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Why the Trump administration’s AI strategy is drawing cheers from Big Tech and jeers from public interest groups worried about jobs, climate, and power bills
On Wednesday, the White House dropped a 25-page document titled “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” and the title pretty much says it all. The plan lays out how the Trump administration wants to ensure America not only stays competitive in artificial intelligence, but wins the global AI arms race—especially against adversaries like China.
But here’s the twist: the roadmap leans hard on deregulation and heavy infrastructure spending, and critics say it looks more like a wish list for Big Tech than a balanced national strategy.
Let’s break down what’s inside the plan—and why it has everyone talking.
What’s the Plan, Exactly?
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Crafted by Michael Kratsios (Assistant to the President for Science and Technology) and David Sacks (Special Advisor for AI and Crypto), this three-pillar approach—Innovation, Infrastructure, and International Diplomacy—aims to:
- Cut regulatory barriers to AI development
- Supercharge energy production to power massive AI data centers
- Expand semiconductor manufacturing
- Favor “objective” AI systems in government procurement
- Export U.S. AI tech to allies, while keeping adversaries out
The Trump administration is positioning AI as the new space race. “Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits,” the plan declares.
In other words: go big, move fast, and don’t let bureaucracy slow things down.
Deregulation at the Center
One key move? The plan reverses Biden’s Executive Order 14110, which introduced tighter safety guidelines for what the previous administration called “high-risk” AI models. That precautionary stance is out.
Instead, federal agencies are now tasked with identifying and rewinding regulations that “unnecessarily hinder” AI progress. That includes instructing the Federal Trade Commission to rethink investigations into AI companies launched under Biden, especially those claiming the tech might harm competition or consumers.
It’s being framed as a necessary reset to spark innovation—but critics see it differently.
Critics Say: This Helps Tech Giants, Not People
Not everyone’s celebrating this new direction.
J.B. Branch from the advocacy group Public Citizen called it a “sweetheart deal” designed to help tech firms secure discounted electricity while regular folks pick up the tab. Think: rising power bills due to AI data centers eating up energy like there’s no tomorrow.
And they’re not alone. Just a day before the White House unveiled its plan, over 90 organizations released their own counterproposal: the “People’s AI Action Plan.” Backed by labor unions, environmental groups, and consumer advocates, the alternative vision paints a stark contrast.
According to Sarah Myers West and Amba Kak of the AI Now Institute, the Trump policy serves companies developing AI to be “used on us, not by us.”
Their concerns focus on:
- Environmental damage from energy-guzzling AI data centers
- Worker displacement and downward pressure on wages
- Lack of safety rules for new AI systems
- Corporate control in writing AI rules
As one blunt example, Cathy Kennedy of National Nurses United said, “Nurses are opposed to our patients being used as guinea pigs for unregulated and untested AI technology.”
Powering AI Means More Power—Literally
A big part of the Biden policies being scrapped included climate considerations. Not anymore.
The Trump AI Plan explicitly casts aside what it calls “radical climate dogma,” calling instead for a “Build, Baby, Build!” approach. What does that actually look like?
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- Streamlining environmental reviews for AI infrastructure projects
- Making federal lands available for data centers
- Pouring resources into modernizing the power grid
- Expanding domestic semiconductor manufacturing through the CHIPS Program (minus the environmental strings attached under Biden)
The document even warns that AI could lead to a sharp rise in energy demand, calling it the first digital product in recent memory to directly challenge America’s energy system.
Where Do We Go From Here?
For better or worse, this plan is aggressive. It puts the U.S. on a fast-track path to AI dominance—with fewer rules, faster builds, and tighter alliances. But that urgency has lit a fire under advocates who fear the steamrolling of environmental safeguards and worker protections.
And with China in the spotlight as the main competitor, the stakes have been framed in almost Cold War-like terms.
But here’s the big question: Can we really “win” AI by empowering industry above all else? Or are we losing something more important along the way?
Time—and maybe the next election—will tell.
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Keywords: Trump AI Action Plan, AI deregulation, White House AI policy, AI regulation rollback, energy impact of AI, China AI race, People’s AI Action Plan, federal AI strategy, data center power use, AI and job loss
