Some people have good Fridays. The Trump administration apparently had a spectacular one, racking up a federal court victory and a massive semiconductor investment commitment in the same 24-hour window. As USA Journal reported, it was a twofer that most of the media treated like it happened in a foreign country.
First up: U.S. District Judge John Bates struck down Biden's "Digital Equity Act," ruling it unconstitutional for using race as a determining factor in handing out federal high-speed internet grants. Trump had already killed the program's funding earlier this year, calling it a racist and unconstitutional giveaway that divided Americans by skin color while spending their own tax dollars to do it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick fought the legal battle, and the court sided with them. The word "unconstitutional" now sits in a federal ruling on a program that treated citizens differently based on race. That is not a press release. That is not a quiet corporate webpage edit. That is a judge with a gavel making it official.
For years the argument was that these programs existed in some magical legal zone where equal protection somehow did not apply. Turns out it does. Who could have possibly guessed that the Constitution works the same way for everyone. Shocking development.
Then came the semiconductor news, which is arguably even bigger. TSMC, the company that manufactures the chips powering basically every advanced device you own, committed an additional $100 billion to its Arizona fabrication facilities. That brings the total American investment commitment to $265 billion, making it the largest semiconductor manufacturing investment in American history. In the Arizona desert, no less, where the biggest previous investment was probably a really ambitious gas station.
For decades, politicians from both parties watched semiconductor manufacturing drift to Taiwan, South Korea, and China and called it free trade or market efficiency. What it actually was: a national security disaster dressed up in economic theory and a nice suit. The COVID chip shortage proved it. Auto plants idled. Consumer electronics got delayed. The entire technology supply chain revealed itself to be held together with hopes, prayers, and a shipping lane that runs uncomfortably close to Chinese military interests.
TSMC is not relocating to Arizona because they love cactus. They are doing it because the Trump administration's tariffs and trade pressure made building in America the better financial decision than building elsewhere and trying to sell into the American market. When you make the math work, companies follow the math. That is not ideology. That is arithmetic.
Two wins in one day. A court ruling that says the government cannot sort citizens by race when handing out taxpayer money, and a quarter-trillion-dollar commitment to build chips on American soil with American workers. The people who said both outcomes were impossible might want to update their predictions, because Friday apparently did not get the memo.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
