Democracy is sleepwalking into the AI woodchipper, and regulation is nowhere to be seen

The chaos from Trump flooding the zone with political loss leaders is doing its job as the real threats escape scrutiny

America has now reached the point where the shocking is no longer shocking; lies are completely normalised, and truth is what Trump says it is. Americans are so exhausted that it’s become difficult to know what to focus on in terms of fighting back.

Everywhere you look, you find another dose of cruelty being dished out to the vulnerable courtesy of the Billionaire Welfare Act. Today’s featured act of cruelty is the targeting of six million Americans who rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to heat their homes in the winter. Trump is eliminating it under the guise of DEI. Clearly, to Trump, low-income families should be treated no differently than rich people when it comes to not freezing to death in winter.

He has form on this; he zeroed out the budget for this program twice in his first term, and Congress responded by refunding the program. Sadly, this time, Republicans are held hostage by Trump's control of Congress, so we can safely assume families will freeze as far as they are concerned. The irony is that the program's biggest beneficiaries are located in red states, so it’s likely he’s throwing his own voters under the bus. Under this administration, social Darwinism is alive and well.

The bottom line is, the debt burden has reached a point where the Fed is having to buy US Treasuries in the dead of night to create the illusion that all is well, when the reality is that the wheels are starting to come off the bus. Trump inherited the strongest economy in the world four months ago, and in this short period, he’s driven the economy off the edge of a cliff. Today’s ADP job numbers show just 37,000 jobs added in the private sector, leaving Trump begging the Fed to reduce interest rates.

As things stand, the only thing Trump has going for him is that the full impact of his economic policies has not yet been fully felt in Americans' daily lives, but that impact is imminent. If he does not address the China trade dispute, things will only get worse. Trump has not had a single policy win on issues like Ukraine, Gaza, Iran and now jobs. The economy is contracting; bond yields are rising, and debt interest payments now total over $1 trillion. In fiscal year 2024, the government paid $1.049 trillion in debt service, representing a 30% increase from the previous year. The defence budget has been increased without any attempt to identify waste and abuse. It is beyond economic madness to increase federal deficits by $2.4 trillion, all to provide tax cuts to the rich who don’t need them. The level of incompetence on display is beyond belief. Were it not for his aggressive, made-for-TV mass deportation program, I’m pretty sure Trump would be coming under pressure on all of the above.

So, where does AI fit in, I hear you ask. It is at the very heart of the Trump economic agenda and represents his only escape from the bind he now finds himself in, which will only increase each day as Americans begin to hurt. You don’t have to look too closely at the budget bill to understand that the administration is clearing the way for an AI takeover. The bill blocks any regulatory intervention from state legislatures on AI. At least it would seem there is bipartisan pushback on this from states across the country, in the form of an open letter signed by 260 lawmakers from 50 states, calling on Congress not to adopt a 10-year ban on AI regulation. The problem here is that far too many federal legislators have NOT read the entire bill. That in itself should set alarm bells ringing across the country.

Just like corporations shipped jobs to China to exploit cheap labour opportunities, they are now going to throw white collar workers under the bus to hand off their jobs to AI. The one thing you can be sure of is that ‘We the people are just passengers on a bus being driven by a man who would sell his children into slavery to earn a buck’ I find myself sitting here having spent days studying papers and economic modelling that show this is not the stuff of fiction. Based on credible, data-driven assertions, I am left inspired by what AI can deliver, while being beyond terrified at what it will likely deliver under the stewardship of a madman fronting a malign cabal that, it seems to me, is not just seeking absolute power in the US, but across the globe.

While it fascinates me to write about the intersection between AI and political power, I'm aware that my ramblings might be perceived as alarmist or that I’m seeking to gain traction through fear-mongering. I want to assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. What I’m attempting to do is merely assess the threat from a socioeconomic perspective and how it relates to the crisis America is currently facing in this moment of societal peril.

It’s easy to report on the chaos Trump is causing; it’s something else to look downstream at the impact and peer into the shadows to discover what the true intent of the Heritage Foundation coalition is planning while we are all distracted. I have included the clip below narrated by Stephen Fry, a man whom I admire immensely. Stephen is a tech-savvy individual, and this short film is based on a paper by Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland, and Romeo Dean. I would also recommend visiting Keep The Future Human by Anthony Aguirre. You can read the full essay here Please don’t view this information through a literal lens, but rather recognise the opportunity for good AI presents, while being aware of the very real threat it can present, especially where a government is intent on a significant shift away from the Biden administration’s emphasis on oversight, risk mitigation and equity toward a framework centered on deregulation and the promotion of AI innovation as a means of maintaining US global dominance.

