolios.

Third, the intersection of aggressive trade policies and debt restructuring talks creates vulnerability in traditional safe-haven assets - and do not ignore crypto. Your financial operations will need new hedging strategies.

Fourth, this environment favors domestic production and reshoring in unprecedented ways. Companies with nimble manufacturing footprints will outperform competitors who are still wedded to globalized supply models. It is no surprise that following a meeting between Tim Cook and Trump last week, amid the threat from Trump's tariff plans, Apple announced the company would add 20,000 US jobs and committed $500 billion to the US market over the next four years.

Finally, these shifts will accelerate the creation of five major trading zones along geopolitical lines—the United States, China, India, Europe, and Africa. For executives, trading and market access diversification must now account for emerging economic blocs, especially the Global South.

The global leaders who thrive in this new economic framework will recognize that we are not experiencing temporary volatility but rather a structural transformation of the global economic order. This demands more than reactive adjustments—it requires proactively creating new business models based on these new geopolitical realities.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc