President Trump is resisting new restrictions on artificial intelligence at a time when his family and close allies have accumulated significant financial interests in AI-related defence and technology contracts. Trump's sons have secured a $620m Pentagon loan, a Marine Corps robotics contract, and an undisclosed air force drone deal, whilst his longtime friend Michael Dell won a contract worth nearly $9bn. This overlap between the administration's pro-AI stance and these financial interests has drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers and ethics watchdogs, despite officials arguing their position is driven by competitiveness concerns against China.

The president's resistance to AI regulation runs counter to growing concerns from within the industry itself. In September, Jacob Coxon, a researcher from both OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned with warnings that neither company was "acting responsibly" and that colleagues fear the technology "could kill us all by the end of the decade". A demonstration of AI-enabled cybersecurity risks followed, when a firm revealed it had used artificial intelligence to create a self-spreading worm capable of compromising over a billion WeChat accounts within hours. Public sentiment is sharply against the administration's position: polling released on Wednesday showed just 11% of Americans support building AI datacentres in their communities, with 65% opposed, and 57% say Trump has handled AI policy poorly. The House voted 417-3 to require datacentres to pay for electricity-grid upgrades their operation requires.