Trump Denounces AI Safety Calls as Sick Conspiracy
- President Trump dismissed growing calls for artificial intelligence guardrails, declaring on social media that "Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers" are targeting AI development and data centers.
- Trump's hands-off posture places him at odds with a rare united front among prominent AI executives.
- The widening debate over artificial intelligence has created immediate divisions in domestic politics.
President Trump dismissed growing calls for artificial intelligence guardrails, declaring on social media that “Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers” are targeting AI development and data centers. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Irish Open golf tournament in Doonbeg, Ireland, Trump rejected those warnings, stating that the United States must maintain its lead over China. According to Yahoo News, Trump said he has a lot of negative forces bringing up risks that won’t happen, though he later added aboard his flight back to Washington that AI will be more good than bad by a lot.
Industry Division Over AI Pacing and Safety
Trump’s hands-off posture places him at odds with a rare united front among prominent AI executives. According to Yahoo News, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and xAI founder Elon Musk have all endorsed slowing down capability improvements. That shift followed the resignation of an Anthropic researcher who warned publicly that the industry was not developing technology responsibly. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also signaled openness to deliberate pacing and independent evaluators, provided enterprise customer data control remains intact.
Meanwhile, White House AI adviser David Sacks took a harder line against external oversight, writing that companies should act on their own and stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission.
Trump echoed this sentiment on Truth Social, writing, The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!
Trump offered no concrete examples of how his administration has curbed industry malfeasance.
Political Fallout and Legislative Pushback
The widening debate over artificial intelligence has created immediate divisions in domestic politics. According to Yahoo News, Democrats are moving to make AI oversight a central platform issue, with former President Obama privately urging party leaders to embrace the executives’ calls for a slowdown as a positive development. On Face the Nation,
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal to pause AI development entirely, citing the need for public oversight. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called industry warnings a bright flashing red light
after signing an executive order restricting data center development in his state.
Republicans are similarly divided over the path forward. Former House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers, running a Senate campaign in Michigan, broke from the White House position by stating that he supports slowing development and prioritizing a national security framework. House Speaker Mike Johnson adopted a more moderate stance, telling CNN that model creators carry an obvious corporate responsibility to ensure product safety while supporting the administration’s reliance on industry autonomy.
