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Trump Is Trusting Tech Companies to Self-Police AI. What Could Go Wrong?

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02.10.2026

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Trump Is Trusting Tech Companies to Self-Police AI. What Could Go Wrong?

Trump’s refusal to heed the warnings from within the tech industry might end up being his most asinine legacy.

President Donald Trump hosted a meeting on artificial intelligence with tech executives in the East Room of the White House on September 29, 2026

Last week, Trump appeared in a bizarre 29-second campaign ad, touting a “final battle” against Marxists, warmongers, fascists, deep staters, and globalists. The voiceover, which Trump recorded during the 2024 election campaign, was accompanied by futuristic martial music, along with black and white footage of a clearly enfeebled Trump attempting to stride forcefully down the corridors of power in the White House. As the ad ended, a decal popped up: “Paid for by the US Government.” In other words, this foul half-minute of propaganda was paid for by American taxpayers.

A month out from a midterm election that in many ways will be a referendum on his presidency and on the congressional GOP’s prostituting of themselves to his sordid requirements, Trump is attempting to scare the voting public into one last MAGA hurrah. It is, of course, a Hail Mary, but he doesn’t really have a choice. These days, number 47 is catastrophically unpopular with the electorate. On almost every key measure, Americans are rejecting him. They dislike his sadistic anti-immigrant policy, view his tariffs and other economic policies as a calamity, are infuriated by high inflation, alienated by the war in Iran, distrustful of his alliance with Big Tech, angered by his cozying up to dictators and his flaying of allies, pissed at the government dysfunction wrought by DOGE, disapproving of his environmental policies, and suspicious of his efforts to purge voter rolls.

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So, the sunsetting octogenarian is........

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