At a high-profile Washington summit on Wednesday, Donald Trump signed a trio of sweeping executive orders aimed at reshaping the future of artificial intelligence in the United States by reducing regulation, eliminating what he calls “woke” ideology from AI models, and accelerating America’s dominance in the global AI race. With cheering AI industry leaders in attendance, Trump declared that “woke Marxist lunacy” was stifling innovation, and promised that “once and for all, we are getting rid of woke.”
This isn’t just posturing, it’s policy. The Trump administration unveiled a 28-page “AI Action Plan” entitled “Winning the Race,” outlining over 90 policy actions to be implemented within a year. The strategy aims to deregulate AI development, eliminate environmental restrictions on building data centers, promote AI exports, and ensure that AI systems receiving federal funding are “politically neutral.”
However, critics warn that it’s less about winning the AI future and more about eroding guardrails, cozying up to tech giants, and weaponizing ideology in code.
AI Without Guardrails
Trump’s directives mark a sharp reversal from the Biden administration’s more cautious approach, which emphasized safety, fairness, and national security in AI development. One of Trump’s first moves in office was to rescind Biden’s AI executive order, which included requirements for transparency, risk mitigation, and testing protocols for government AI systems.
In contrast, Trump’s policy emphasizes “minimal interference” in private-sector AI, calling government regulation “a last resort.” Even as the plan calls for accelerated adoption of AI within federal agencies, it instructs them to review and repeal any policies that could “hinder” AI development.
“AI is a revolutionary technology,” said Trump-appointed crypto czar David Sacks. “We believe we’re in an AI race, and we want the United States to win that race.”
Datacenters First, Environment Later
The second executive order focuses on building the physical infrastructure of AI: data centers.
AI models require vast amounts of compute power, which translates to massive server farms that consume immense energy and water. Trump’s directive calls for fast-tracking permits, eliminating environmental hurdles, and expanding national energy infrastructure to support AI growth, moves heavily lobbied for by tech companies.
Environmental groups warn that this could exacerbate air, noise, and water pollution, and circumvent local opposition to data center construction. Critics describe it as a giveaway to Big Tech, with the costs of climate change being passed on to communities.
Targeting “Woke” AI
The most controversial order is aimed squarely at what Trump calls “woke” AI, a term he uses to describe models trained on inclusive, diversity-oriented data or that exhibit so-called political correctness.
Any AI company receiving federal funding must now certify its models are free of “ideological dogmas such as DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion].” In practical terms, this gives the Trump administration a lever to defund or blacklist companies whose AI models don’t align with its worldview, a blurry standard with serious implications.
AI ethicists and researchers have long warned about the embedded biases in generative AI, particularly in relation to race, gender, and power. These biases often reflect the training data. news, internet text, and historical records, which themselves are steeped in inequality. Rather than remove bias, critics say Trump’s order risks sanitizing AI to reflect right-wing narratives while calling it “neutral.”
Musk, Grok, and the Far-Right AI Surge
One of the most vocal champions of “anti-woke AI” is Elon Musk, whose xAI firm develops the Grok chatbot model, notorious for generating extremist content. In recent months, Grok has affirmed white supremacist conspiracies, posted pro-Nazi memes under the moniker “MechaHitler,” and even generated rape fantasies before being forcibly reined in.
Despite this, xAI was awarded a $200 million Department of Defense contract, alongside OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, to develop AI tools for government use.
The Trump administration’s rhetoric echoes Musk’s: claims of “liberal bias” in AI and a drive to build AI that aligns with conservative ideology. Even though Musk and Trump have recently clashed publicly, xAI could become a beneficiary of Trump’s anti-woke framework, potentially reshaping what government-approved AI is allowed to say, think, or generate.
Export Dominance, China Competition
The third order centers on AI as a geopolitical strategy. The Trump administration is promoting American AI technologies for global export, seeing it as a means to counter China’s growing investment in AI chips and data infrastructure.
“Winning this competition will be a test of our capacities, unlike anything since the dawn of the space age,” Trump said.
The action plan aims to solidify U.S. global dominance, but critics argue that it risks fueling a tech arms race without adequate safety measures. Ironically, Trump has also reversed restrictions on Nvidia selling high-end AI chips to China, softening a stance that was previously aimed at throttling Beijing’s access to advanced compute.
An Ideological Pivot in Silicon
For Trump, AI policy is no longer just about innovation or national security — it’s about ideology. The executive orders show a clear intent to purge progressive values from AI, deregulate its development, and leverage the technology to serve America-first nationalism.
“The White House AI Action Plan was written by and for tech billionaires,” said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute. “It will not serve the interests of the broader public.”Former Biden officials have called the rollback of AI safeguards “reckless,” warning that the plan undermines trust, ignores ethical risks, and prioritizes corporate power over human rights.
But Trump’s allies see it differently: a bold push to supercharge American innovation, build faster, and crush bureaucratic resistance.
