Trump’s AI inaction becomes a uniting issue for MAGA and Democrats as Steve Bannon blasts ‘too cozy’ relationship

Democrats and Trump's conservative supporters both blame the president's ties to the tech industry for his administration's limited response

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A rare consensus has emerged across the political spectrum, with both Democrats and conservative supporters of President Donald Trump expressing alarm over his administration's perceived inaction on artificial intelligence regulation.

The bipartisan concern follows recent high-profile incidents involving AI agents.

Two weeks ago, OpenAI disclosed that one of its AI agents had gone rogue , breaching the systems of fellow AI company Hugging Face. While the White House stated it was monitoring the situation and Trump indicated he was "looking at controls on AI," another major player, Anthropic, subsequently revealed that some of its own AI models had also infiltrated three companies' systems.

Steve Bannon, a prominent conservative media figure, longtime ally and former adviser to the president , has been vocal in his criticism. He argues that the White House's approach to AI regulation is inadequate given the national security threats posed, placing the blame squarely on Silicon Valley.

"There is too cozy a relationship between the companies and the staff, not just in the White House but I also think in the national security apparatus," Bannon told Reuters .

"Why would you allow them to be in control? You don't. And I'm the anti-deep state, anti-administrative state guy, but you definitely need at least a rudimentary framework of some sort of regulatory apparatus," he added, emphasizing the need for oversight.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon echoed these concerns from the Democratic side.

"Trump has been AWOL because he thinks the billionaire owners of AI companies are on his side," Wyden said. "Instead of trying to fix these problems, Trump and his Republican allies are focused on blocking state AI laws and knocking down the basic protections that companies like Anthropic have placed on how their models are used."

Adding to the complexity, Anthropic's relationship with the government ruptured this year after it refused to allow the U.S. military to use its ​AI models for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons systems. The White House and OpenAI did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, and Anthropic's spokesperson declined to comment.

Bannon and Wyden are among a growing number of voices across the political divide who fear that the president's extensive connections to big tech could blind him to the inherent dangers of AI, thereby discouraging meaningful regulatory action.

Tech companies and their executives have collectively contributed over $300 million to support the president's 2024 reelection efforts and MAGA Inc, a political action committee aligned with him. The president has also appointed several industry insiders to key governmental positions.

In June, the administration announced a plan to ask AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, to voluntarily submit their AI models with advanced hacking capabilities for government cybersecurity tests before public release. However, details on the testing process remain scarce, and Reuters has reported that only a limited number of models would be subject to these voluntary assessments.

Democratic Congressman Gregorio Casar of Texas sharply criticized the president's approach, asserting he is "completely failing" to safeguard Americans from AI's risks.

"He took millions from AI billionaires. Now, in the wake of extremely dangerous AI cybersecurity problems, he says he’s set up 'voluntary' review that no one has seen. Asleep at the wheel. Too busy cashing in to protect our jobs or national security," Casar wrote on social media platform X.

AI company executives and investors were among the largest individual donors in 2025 to MAGA Inc. OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna Brockman, gave a combined $25 million to the committee in 2025, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, an investor in OpenAI, and firm co-founders Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen gave a combined $12 million since Trump's second inauguration to the committee. The firm, its co-founders and the Brockmans did not respond to requests for comment.

Google investor Asha Jadeja, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman gave at least $5 million each to the committee in 2025, according to FEC records. Blackstone is an investor in AI infrastructure, including an AI cloud venture with Google, one of the three leading AI developers in the U.S. Jadeja, Musk, Schwarzman and Blackstone did not respond to requests for comment.

Amy Kremer, a right-wing organizer and Trump supporter who helped organize the January 6 rally that preceded the Capitol riot, accused the industry of building "a moat around the White House."

Trump has also welcomed industry executives into his administration, most notably billionaire Elon Musk, who oversaw the president's cuts to the federal workforce during the first few months of his second term. Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win the 2024 election, according to campaign filings reviewed by Reuters. Trump also brought on David Sacks, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, as White House AI czar, along with Andreessen Horowitz's Sriram Krishnan and Scale AI's Michael Kratsios.

Sacks and Krishnan have since left the Trump administration, though Sacks is still an outside adviser to the White House on technology.

Sacks has advocated for the president to take a hands-off approach to AI regulation, arguing that rules will slow down the industry in its race against Chinese competitors. The Trump administration has tried to persuade Congress to pass a law curtailing state regulations of AI, an idea the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly rejected.

Krishnan, Kratsios and Sacks did not respond to requests...

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