It’s essential not to view AI in isolation, but rather in the context of how it will be deployed across government to drive further perceived efficiency goals. Those receiving Social Security and Medicare are already experiencing the impact of AI in call management services and the processing of benefit claims. This is just the beginning of how AI will transform customer service using systems that, in my view, are not yet fit for purpose. The long and short of it is that both the government and the private sector are about to go to war with the nation’s workforce, and I’m not fancying the chances of the workforce right now. I also fear this is not going to be a war that trade unions can win either, because the impending convergence of AI and robotics is the final piece of the employment doomsday machine.

Forget the worst-case scenario; consider the social impact of 20% unemployment. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rates reached 14.8%, providing some indication of the potential effects. The killer intersection point is where AI meets robotics, and this is why the US vision of reshoring manufacturing is not economically viable in the US. China is at least a decade ahead in manufacturing automation. Furthermore, the US cannot currently produce the machines necessary for large-scale automated production lines. There is no question that the US could scale up over time, but manufacturing dominance is pure fantasy. The focus should be on services.

Without AI global dominance, the American economy will suffer significantly and derail Trump’s agenda. To this end, the US has adopted a very aggressive approach to protecting the technology used in the US AI tech stack, which also includes blocking access to chips and technology through partners in Europe and other parts of the world. The problem is that they can’t stop China from developing its own independent AI tech stack, so the race is on. It is worth noting that most analysts believe China is at least six months behind in this race, as things stand, and six months is a lifetime in AI. So this shifts our conversation back to the societal impact on Americans.

The problem with AI is that it’s already spreading to touch every part of our daily lives, and it’s here to stay. One of my primary concerns for the 2026 midterms, assuming they will still be held, is the potential use of AI-generated video during the campaign. Please take a moment to watch this clip and tell me I’m not being paranoid to worry about the danger this presents in the Social Media space.

Now, you might argue that to the discerning eye, it’s not quite there yet, but let me assure you: give it another three to six months, and you won’t know what’s real and what’s not. You can rest assured that Trump will do nothing to regulate it. Indeed, I fully expect organisations supporting, but not directly linked to the administration, to make extensive use of it.

When it comes to AI, we are no longer talking about what if; we are talking about when. What I’m trying to encourage you to do is think in a big-picture way. Trump’s sole aim is control, because he knows that with control comes power, and AI is a heaven-sent opportunity for him to assert control. Once you build a comprehensive national dataset, it can be used to monitor every aspect of government, from law enforcement to immigration control to the administration of all welfare services and elections. It’s just one step away from social credit.

There is one further layer to this cake, and that is ‘Freedom Cities’. Let’s step back to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and the attempt within it to sell off federal land. Republicans were forced to remove it from the bill before it passed the House, but the intention to still make it happen remains. Why might that be? Because of this statement by Trump on the campaign trail in 2024

Why is this important in the context of our conversation? Because the plan for Freedom Cities is one of the driving forces behind the sale of federal land. Trump’s ambition is to develop ten freedom cities. All sounds very exciting, don’t you think? Think again. Before we add this layer to our cake, this is NOT fantasy. It’s a very real vision, akin to the likes of Peter Thiel and Sam Altman. In an article on March 26th by J.J. Anselmi in The New Republic, he wrote:

The network state movement goes well beyond those prior flirtations: It seeks to form a collection of corporately owned charter cities where regulation doesn’t exist. This idea started gaining momentum with the publication of Silicon Valley gadabout Balaji Srinivasan’s book, The Network State, which put him firmly in the company of those tech barons who’ve made democracy itself a target of their ire.

If ever there was a hark back to yesteryear, Trump has taken the old concept of the ‘company town’ and rebranded the concept as ‘freedom city’. These would be cities not under the jurisdiction of the state or federal government; instead, they would be high-tech cities under the control of a single corporation, with no oversight and the be unhindered by regulation. The pitch is that they would be libertarian incubators for tech innovation.

The truth is, this vision from the Silicon Valley tech giants has been around for a long time and has gone nowhere, simply because the oligarchs did not have a useful idiot in the White House. This has now changed, so don’t be surprised if Trump brings it up again. You should by now see where I am going with joining up the dots. Of course, I might be completely wrong, just as people thought I was when I first started discussing Project 2025. Look, I’m not here to tell you I understand the intentions of Mad King Don, but what I would advise is to keep your eyes open and be vigilant to the potential threats.