{"id":635803,"date":"2026-09-25T17:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635803\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T17:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:10:14","slug":"maga-base-exasperated-as-trump-embraces-ai-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635803\/","title":{"rendered":"Maga base exasperated as Trump embraces AI \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 6th, 2021, Amy Kremer stood near the White House, urging Maga supporters to \u201cStop the Steal\u201d of the election from Donald Trump<\/a>. Now she is again rallying the president\u2019s fans \u2013 this time to join a revolt against his pro-AI<\/a> agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a sheep, I don\u2019t just blindly follow,\u201d Kremer, a former Tea Party activist who founded Women for Trump, told a crowd gathered for an AI data centre protest in West Virginia\u2019s solidly Republican Berkeley County last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want conservatives and Republicans to know it\u2019s okay to stand up and push back on this and speak out against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kremer, who was not involved in the January 6th, 2021, violence, is one of many Maga figures exasperated by the president\u2019s decision to embrace an unpopular industry run by Silicon Valley elites. The Maga supporters say the products could destroy humanity.<\/p>\n

To the frustration of Republican strategists already facing an uphill battle in the midterm elections, Trump has, in recent weeks, derided those wanting to block data centre developments as \u201cbackwards and poor\u201d, called AI safety fears \u2013 which polling shows are shared by almost two-thirds of US citizens \u2013 a \u201choax\u201d, and accused advocates of an AI slowdown of a \u201csick conspiracy\u201d to help China.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Donald Trump says attempts to limit artificial intelligence are part of \u2018sick conspiracy\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

His comments have been met with public dissent from former chief strategist Steve Bannon<\/a>, who has called AI \u201cradioactive\u201d and has joined forces with veteran socialist Bernie Sanders<\/a> to demand a pause on the tech\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican citizens are not going to be supplicants to the oligarchs any more,\u201d Bannon said last week.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, in the White House and beyond, there is further disquiet. In a leaked memo this month, first reported by Axios, Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio warned candidates that \u201cunqualified support for building more AI data centres is a losing position\u201d, and cautioned campaigns against \u201ctreating local concerns as uninformed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other strategists have warned Texas Republicans that the issue could cost the party a US Senate seat in November as Democrats increasingly tap voter anxiety about Big Tech.<\/p>\n

Thanks in part to a flood of campaign ads by well-funded Super PACs (Political Action Committees), the issue is animating voters across political divides. In polling for the Financial Times by PF Global, 43 per cent of US citizens said they had seen either a television or online ad about data centres. More than a third had a conversation about the topic.<\/p>\n

Yet, in the Oval Office, Trump has dug in his heels. When efforts to draft a global agreement on restricting AI development gained momentum in advance of Chinese<\/a> president Xi Jinping<\/a>\u2019s visit to the US this week, Trump quickly extinguished the initiative, saying his government \u201ctotally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Donald Trump and Xi Jinping strike warm tone at White House as US-China tensions remainOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Conservatives with concerns about the political cost of his AI stance have different theories to explain Trump\u2019s anti-populist turn.<\/p>\n

Some believe advisers such as Silicon Valley venture capitalist and former AI tsar David Sacks have too much influence on the president, crowding out critical voices. Trump has also become close to Nvidia\u2019s chief executive, Jensen Huang<\/a>, who has played down AI safety fears, accused tech bosses of fearmongering and rejected calls for new AI laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has some bad people in his ear,\u201d Kremer, now chair of Humans First, a non-profit that is organising a national AI Data Center Revolt bus tour, said of Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a techie. He doesn\u2019t even send email. He only goes off what his advisers tell him … and these people do not have the American people\u2019s interests at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others think the fragility of the US economy, now heavily reliant on AI growth as a bulwark against inflation triggered by Trump\u2019s Iran<\/a> war, is the catalyst.<\/p>\n

