The Trump White House has released Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan, a massive strategy designed to secure U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence. Framed as a patriotic push to lead the world in tech, the plan is filled with aggressive moves that stretch far beyond innovation alone.
This government document outlines more than 90 federal actions focused on three goals: speeding up innovation, building AI infrastructure at home, and taking control on the global stage. But it’s not just about technology. It’s also about reshaping regulations, redefining objectivity, and exporting American values through AI systems.
One of the plan’s most ambitious proposals is to offer full AI technology stacks to allies. This means exporting U.S.-made chips, models, software, and standards as a bundled product. It’s clearly a play to block out China and boost American influence abroad. But as I warned in my recent piece, How to destroy America: Let it fall in love with AI, then pull the plug, spreading this kind of power too broadly without fail-safes could be a massive mistake.
Domestically, the plan calls for slashing regulations that are seen as slowing AI growth. That includes rolling back federal guidelines and pressuring states to avoid AI restrictions if they want funding. At the same time, the federal government wants to ramp up construction of data centers, chip factories, and new energy projects to keep up with growing demand.
There’s also a heavy political layer. The plan directs federal agencies to only work with AI developers whose models are free from so-called ideological bias. In practice, this likely means rejecting any models viewed as too progressive or socially driven. It reframes free speech not as a right for users but as a requirement for machines, dictated by policymakers.
In another section, the administration promotes open source and open weight AI. That sounds good for transparency, but the real goal is to ensure American-made systems dominate international standards. Innovation is encouraged, but only if it follows a very specific playbook.
The military also gets plenty of attention. Plans are in place to build secure AI data centers for defense and intelligence use. The government wants emergency access to private AI compute during conflict, and there’s even a proposal to turn military schools into AI research hubs. These efforts aim to weaponize AI not just for the battlefield, but across every layer of national security.
What’s missing from the plan is any serious discussion about privacy, civil liberties, or how AI might be misused. Instead, the focus is on expanding AI adoption in government, pushing frontier models into every agency, and protecting American systems from foreign surveillance. The whole document reads more like a tech cold war strategy than a public policy blueprint.
The plan frames AI as a tool to improve lives, boost the economy, and create new jobs. And yes, it includes funding for workforce retraining, apprenticeships, and education programs. But underneath the surface, this is about control, influence, and keeping American-made technology at the center of the global stage.
This strategy may impress those eager for national strength, but as I explored in How to destroy America: Let it fall in love with AI, then pull the plug, there is a darker possibility. Rushing toward AI dominance without proper boundaries could end up harming the very country this plan is trying to protect.
Whether you view this as progress or overreach, one thing is clear. The Trump administration is betting big on AI. And they don’t intend to lose.
