Regulator | The Verge

Alexis Ohanian shocks Washington with pro-immigration remarks

2026-04-22T16:47:31-04:00

Los Angeles Golf Club owner Alexis Ohanian looks on during the match against the Jupiter Links Golf Club at SoFi Center on March 24, 2026 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. | Image: TGL Golf via Getty Images

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge readers about tech politics, political tech, and how they're muddying the waters of Washington, DC. My birthday is this week, and if you're not a Verge subscriber but would like to wish me a happy birthday, you should subscribe here, because that would be the best gift of all. (Tips sent to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com would be a very good gift, too.)

Last night, I watched Alexis Ohanian, venture capitalist and cofounder of Reddit, stun a room of Washington insiders by criticizing the Trump administration's immigration policies. This happened in front of at least one senior administrat …

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Trump’s posting even more AI-generated Trump-Jesus fan art

2026-04-21T12:08:39-04:00

The version posted by @realdonaldtrump/Truth Social.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech power plays in Washington and beyond. (And when I say beyond, I mean the great beyond, like Heaven, maybe.) If you've found your way to this newsletter from the wild, annual subscriptions are currently 50 percent off. That's $30 a year for access to an entire newsroom full of reporting about technology and how it's eating society alive - not just in politics!
(I will also accept confidential tips at tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com.)

You can't spell "antichrist" without "AI"

Of all the things that would have fractured the religious right's alliance with Donald Tr …

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OpenAI made economic proposals — here’s what DC thinks of them

2026-04-13T12:40:49-04:00

Happy ceasefire day and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech's rocky journey through the world of politics. If you're not a subscriber yet, you can do so here, but my only request is that you sign up before Donald Trump decides to revisit his previous threats toward Iran and kickstart World War III.

I'm back after being waylaid last week by the deadly combo of a moderate cold and the beginning of pollen season. (Twenty-one percent of the District's acreage is taken up by public green space, and DC is consistently ranked the best city park system in America. Unfortunately, I am allergic to every tree and gr …

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Can you monitor a situation without monitors? The Polymarket sports bar tried

2026-03-30T09:56:50-04:00

Attendees wait in line outside the Situation Room by Polymarket pop-up bar in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, March 20, 2026. | Graeme Slona/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge readers who are political junkies, and Washington insiders hooked on technology. If this email has been forwarded to you but you're not a subscriber, sign up here so you can get that pure, uncut Regulator every Wednesday, straight from the source (aka me).

I was taking Friday off in Maine when two major pieces of tech news dropped: first, the White House released its framework for a comprehensive national AI bill with the intent of passing it through Congress. (Hayden Field, our AI reporter, has a thorough analysis of it here.) Second (and clearly more important), Polymarket opened th …

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David Sacks’ big Iran warning gets big time ignored

2026-03-24T11:22:27-04:00

Sec. Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump, and David Sacks during The White House Digital Assets Summit in Washington, DC, on Friday, March 7, 2025. | Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the politics of technology and the technology of politics - now landing in your inbox on Wednesdays! If someone has forwarded this email to you, and you're not a Verge subscriber yet, you should sign up right here, and not just because it would be really, really cool if you do that. We can apparently see how many non-subscribers have opened this email, and why should Palantir get all the "spying on people" fun?

Do you have cool events to highlight, tips to toss over, and secrets to spill? Send everything to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com. Or, if you're truly tech-pilled …

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The mysterious case of the DHS white supremacist memelord

2026-03-20T10:56:23-04:00

Department of Homeland Security. | Image: The Verge

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter that takes Verge subscribers into the smoke-filled back rooms of Washington as they become the Zyn-filled back rooms of Washington. (Although Tucker Carlson's ALP is more popular among a certain set.) Not a Verge subscriber yet? Sign up here today! I'm not exposing myself to all these carcinogens for nothing.
Do you know something that's not in any of those rooms? Send all tips to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com, or to my Signal account @tina.nguyen19. At the very least, you'll save me a dry cleaning bill.

There's a story that I've been chasing for months, along with, apparently, every other politi …

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AI is now part of the culture wars — and real wars

2026-03-09T09:10:04-04:00

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth takes questions during a press conference on US military action in Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2026. | Brendan Smialowsky/AFP via Getty Images

Hello and welcome to Regulator, the newsletter for Verge subscribers that goes inside Washington's increasingly existential clashes between tech and politics. If this was forwarded to you, can I interest you in a full-fledged subscription to The Verge for only $40 a year? You'll get so much more than doomer scenarios. We cover non-existential fun stuff like Legos, too.

Do you work somewhere involving government, technology, and existential threats? Send all tips to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com, or to my Signal account @tina.nguyen19.

This was, to put it mildly, not a chill weekend.

For a few hours on Saturday, I thought that the Anthro …

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Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon AI bro squad includes a former Uber executive and a private equity billionaire

2026-03-02T08:52:47-05:00

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (L) walks with Emil Michael (R), Under Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering, while touring an exhibit of Multi-Domain Autonomous systems at the Pentagon July 16, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. | Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers covering the broligarchs, the influencers, and the (potentially conscious) artificial intelligence models scrambling for power in Washington. If you're not a subscriber yet, assert your humanity against the will of the machines by signing up here.

Very important news: Do you want to tell me stuff and see it printed in Regulator? Well, now you can, because we have a new tip line! Send all commentary, cool information, and ~secrets~ to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com.

The Pentagon's private-sector A-Team

This morning, in advance of a meeting between Defense Secretary Pete Heg …

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It’s MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction markets

2026-02-23T11:18:51-05:00

The Polymarket website hosts trading on whether Houthi militias would strike Israeli territory arranged on a laptop computer in Forest Hills neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York, US, on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. | Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington. I hope everyone got to celebrate George Washington's birthday in their preferred manner: skiing, staycationing, subscribing to The Verge if you haven't already, etc.

Prediction: this is going to be a mess

Political alliances are rarely permanent, so it's somewhat predictable that the MAGA-tech bro alliance seems to have fallen apart in the span of a single year. Which side the administration would actually choose, though, was more difficult to foresee.

Last winter, it appeared that …

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Bezos could have saved The Washington Post’s local news and sports reporters

2026-02-15T10:28:18-05:00

Demonstrators hold a "Save The Post" sign next to a cutout image of Jeff Bezos during a "Save The Post" rally outside the Washington Post headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. | Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about tech politicking in the age of Trump. If you're a subscriber, you are dominant and talented, like the Seattle Seahawks. If you're not a subscriber yet, it's time to get your act together, like the New England Patriots. (I'm from Boston and I'm allowed to say this.)

The biggest tech story dominating Washington right now is, incidentally, a media story. Last week, shortly after The Washington Post laid off 400 staffers and closed many of its desks, and before its absentee CEO Will Lewis got summarily shoved out, I wrote a column trying to figure out whether there was e …

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