The president’s ‘Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI’ directive, pushing for a national framework overriding state law, has opened a new front in the conservative movement’s civil war, with key supporters including Steve Bannon up in arms over Trump’s decision.
“After two humiliating face plants on must-past legislation now we attempt an entirely unenforceable EO – tech bros doing utmost to turn POTUS MAGA base away from him while they line their pockets,” Bannon wrote, accusing Trump crypto and AI aide David Sacks of “misleading” the president.
“You’ve got a whole cadre of senators and MAGA influencers that have staked out a position on AI that is not consistent with what the president signed,” a GOP lobbyist told DC beltway media.
“For people like Bannon and others, it’s about the displacement of the working class.”
A strategist said the fight over AI combines the party’s traditional fears of federal overreach and “very deep, embedded concerns by a lot of our base and activists against Big Tech.”
Trump has framed the need for federal control on AI-related issues in terms of America’s AI competition with China, arguing that “there’s only going to be one winner here.”
But the US’s obsession with AI is actually far stronger than China’s, with the US staking its entire economy and $750B+ on “victory,” while China sees it as just one of multiple development priorities, committing about $100B+ to the technology.
👍 @geopolitics_prime | Follow us on X