Trump’s AI Action Plan: A Distraction from Undermining America’s True AI Leadership
By Asad Ramzanali | July 24, 2025 | MIT Technology Review
On July 23, 2025, President Trump unveiled a suite of initiatives centered on maintaining American supremacy in artificial intelligence (AI). These initiatives included three executive orders, a detailed action plan, and an hour-long speech touting the United States’ continued leadership in AI innovation. However, despite the high-profile nature of these announcements, experts contend that the administration’s approach is more spectacle than substance—and worse, it risks dismantling the very policies that established America’s AI dominance.
The Trump AI Action Plan: Summary and Content
The action plan, encompassing dozens of proposed steps, is structured around three pillars:
- Accelerating Innovation
- Building Infrastructure
- Leading International Diplomacy and Security
While some recommendations offer incremental and thoughtful improvements, others appear ideologically motivated or primarily designed to benefit large technology corporations. Crucially, the plan itself serves mainly as a set of recommendations, lacking the binding authority to create immediate change.
In contrast, the three executive orders issued translate selected elements of the plan into operational policies:
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“Woke AI” Prevention: This order requires the federal government to procure only large language models deemed “truth-seeking” and “ideologically neutral,” effectively excluding technologies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This action is framed as a way to accelerate AI innovation.
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Data Center Expansion: Aimed at fast-tracking the construction of AI data centers, this order relaxes environmental regulations significantly, offers grants to the largest tech corporations, and even provides federal land to facilitate private data center development. It represents a more industry-friendly approach compared to a similar order by the Biden administration.
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Export and Diplomacy: This order promotes and finances the export of U.S. AI technologies and infrastructure to assert American diplomatic leadership and reduce dependencies on adversaries’ AI systems.
These high-profile moves generated enthusiastic responses from the tech sector, as the policies promise lucrative benefits for industry giants. Yet, critics argue these flashy actions mask deeper and more damaging trends.
Undermining the Foundations of American AI Leadership
To understand the gravity of the current administration’s approach, one must look back at the key policies that built America’s AI advantage—policies that are being eroded under the present government. Four pillars of U.S. AI leadership are highlighted:
1. Robust Federal Investment in Research and Development (R&D)
The foundation for revolutionary AI developments, such as ChatGPT, was laid through decades of federally funded research. From military and space-related programs—Defense Department, NASA, National Science Foundation—to medical research through NIH, federal dollars financed fundamental advances since the 1950s.
Breakthroughs in machine learning, neural networks, and many other AI subfields were enabled by long-term, publicly funded research. These investments also propelled the development of hardware, communication networks, and storage technologies critical to AI.
Contrarily, the Trump administration is aggressively cutting R&D budgets outside defense, proposing a staggering 36% reduction, firing federal scientists, and squeezing universities. Although the AI action plan recommends more R&D, the administration’s budget contradicts this, signaling a perilous mismatch between promises and policy.
2. Welcoming Immigration to Attract Global AI Talent
America’s AI ecosystem has long thrived on immigrant contributions. Notably, six of the eight scientists credited with inventing the transformer model foundational to modern generative AI were foreign-born; many leading AI startups have immigrant cofounders.
The U.S. has been a global magnet for AI talent, crucially benefiting from the “brain drain” phenomenon for decades. Unfortunately, recent restrictive immigration policies coupled with reduced R&D funding are reversing this trend, causing a loss of AI talent and innovation edge.
3. Talent Fluidity Enabled by Banning Noncompete Agreements
Freedom for researchers and engineers to move between companies has historically fueled Silicon Valley’s innovation culture. Landmark developments—from semiconductor startups in the 1950s to today’s AI startups—were fostered by labor mobility protected by state laws prohibiting noncompete contracts, especially in California.
Federal efforts to ban noncompetes nationwide under Biden face hurdles, and the current administration signals limited support. The persistence of noncompetes threatens to stifle innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly outside California’s borders.
4. Proactive Antitrust Enforcement
Antitrust policy has played a vital role in maintaining a competitive landscape that nurtures innovation. Past landmark cases against tech giants like AT&T, IBM, Microsoft enabled the emergence of new players and technological advances critical for AI development.
Alarmingly, the Trump administration’s recent orders instruct reviews of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust investigations and settlements “burdensome” to AI innovation. This could undermine crucial enforcement efforts designed to prevent monopolistic practices and protect a vibrant technology ecosystem.
Conclusion: Actions vs. Authentic Leadership
While the Trump administration’s AI action plan and executive orders project an image of commitment to AI leadership, closer inspection reveals contradictions. By slashing research funding, restricting immigration, allowing restrictive employment contracts, and weakening antitrust enforcement, the administration risks dismantling the underlying ecosystem that made American AI leadership possible.
As experts emphasize, genuine leadership in AI requires sustained investment, openness to global talent, labor flexibility, and market competition. Without these, flashy plans and one-off orders will amount to little more than a distraction from the hard work necessary to remain a global AI powerhouse.
For further information, visit MIT Technology Review’s coverage on AI policy and innovation.
