Why Trump is all-in on AI despite the warnings

Trump regularly likes to tout America as the “hottest” country in the world. Many economists indicate that investment in AI technology – including infrastructure and equipment – has been the driving force in the US economy for several years.

According to a recent report by the forecasting firm ING, tech investment accounted for more than a third of all US economic expansion in the second quarter of 2026.

The stock market is booming, and much of that rise in corporate value (and, by extension, surging retirement portfolios of many Americans) can be attributed to the massive spending on computer chips, data centres and the other infrastructure behind AI.

Anything that threatens this growth, which Trump considers to be a hallmark of his presidency and a key to his political legacy, quickly draws his suspicion.

Trump also sees the AI expansion as a large-scale industrial competition between the world’s two largest economies, the US and China. In the zero-sum game of global power, if China is ahead, then America is behind.

“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said on Saturday, “and frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins.”

The president often touts a familiar conservative view that his opponents on the left are against the free market and economic liberties, and rely on alarmism to justify greater government intervention and control.

Of course, Trump – who touts partial US ownership of US Steel and the semiconductor manufacturer Intel, and has no qualms about picking winners and losers in the American economy – is hardly a traditional small-government conservative.