MAGA's AI juggling act
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The Trump administration's embrace of AI acceleration is testing MAGA's populist roots, as fears mount of a jobs apocalypse that could destabilize the movement's economic foundation.
Why it matters: MAGA leaders are engaged in a high-stakes juggling act — championing American dominance in AI while sounding the alarm over its potential to wipe out millions of jobs for young and working-class Americans.
- The debate is more nuanced than the Trump administration's public posture, which has prioritized deregulation and aggressive investment as necessary to outpace China in the global AI race.
Driving the news: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's dire warning to Axios — that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — rippled through the MAGA media ecosystem on Wednesday.
- "We have to get ahead of this," Steve Bannon warned on his "War Room" podcast. "Or we're going to have mass unemployment, particularly among entry-level people under 30."
- "What you are going to see is one of the most dramatic job displacements, and it's going to be a top issue in the 2028 campaign," MAGA activist Charlie Kirk said on his show.
The intrigue: Kirk later expanded on his reaction to Amodei's warning on X, where he argued that college-educated Democrats are the voters most likely to face a "gigantic economic earthquake."
- "For decades, elites were smug about their economic security compared to blue collar people. ... But now, because of AI, the jobs of elites — and their children — are in grave danger," Kirk wrote.
- "The people who work with their hands will likely be spared, while white-collar jobs, those who have voted for Dems in increasing margins, will be the first victims of AI job losses."
The big picture: Despite the threat of job losses, the Republican Party — especially its new allies in Silicon Valley — broadly views AI advancement as an inevitable boon to the economy.
- Grok, the AI tool embedded on Elon Musk's X platform, is a favorite among the Trump-loving masses who spend time engaging with the MAGA media ecosystem.
- The Daily Wire in March announced a partnership with AI search engine Perplexity, which is frequently cited on The Ben Shapiro Show. A Daily Wire spokeswoman told Axios Wednesday that Perplexity "has allowed us to tap into the power of AI in a way that enhances the experience for our audience."
- In the "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" passed by the House last week, Republicans included language prohibiting enforcement of state AI laws for 10 years, hoping to avoid a patchwork of different regulations coast to coast.
What to watch: Still, wary of alienating their blue-collar base, MAGA leaders in Washington say they're eyeing ways to protect working-class Americans even as they promote AI's upsides.
- "We will always center American workers in our AI policy," Vice President Vance, a key bridge in the MAGA-tech alliance, said in a major AI speech in February.
- "We believe, and we will fight for policies that ensure, that AI is going to make our workers more productive, and we expect that they will reap the rewards with higher wages, better benefits and safer and more prosperous communities."
The bottom line: "This technology ... may have tremendous upside for man," Bannon said on his show Wednesday.
- "But it's got such unlimited dark side and downside that it has to be reviewed, thought through, until this thing spins out of control."
