US President Trump: Don't Kill the AI Golden Goose
US President Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social on September 14, stating, "The only reason for the explosive growth of AI and data centers in the US is that America is far ahead of all other countries," and warned, "Don't kill this goose that lays golden eggs!"
Trump also declared, "Whoever wins AI, wins it all," emphasizing, "We are ahead of China and all other countries and will continue to maintain our lead"; he characterized the current concerns surrounding AI regulation and data center expansion as a "conspiracy" that benefits China.
This statement is widely interpreted as a direct response to recent calls from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and others to "slow down AI development"—Trump claimed his administration has prevented AI practitioners from doing "bad or potentially bad things" and mocked Amodei for pretending to be a "perfect little angel"; he believes that the existing government powers and strong leadership from the president provide sufficient "guardrails" without the need for additional regulation.
Trump has previously endorsed the expansion of data centers, stating at the end of August that the only reason communities across the US do not want data centers built is that they want to become backward and poor; however, local opposition is intensifying—polls show a majority of voters from both parties oppose the construction of new data centers in their areas, indicating a rare bipartisan consensus; Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro and Texas Governor Abbott have shifted from support to advocating for new regulations on data centers, while New York Governor Hochul has directly paused new data center construction for a year.
Vice President Vance's remarks are relatively conditional—he suggested that data center operators would be more acceptable if they could build their own power supply rather than drawing power from the existing grid, implying that power shortages and rising electricity prices are core concerns for local opposition; Trump insists that data centers can bring tax revenue and jobs, labeling the opposing voices as short-sighted actions of "economic self-harm."
Trump's remarks come after AI concept stocks suffered a significant decline due to the collective calls from leading CEOs for a slowdown, objectively serving to "support" market sentiment—signals from the White House indicate "no increase in regulation, continuing support for computing power expansion," directly benefiting chip stocks like NVIDIA and AMD as well as data center developers; however, the tightening of local state government regulations and public backlash due to rising electricity prices mean that the real resistance to data center expansion has shifted from the federal policy level to state and community levels, making it difficult to completely resolve through a single statement from the president in the short term.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Trump's stance on AI regulation consistently follows his administration's approach of "deregulation and scaling up industries"—he has previously publicly supported the expansion of data centers and warned local communities at the end of August that rejecting data centers would lead them to "become backward and poor"; this time, his direct response to Amodei continues the friction he has had with the Silicon Valley AI safety faction, where Musk has also publicly criticized Anthropic for "hating Western civilization," indicating a loose but ongoing opposition between the "accelerationists" in the industry and the government, as well as some entrepreneurs.
The immediate context for Trump's remarks is that AI concept stocks recently suffered a collective decline due to a joint call for a slowdown from CEOs Amodei, Altman, and Musk, with Nasdaq futures dropping more than 1.7%; the president's personal endorsement of computing power expansion objectively injects certainty into the damaged market sentiment, particularly supporting chip stocks like NVIDIA and AMD that directly benefit from capital expenditures in data centers. This approach of "policy statements hedging market panic" is consistent with his previous methods of influencing market expectations through remarks on tariffs, interest rates, and other issues.
Trump's statement of "don't kill the golden goose" aligns with previous comments from White House AI policy official David Sacks, who criticized the "slowdown alliance" as a "cartel dressed in virtue"—both attempts to characterize safety regulation demands as hindering industrial development and even benefiting external competitors (China); however, contrasting with the strong stance at the federal level, local governments in Pennsylvania, Texas, and New York are shifting from support to restrictions due to rising electricity prices and grid pressure, indicating that the real conflict focus in this game has shifted from "whether AI should be developed" to the more specific local governance issue of "who should bear the electricity costs of data centers."
This is essentially a game about the allocation of regulatory power—the federal government attempts to characterize the expansion of AI infrastructure as an unshakeable national strategic priority through the narrative of "national competition and winner-takes-all," thereby suppressing local regulatory impulses arising from electricity prices and grid load; however, the shift of local governments in Pennsylvania, Texas, and New York indicates that when the external costs of computing power expansion (rising electricity prices, grid tension) are directly passed on to local residents, the real pressure of local governance will ultimately break through the constraints of the federal narrative—this is a structural tug-of-war between "national competition priorities" and "local governance costs," which is unlikely to be completely resolved by a single statement from the president in the short term.