Over the course of President Donald Trump’s political career, he and his allies have argued that one of his greatest strengths is his willingness to be tough on China. But on Monday, amidst a flurry of controversy surrounding Trump’s unwillingness to regulate AI and take steps to check Chinese technological development, a prominent economic expert took to social media to warn about the incompetence driving the administration’s approach to managing China’s rising dominance.
“Export controls were supposed to be in President Trump’s sweet spot of being tough on China,” noted Skanda Amarnath, Executive Director of the think tank Employ America. “He instead has chosen at various points to water down the policy incoherently, seemingly due to a lot of lobbying. If even export controls can’t be administered competently…”
The “export controls” he mentions refer to state-of-the-art microchips and tech that tech experts argued should be blocked from sale to China, but that Trump allowed anyway. In December, for example, Trump decided that Nvidia could sell its cutting-edge H200 processors to China, a move that represented a major reversal of previously established export controls and that analysts warned could support Chinese AI development.
At the same time, Trump has been arguing against domestic AI regulation, claiming that it would hinder American development to the benefit of China. According to Trump, the only guardrail needed is himself. As he posted on Monday, “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! The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ - and we will continue to do so! We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!”
According to Amarnath, this “incoherent” approach is the result of lobbying by Chinese interests. He also argued that recent claims by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – who suggested that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would receive the Nobel Peace Prize if they signed a basic one-page agreement setting standards for AI development – sound “easy peasy” but are in fact “very dopey.” Amarnath pointed out that the Supreme Court has placed greater regulatory power in Trump’s hands, and that those who are calling for a US-China AI safety “treaty” should keep in mind that “this is the guy who would call the shots” on such a deal, attaching a screenshot of Trump’s “strong and smart (high IQ) president” post.
