Trump’s Plan to Sabotage America’s AI Race

Washington, D.C. – At yesterday’s AI summit, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum declared AI an existential threat, ranking it alongside Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“I mean, really, this administration had identified early that there are two existential threats, and neither one of them is climate change. One is Iran getting a nuclear weapon. And then two is losing the A.I. arms race.” — Secretary Doug Burgum

Yet while sounding the alarm on AI, the Trump administration is gutting the very clean energy sources—wind, solar, and batteries—that are the cheapest and fastest way to power the data centers driving this technology.

That’s why, before Trump’s budget bill passed, tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta practically begged Republicans not to kill tax credits and funding for renewables. As the bill was about to pass, a Washington Post headline blared “How the Trump tax bill could help China win at A.I.,” and China moved forward to put their exponential clean energy growth at the center of their AI strategy.

If Trump plans to fuel America’s AI future with only oil, coal, and gas, it will take 7 to 10 years just to get these energy sources online to power new data centers. Alternatively, solar and wind take 1-2 years to come online at a fraction of the cost. 

So how exactly does he expect to win the AI race—by slowing it to a crawl?