From ‘hoax’ to ‘AI Force’: Has Trump changed his mind on AI guardrails?

Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has proudly assumed one too many self-proclaimed titles like the “Peacemaker”. Among numerous issues that he’s put centre stage, the American leader has gone all-in on artificial intelligence while chasing national dominance, especially in a race against China.

He’s most notably expressed his pro-AI stance through the endless stream of highly exaggerated artificially-generated images used to present his takes on serious issues such as the ongoing Iran conflict and immigration raids in the United States.

Then, recently, he made statements like “Whoever wins AI, wins”. Taking on the self-granted role of “The Hoax Buster”, the Republican president even dismissed countless apocalyptic and existential warnings laid out by former AI workers who believe the booming technology’s accelerated path could ultimately lead to a doomsday scenario in the near future.

Despite slamming those dire concerns regarding AI’s safety as a “hoax”, while top tech leaders suggest otherwise, Trump held on to his ground and rejected the notion of slowing down AI’s development. And yet, he’s now vowed to form an “AI Force”, similar to how he launched Space Force during his first term, even as he firmly dismisses the growing negative sentiment around AI data centres and warnings about the industry’s regulation.

To top it all off, all these developments are happening just days before AI is expected to loom large over the Trump-Xi Jinping summit in the United States. It is, in turn, set to take place against the backdrop of a growing number of reports disclosing how AI models are breaking out and hacking other companies.

Trump proposes ‘AI Force’ launch 

Trump compared the proposed initiative with Space Force, which was established during his first term. The announcement provided few details about how the AI Force would operate. 

This comes after David Sacks, who was appointed as the “White House AI & Crypto Czar” in December 2024, said in March 2026 that his time as a special government employee was up. At the time of the appointment announcement, Trump asserted that he and Sacks would work together to “unleash scientific breakthroughs, ensure America’s technological dominance, and usher in a Golden Age of American Innovation”.

The venture capitalist has since cheered Trump’s calls for a new AI czar.

“President Trump understands the media hoax cycle better than anyone else,” Sacks wrote on X. “That is why he is refusing the ‘pause’ that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are demanding. A pause would not make America safer. It would hand the frontier to China.”

Cut to September 2026, he has now likened the AI boom to the “next Industrial Revolution, or Internet” on Truth Social, arguing that it will be “even larger and more impactful, possibly as much as 25% of our Country’s GDP.”

Tech and recent US expansion 

Even with the AI Force’s formation, Trump has no plans to slow down AI’s development. His claims of AI being the USA’s hot-ticket have emerged as the issue sits at the centre of America and China’s rivalry.

Moreover, a recent report by the forecasting firm ING found that tech investment accounted for more than a third of all US economic expansion in the second quarter of 2026. And so, anything threatening that will inevitably earn Trump’s opposition, especially at a time when he and his Republican Party are losing favour among American adults ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

Recent Reuters/Ipsos polls have shown that registered voters are now leaning towards the Democrats when it comes to better handling of the US economy. Trump’s approval ratings have especially soured over the past year due to rising oil and gas prices, a major pain point for Americans grappling with inflation since the US and Israel launched their joint attacks against Tehran on February 28.

What’s at stake here?

Several frontier AI companies’ top executives, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have urged the world’s governments to intervene and “pace” the technology’s progress. These calls for AI regulation only deepened further after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from the company, and the AI industry at large, issued a jaw-dropping warning about how people building the tech “earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Earning support from OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, among others, the Anthropic co-founder recently mapped out a three-step plan so that AI can be built at a “balance rate” that aims to “ensure its safety” while still managing to achieve its benefits and grapple with crucial geopolitical dilemmas.

Among several fears, Amodei argued in his recent blog post that if AI is left unchecked, “it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems.”

Also alluding to the July OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, Amodei wrote, “Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.”

In addition to the Hugging Face incident, Anthropic and Google, aka creators of Claude and Gemini, respectively, have disclosed instances of other such AI incident which saw their chatbots being used for “malicious activity.”

Speaking to the BBC, Anthropic’s co-founder Jack Clark recently insisted that a “kill switch” that can be checked by a third party may need to be mandatorily prioritized as a safeguard for the industry.

Where does Trump stand on AI safety?

As US lawmakers have felt compelled to propose legislation around AI, Trump has reiterated that fears about AI potentially becoming a superintelligence that could pose a threat to human existence are a “hoax.” He maintained that the US must keep on building to foster AI’s growth, as he emphasised that the justice system already acts as a safeguard.

“We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows! However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System,” the US president said.

In a similar diatribe, he previously argued online that “the only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades,” adding that “we already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies.”

A few days ago, he called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang while the semiconductor titan was onstage at the All-In Summit and hailed data centres as “the oil of the next 20, 25 years,” which would help people and states “wealthy.” Hitting out against the rising backlash around it, he stressed that those critical of AI were “just playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don’t want to see it happen. That could be political people, that could also be China.”

Obama speaks out against Trump’s AI view

On the contrary, former US President Barack Obama broke his silence on the issue publicly on Friday, and criticized Trump’s take on the AI front. Speaking at an event at Colgate University in New York, he said that the Republican leader was setting the US back at a crucial moment, warning that the technology could “deeply affect our health and our safety.”

“There’s no replacement for an effective, government regulatory structure,” Obama continued. “And the challenge we have is that, obviously, we have a president currently that has said that’s for losers.”

He went on to add that the US is facing “a gap, at least of a couple of years” with Trump in office because of a government “that is not capable of or willing to — I would argue both — of putting together a serious regulatory framework.”

AI to take centre stage during Trump-Xi summit

Both the US and Chinese leaders are set to meet for their second summit of the year in Washington, DC, on September 24. Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the United States was open to discussing shared risks with China, according to an Axios report.

While Trump has already made his pro-AI stance clear while pitching for domination against China, Chinese state media also slammed the Anthropic CEO’s warnings as coming from a “Cold War playbook.”

Given the stakes, top tech leaders OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon are expected to join AI talks at the summit, according to a Politico report.