January 21, 2026

Now, on to the news…

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has long awarded government contracts to “disadvantaged” businesses and those owned by women. An analysis between 2020 and 2023 found that none of these awards went to white men.

The Trump administration has taken steps to limit these contracts, but the 8(a) program—its largest disadvantaged-business initiative—is still going strong. How? The SBA asks companies to write “social disadvantage narratives” to qualify.

These narratives “allow business owners to establish minority status through descriptions of racial taunts or alleged discrimination,” Judge Glock and Christopher F. Rufo explain. “Applicants might not check a racial box, but the implication is clear: no white men need apply.”

No evidence is required, and the applicants aren’t always disadvantaged. In fact, the program is rife with fraud, Glock and Rufo write. The administration should abolish it.

Read more here.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to help lead his transition team. “Just as she did at the FTC,” Jarrett Dieterle writes, “Khan is pushing expansive interpretations of existing legal authority, seeking to extend the mayor’s power well past traditional understandings.”

Read more about her plans, and why they could end up hurting the very people they’re meant to help.

In United States v. Al-Timimi, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the First Amendment “does not depend on the popularity or palatability of the message conveyed.”

The case involves Ali Al-Timimi, who was found guilty in 2005 of soliciting others to commit treason against the U.S. and attempting to contribute services to the Taliban, among other charges. During his lectures at a Falls Church mosque, he “began making preparations to engage in jihad in the form of combat,” according to a group of men who were present. After September 11, Al-Timimi told the men to “not repeat anything that was said” and continued to advise them on “how best to evade detection.”

“None of this is mere ‘unpopular’ speech. Al-Timimi was the ringleader of a terrorist cell, with designs on a holy war against the United States,” Tal Fortgang writes. “Yes, he primarily used words to facilitate this war. But he was not discussing these topics in an abstract or academic way. His words helped steel his acolytes’ resolve to commit treason.”

Read more about the case.

The Manhattan Institute is proud to serve as the Principal Institutional Partner for the Sun Valley Policy Forum’s 2026 Winter Summit in the iconic resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho on February 11, 2026.

We are thrilled to join Joe Lonsdale and MI senior fellow Christopher F. Rufo for an evening on principled leadership and the future of American institutions in an AI-driven era. Please click here to learn more about the Sun Valley Policy Forum and our partnership and to purchase tickets at a discounted rate for friends of the Manhattan Institute.

The fraud in Minnesota that has recently made headlines is nothing new. In fact, fraud against government health-care programs is quite common. Covid-related fraud, for instance, climbed to more than $280 billion, while Obamacare enrollment fraud likely cost taxpayers $27 billion last year.

“When it comes to fraud,” Charles Silver and David Hyman write, “many public officials don’t care. Why should they? Thieves are stealing taxpayers’ money, not theirs.”

Read their analysis.

“Rather than Bureau of Bassinets or a Department of Diapers maybe we should pay parents to stay at home and raise their own kids. As a stay-at-home dad I did more with my kids in a day than daycare did in a month.”

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JB, commenting on government-run daycare

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