Donald Trump just signed three executive orders aimed at making the US an “AI export powerhouse.” One order targets what the White House calls “woke” AI models.
Trump slammed “woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models” at an AI summit in Washington, signing the orders on stage at Mellon Auditorium.
He said: 
“Once and for all, we are getting rid of woke. Is that OK?”
The audience of AI industry leaders cheered loudly. Trump blamed Joe Biden for pushing “toxic diversity, equity and inclusion ideology” in US AI development.
“So you immediately knew that was the end of your development,” Trump said, drawing laughs.
The order demands any AI company getting federal funding must have politically neutral models, free from “ideological dogmas such as DEI.” It targets an industry eager for government partnerships.
The White House says government procurement must avoid AI models that sacrifice “truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.” But the order’s vague terms could let the administration pick targets at will.
Other orders speed up federal permits for datacenters and promote exporting American AI tech globally. The White House also released a 24-page “AI action plan” to speed AI growth by cutting “red tape and onerous regulation.”
Trump framed the AI race as a global showdown:
“Winning this competition will be a test of our capacities unlike anything since the dawn of the space age.
We need US technology companies to be all-in for America. We want you to put America first.”
Trump hates the word “artificial” in artificial intelligence.
“I can’t stand it,” he said.
“I don’t even like the name, you know? I don’t like anything that’s artificial. So could we straighten that out, please? We should change the name. I actually mean that.”
“It’s not artificial. It’s genius,” he added.
One order calls for deregulating AI development, boosting datacenters, and removing environmental rules slowing their build. AI datacenters need massive water and power, sparking protests over pollution and noise.
China’s heavy investment in AI chips and models is pushing the US to act fast.
Trump’s “anti-woke” AI stance echoes conservative digs at Big Tech for leftwing bias in AI chatbots and image tools. Elon Musk, a fierce critic of “liberal bias” in AI, could benefit.
Musk’s xAI and its Grok chatbot aim to be “anti-woke” but have sparked controversy for posting white supremacist and pro-Nazi content. Despite this, xAI scored government contracts alongside OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
Conservatives highlight examples like Google’s Gemini image generator producing inaccurate, racially diverse WWII soldier images as proof of bias. Meanwhile, AI researchers warn model biases persist because training data reflects social prejudices.
The AI bias debate has caused industry shakeups before. Google fired Timnit Gebru, co-lead of its ethical AI team, after she protested bias and diversity issues—Google said she resigned.
Trump’s AI push is about US tech dominance and “putting America first,” but it ramps up tensions over AI bias and political control.
