U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
When Donald Trump made a concerted effort to broaden his coalition during the 2024 presidential race, one of the groups he reached out to was tech leaders. Elon Musk and Overstock former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel were among his most ardent supporters. And according to Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol, Trump is now giving way too much power to tech companies.
Kristol, in an article for the conservative website The Bulwark, points to Trump's recent comments on the AI (artificial intelligence) debate as an example of how dismissive he can be when the tech industry is questioned.
Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei recently warned that AI is moving much too fast and could have deadly results if its developers don't slow down. But Trump, Kristol laments, doesn't even want to have a conversation on the subject.
"Amodei called, in a general way, for self-regulation by the companies as well as cooperation among them and with the government," Kristol explains. "Other tech executives said they agreed. Civic and political leaders joined in widespread expressions of concern. Except for the president of the United States. Yesterday, when asked about the calls to slow down the development of AI models, Trump dismissed them."
Trump said, "I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up. And they're bringing up things that won't happen."
But the tech industry, Kristol stresses in his Bulwark piece, needs scrutiny — not a president who doesn't even want to have a debate.
"One of Trump's professed concerns is the need to stay ahead of China, which is a legitimate one," Kristol writes. "But one has no sense that he or any of his top lieutenants or advisors are serious about figuring out how to balance national security concerns with the responsibility to prevent the technology from spinning dangerously out of control. Indeed, the Trump administration seems hostile to public debate and deliberation — people 'shouldn't be bringing up' these questions."
But "the public," according to Kristol, "seems to want these questions to be brought up."
"Today's challenge of AI may be, in some ways, like that of nuclear weapons after 1945," Kristol argues. "We came to grips with that challenge on the whole pretty impressively and successfully. But is our government up to leading such an effort today? Are our business and civic and academic elites capable of rising to the task? Are our people capable of some degree of moderation and responsibility? One has reason to be pessimistic on all counts. Or could this novel and momentous challenge be a moment that could snap us out of our political and civic decline?"