The president, who was \u201cusually in touch with his base … is really worried about the financial impacts if we don\u2019t continue down the path\u201d, said Brendan Steinhauser, a former Tea Party activist and Republican strategist who runs the non-profit The Alliance for Secure AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand those concerns, but he also should be worried about the national security concerns and the cybersecurity concerns that many of us have.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Republicans in tight races are breaking with Trump on technology. Mike Rogers, whom the president endorsed in Michigan\u2019s pivotal US Senate race against progressive Abdul El-Sayed, last week said he believed \u201cwe must slow down development of AI\u201d and called for \u201cstricter protocols and guardrails\u201d to protect US citizens.<\/p>\n

In Texas, a state that lured data centre developers and was seen as politically safe for Big Tech, Trump\u2019s favoured US Senate candidate Ken Paxton has pledged legislation to hold AI companies liable for child safety breaches, ban data centre construction on rural land and end tax breaks for them.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018A lot of \u2019em can\u2019t even spell AI\u2019: The technology-extinction debate convulses AmericaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ambitious Republican governors seen as contenders for the 2028 presidential race are also positioning themselves as AI critics.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s Ron DeSantis<\/a> has tried to push through AI regulation against the White House\u2019s wishes, while Texas\u2019s Greg Abbott has said data centre developers got \u201cthe backlash they deserve\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even in deep-red West Virginia, local candidates are defying the president to save their own skin. In Berkeley County, where a $4 billion data centre is planned despite opposition, Republican Chris Anders is worried the issue will cost him his state legislature seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fighting for my life right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI supported the president in 2024; that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m in lockstep with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in Washington, Steinhauser and others are trying to win over the president. Senior Trump officials, including Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, \u201cget it\u201d, Steinhauser said, \u201cand they\u2019re encouraging him to pursue policies that will put safeguards on AI\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some conservative activists want Bessent, who has previously highlighted the national security and financial risks posed by advanced AI, to become Trump\u2019s new \u201cAI tsar\u201d to counterbalance Sacks and his allies.<\/p>\n

A group of people have tried to make the matter personal for Trump, emphasising to him that his bank accounts and family fortune could disappear overnight if advanced AI hacked the financial system.<\/p>\n

Conservative group Alliance for a Better Future (ABF) has given air cover to Michigan\u2019s Rogers, running ads highlighting his AI proposals and commending his \u201ccourageous stand in support of commonsense guardrails\u201d.<\/p>\n

ABF plans to deploy \u201csignificant resources in key states in the coming weeks\u201d, said a person familiar with its moves.<\/p>\n

The White House said the president \u201calways listened to a variety of opinions from a variety of subject-matter experts … to inform his decision-making\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maintaining an \u201copen line of communication with tech leaders … is a major reason why America\u2019s technological and innovative lead has widened since President Trump came into office\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

Groups supporting the president\u2019s stance have also been making themselves heard. Build American AI, an industry-aligned group indirectly funded by founders of OpenAI and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to promote data centres in states such as Ohio and Wisconsin. A PAC established with Sacks\u2019s blessing, the Innovation Council (IC), is also spending to promote the president\u2019s pro-AI agenda.<\/p>\n

The IC said Trump \u201cis exactly right that data centres, when done right, are transforming the towns that career politicians left for dead\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do agree that the polling is troublesome, and perhaps some polls show that the [Republican Party] has a lot of work to do,\u201d said Jordan Schachtel, an adviser to the IC. He said Trump was \u201ccourageous\u201d in taking on the issue. \u201cHe\u2019s speaking the truth that this will lead to a great era of innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite alarmingly frequent announcements of rogue AI agents \u2013 Australia on Wednesday revealed an OpenAI agent had hacked the nation\u2019s health service \u2013 Schachtel says a Chinese \u201cSputnik moment\u201d would change voters\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0OpenAI \u2018agent\u2019 hacked Australian public health service websiteOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican people might say: \u2018Hey, we want that too, or we want something better\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Kremer said she hopes Trump will heed his base\u2019s calls for regulation long before that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that he changes his position,\u201d she said. \u201cI know he will hear from the American people while he\u2019s on the campaign trail. And I hope he comes our way.\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On January 6th, 2021, Amy Kremer stood near the White House, urging Maga supporters to \u201cStop the Steal\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,969,61,60,14742,16621,62994,80,115,90,14053],"class_list":["post-635803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jensen-huang","tag-republican-party","tag-ron-desantis","tag-technology","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-washington-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}