TOGETHER WITH
Hey there weekday warriors,
Here’s what’s on tap today… SCOTUS goes to war with the Troller in Chief, Anthropic nukes the entire cybersecurity industry, and we’re never getting a rate cut again, are we?
Enjoy the next 3 minutes and 26 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.
Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,
The results are in…
“You better lawyer up, a**hole…” - POTUS to SCOTUS
The Supreme Court just put Donny Politics’ tariffs and his entire economic agenda in a body bag.
At long last, on Friday, we got a ruling from the highest court in the land on whether the sweeping reciprocal tariffs were legal. And the Republican majority court said they were, in fact, illegal…
It appears the administration hitched its wagon to the wrong horse. The court called bullsh*t on the legal “loophole” the White House found in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
And the Justices (no relation to David) were 0% chill about it, claiming the legal stance “would represent a transformative expansion of the President’s authority over tariff policy.” Turns out he needs Congressional authorization, which, for the record, he did not get.
What we don’t know is WTF it means for all the tariffs already imposed and collected. Some estimates put that number at $ 175B or more. Now, every retailer with a sweatshop in Guangdong and a boutique in SoHo has their hands out for a refund.
Stonks popped on the news, driven largely by the companies that rely on cheap labor and manufacturing abroad.
So what’s a sitting President to do?
Release the UFO files
Take it out on Iran
Invoke Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Under section 122, the President can impose tariffs without the legislative branches’ buy-in… for 150 days. So that’s exactly what POTUS did.
He hit pretty much the entire world with 15% tariffs that would basically replace the IEEPA variety. For the record, that’s the maximum allowed under the Trade Act.
The problem for the Trump administration? That’s still lower than some of the reciprocal levies, which erodes Donny Duties’ negotiating power.
Details were scarce, but the President appeared pretty, pretty confident that he would be able to reinstate the tariffs (without Congressional approval) in basically no time at all.
Does this mean I should cancel my Liberation Day party in April?
“AI for aviation” sounds like a pitch in a slide deck. But this airline is already building it.
Surf Air Mobility (NYSE: SRFM) isn’t just forecasting the future of flying, they’re already living in it. As one of the largest regional commuter airlines in the US, they’re using real operating data to build SurfOS, an AI-powered operating system for private aviation.
And it’s not vaporware.
Inside their own on-demand charter business, SurfOS helped drive a 36% reduction in operating costs and a 197% increase in bookings per broker comparing Q3 YoY. Oh, and it's powered by Palantir. Perhaps you've heard of them?
With advanced air mobility projected to become a $100B+ global market by 2035, SRFM isn’t trying to win one airline. They’re aiming to be the infrastructure platform layer underneath the entire category.
This is a paid advertisement for Surf Air Mobility, Inc.
⚠️ Fun fact: Your favorite newsletter (read: this one) is totally free. That’s because it’s supported by sponsors like Surf Air Mobility. Showing them some love is the best way to make sure TWC stays as independent as that nihilist penguin. Thanks in advance for clicking above.
+ Dario Amodei is basically Thanos at this point. Except his Infinity Gauntlet is Claude Code and he has the ability to vibe-cull half of the S&P 500’s market cap with the snap of a finger…
On Friday, Claude released Code Security, which “scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches for human review.” Think McAfee Antivirus, but for vibe-coding.
And the announcement did exactly what you’d expect: send the entire cybersecurity software industry into a death spiral.
New inflation data dropped Friday, and it’s not great, Bob. PCE jumped to 2.9% in December, while core PCE clocked in at over 3%. So a rate cut’s about as likely as Clavicular ever recovering from being brutally framemogged by an ASU frat leader.
But wait, there’s more (depressing news)…
GDP rose a mere 1.4% for Q4, missing expectations of 2.5% (because, math). The US GDP put up a measly +2.2% gain for the year (down from 2024’s 2.8%).
+ “Fugayzi, fugazi. It's a whazy. It's a woozie. It's fairy dust. It doesn't exist. It's never landed. It is no matter. It's not on the elemental chart.” - Sam Altman
Remember that time @sama told everyone that OpenAI planned to spend $1.4T on infrastructure (read: Nvidia chips) through 2030? So that was a f*cking lie. The ChatGPT maker is lowering that estimate to just $600B.
The news comes just a few days after rumors began swirling that Sam Altman expects revenue of $280B in 2030. For the record, OpenAI did $13B in 2025.
All this may or may not have to do with investors wondering, “wait a second, will this thing ever make money?”
> 13-hour AWS outage reportedly caused by Amazon's own AI tools (engadget) // Live look at AWS when this went down.
> Elon Musk’s Tesla unveils cheaper Cybertruck at under $60K — but there’s a catch (NY Post) // Good news if you are both broke and insufferable.
> Remember HQ? ‘Quiz Daddy’ Scott Rogowsky is back with TextSavvy, a daily mobile game show (TechCrunch) // HQ Trivia might have been the last time I felt truly alive.
> “Become a gray square” is gonna be the new “touch grass”…
Friday, I asked, “You've just been hired as Sam Altman's Head of PR. Sam asks you, "Hey, when they go to all hold hands, should I hold Dario's hand?" What do you say? (And you better tell me why.)”
53% of you said, “No, don't hold Dario's hand for the picture because...” Everyone saw that coming…
Here’s what some of you guys had to say (and my response in italics)…
No, don’t hold Dario’s hand for the picture because: “You know where it's been...” Where?
No, don’t hold Dario’s hand for the picture because: “the WWE Summer Slam feud storyline needs to start escalating to generate the pop we want.” Thanks for reading, Vince.
Yes, hold Dario’s hand for the picture because: “... at the end of the day you're both dorks and you can't pull off a slick CEO rejection.” True. Everyone looked bad.
Yes, hold Dario’s hand for the picture because: “Take the opportunity to big dog him. Give it a solid squeeze. Show who's the alpha.” Not gonna lie, I doubt @sama’s got any kind of impressive grip strength…
No, don’t hold Dario’s hand for the picture because: “It will make great fodder for a newsletter I read.” Correction: “The greatest newsletter of all time that I read.”
Here’s today’s question(s)…
What was the best viral mobile game?
+ US stocks “rose on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump's most sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs are unlawful, saying he lacked the authority to impose them using emergency powers.” (Yahoo! Finance)
+ The 10-year yield was “ticked higher on Friday after the Supreme Court’s tariff knocked down President Donald Trump’s tariffs and as investors monitored the latest economic data.” (CNBC)
+ Oil “slipped lower Friday, but were still on course for sharp weekly gains as escalating U.S.-Iran tensions fueled fears of supply disruptions in the Middle East.” (Reuters)
+ The “smart” money (prediction markets) thinks that there’s only a 13% chance Prince Andrew gets sentenced to prison time. (Polymarket)
⏪ On Friday…
+ The core PCE price index report for January dropped
⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…
+ Domino’s reports before the bell
+ Hims & Hers, Kratos, BWX, and Diamondback Energy report after hours
Oh, and one more thing…
What did you think about today's newsletter?
Sent from my Amazon Fire Phone. Please excuse any mistakes and typos.
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