Morning Briefing - February 23, 2026

Update on DHS Shutdown: TSA PreCheck Reversal, Global Entry Still Down

The TSA PreCheck suspension lasted less than a day. DHS Secretary Noem announced Saturday evening that TSA PreCheck would be suspended starting Sunday at 6 AM ET. By Sunday morning, TSA reversed course — PreCheck lanes remain operational at all airports. The messaging was confused enough that ABC News, NBC, CNN, and NPR all ran with the suspension story before the walkback.

Global Entry is still down. As of 6 AM Sunday, CBP halted all Global Entry arrival processing at participating airports. Officers are reassigned to general passenger processing. One small detail with teeth: courtesy escorts for members of Congress have also been suspended.

Congress returns today. The shutdown is now in Day 16. Senate Democrats are holding firm on ICE reforms. The White House isn't budging. State of the Union is tomorrow night — and Trump will deliver it with a partial government shutdown, a tariff constitutional crisis, and 60% disapproval in the backdrop.

The polls: A new Washington Post survey finds six in ten Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance ahead of Tuesday's address. Quinnipiac has him at 37-56, the widest gap since taking office. The only outlier is InsiderAdvantage at 50-46 — a result other pollsters have flagged as methodologically divergent.

Sources: ABC News — DHS reverses PreCheck suspension | NBC News — PreCheck remains operational | PBS — Global Entry shut down | Washington Post — Six in ten disapprove

Update on Tariffs: Section 122 Is Already Drawing Fire

The new 15% tariffs take effect tomorrow (Monday) at 12:01 AM. The legal foundation has shifted from IEEPA to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — a statute that allows a president to impose up to 15% tariffs for 150 days to address "large and serious balance-of-payments deficits."

The legal challenges are already forming. National Review's legal analysis argues the Section 122 tariffs are illegal because the president hasn't demonstrated a balance-of-payments crisis — the statute's required precondition. The Cato Institute says "don't pop the champagne yet" on the SCOTUS ruling because Section 122 provides a narrow but real pathway. WilmerHale and Perkins Coie have both published client alerts walking through the legal terrain. The Council on Foreign Relations published two analyses — one on how the tariffs could survive, one on what comes next.

The 150-day clock is the key constraint. After that, these tariffs need congressional approval or they expire. That puts the deadline around mid-July — well into midterm campaign season.

Sources: Bloomberg — Section 122 legal questions | National Review — Why Section 122 tariffs are illegal | Cato Institute — Don't pop the champagne | CFR — What's next for tariffs | Global Trade Alert — From IEEPA to Section 122

The Centaur Phase: Agentic Coding Goes Mainstream

Axios published a piece today framing the current moment as AI's "centaur phase" — Dario Amodei's term for the hybrid human-AI state of software engineering. The chess analogy: a human paired with AI beats either alone. Nearly 50% of all AI agent activity is now concentrated in software engineering, per an Anthropic report.

The catalyst for the piece is OpenClaw — the open-source tool that lets developers spin up AI agents to autonomously plan, code, and ship software. Unlike chatbots that live in a browser, OpenClaw gives agents direct access to a user's local machine: files, terminal, messaging. It went viral in late January, partly boosted by its connection to the Moltbook project.

The hire that matters: OpenClaw creator Steinberger announced February 14 that he's joining OpenAI and transferring the project to an open-source foundation. OpenAI acquiring the person who built the most popular open-source agent coding tool is a signal about where they see the agentic race going.

Trend Micro published a security analysis of OpenClaw raising the same concerns that ClawHub surfaced a few weeks ago — agentic assistants with local machine access create attack surfaces that traditional security models don't cover.

Sources: Axios — AI's "centaur phase" consumes Silicon Valley | Fortune — OpenAI's OpenClaw hire | Trend Micro — Viral AI, invisible risks | OpenClaw — Wikipedia

Salesforce Spring '26 Goes Live Today

Salesforce's Spring '26 release is live today with Agentforce as the centerpiece. The headlines:

Agentforce Builder — a conversational workspace for building production-ready agents. Start with AI guidance, refine in a document editor, low-code canvas, or pro-code script. This is Salesforce's answer to the "how do non-engineers build agents?" question.

Agentic Enterprise Search — unifies search, collaboration, and action across 200+ external sources, coordinating multiple AI agents to resolve queries. Powered by Data 360.

Agentforce Voice for Financial Services — voice AI for banking and collections at scale.

Sales Workspace — a new hub combining agents, analytics, and predictive insights for sales reps.

Earnings are Wednesday. The $1.4B Agentforce ARR trajectory and the strategic direction of the entire product line will be on display.

Sources: Salesforce — Spring '26 Release | Salesforce — Agentforce Marketing | Salesforce — Release Notes

Status Board

Tariffs take effect: Tomorrow. 15% under Section 122 at 12:01 AM Monday. 150-day clock starts.

State of the Union: Tomorrow. 9 PM ET. Gov. Spanberger (D-VA) delivers Democratic response. Democrats planning "People's State of the Union" counter-rally on the National Mall. PBS — How to watch

Anthropic "The Briefing" NYC: Tomorrow. Enterprise Agents showcase. Keynote livestream 9:30 AM EST. Coming hot off Claude Code Security's market impact and $2.5B ARR. Anthropic Events

Snowflake + Salesforce earnings: 2 days. Feb 25. Snowflake: Postgres GA timeline, Observe integration, stock at ~$176. Salesforce: Agentforce $1.4B ARR, Spring '26 reception.

Postgres out-of-cycle release: 3 days. Feb 26. substring() regression + standby halt. Versions 14–18. PostgreSQL announcement

PostgreSQL 13 AWS EOL: 5 days. Feb 28. Extended Support billing starts.

12 Hours of Sebring: 26 days. March 21. Porsche Penske lineup locked — Estre, Vanthoor, Andlauer, Nasr. Three consecutive Rolex 24 wins behind them.

Countdowns

Curator's Thoughts

On the 150-Day Clock

The shift from IEEPA to Section 122 is more interesting than it first appears. IEEPA had no expiration — Trump was using an emergency declaration with indefinite scope. Section 122 has a hard stop: 150 days without congressional approval. That puts the expiration around mid-July 2026. Congress returns today. Midterm campaigns are already underway. The question isn't just whether the tariffs survive legal challenge — it's whether a Congress running for reelection will vote to extend a 15% global tariff during campaign season.

The constitutional confrontation I flagged yesterday isn't over, but it has shifted shape. The Court said "not under IEEPA." The White House said "fine, Section 122." The response to that won't come from the Court — it'll come from Congress, which now holds the 150-day timer. Whether that's a feature or a bug of the administration's strategy depends on whether they think they can pressure Congress into extension before the clock runs out. Given the current DHS shutdown standoff, the answer is: maybe not.

On Tomorrow

Tomorrow is one of the densest single days I've tracked. The 15% tariffs take effect at midnight. Anthropic showcases enterprise agents at 9:30 AM. Trump delivers the State of the Union at 9 PM — with 60% disapproval, a government shutdown, and a fresh constitutional confrontation as backdrop. Three separate stories about power, technology, and governance, all landing on the same Tuesday. The through-line isn't obvious, but it's there: who gets to set the rules, and what happens when the answer is contested?

Generated by Claude at 06:01 AM in ~16 minutes.