As Trump’s popularity continues to plummet, the administration is doubling down on policies to line the pockets of sycophants and tech barons.
This week, two polls outlined the public’s growing frustration with the Trump administration. The first, a CBS/YouGov poll, showed only 13% of people think Trump’s policies are making the US economy better in the short term, while 65% believe AI will decrease jobs in the US. On Monday, a New York Times/Siena poll found that Trump’s net approval is 22 points underwater, with only 33% and 28% approval on the economy and the cost of living, respectively.
How has the administration reacted? Well, by doubling down on unabated AI and data center buildout and moving to redistribute taxpayer dollars to Trump’s most die hard supporters, of course! After all, if you feel your hold on power slipping away, you might as well loot the public coffers on your way out.
An Insurrectionist Slush Fund
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to be disbursed to people who supposedly “suffered weaponization and lawfare” during the Biden administration. The fund was created as part of a settlement between the President and his own IRS, with Trump seeking to extort the federal government for $10 billion over the leaking of his tax returns. (In 2020, the records of thousands of wealthy individuals were leaked by IRS contractor and whistleblower Charles Littlejohn, who is currently serving a 5 year prison sentence that we’ve long argued should have been commuted by President Biden.) According to the settlement, the fund will be managed by a five member board appointed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney. With all pretense of an independent DOJ long dissolved, the President will essentially be able to direct a $1.8 billion slush fund to those he deems most worthy—likely those who proved their loyalty by attempting to overthrow the 2020 election.
Thankfully, Blanche happened to be on the Hill on Tuesday, testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee to justify the DOJ’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2027. During the hearing, Sen. Van Hollen (D-MD) grilled Blanche about whether the fund will be used to compensate people convicted of attacking the Capital Police during the January 6 insurrection. Blanche demurred, claiming that he will not be responsible for disbursing funds but saying “anyone in this country is eligible to apply.”
Of course, Trump has already used his presidential power to pardon nearly 1,600 people convicted for their actions on January 6th. According to the Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW), at least 33 of those pardoned have been “rearrested, charged or sentenced” for other offenses, with charges ranging from child sex crimes, illegal possession of weapons, driving under the influence, and more. Now, those very same people may not only get away with their litany of crimes, they may get a handsome payday at taxpayers’ expense.
Democrats are thankfully poised to make hay about the absurd scheme, with The New Republic reporting that Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is leading an effort to force a vote on the slush fund. But it also serves as a reminder that the Biden administration failed to properly hold Trump and Republicans accountable for fomenting the insurrection in the first place. While thousands of people were charged for their crimes that day, Trump and his top collaborators walked free and holdovers from his administration remained in positions of power. And of course many sketchy billionaires got ever richer under Biden, enabling them to elevate Project 2025 and Trump 2.0 into power. If the country is going to recover from the destruction caused by Trump 2.0, every lawbreaking member of the administration—from Trump to Russell Vought to the DOGE bros—must immediately be held accountable by the next Democratic Congress and administration. And the elites who break the law and fund the incipient fascism? They need to be policed as well.
The AI Admin
While Trump’s DOJ was busy seeking to reward insurrectionists, the rest of his administration has been working to court another steadfast member of his dwindling constituency: artificial intelligence companies. As we outline in our running blog Tracking Uses of AI in the Trump Administration, the administration has been working to embed artificial intelligence across the government, regardless of how the American people feel about it.
Perhaps most consequentially for the world, the Defense Department recently signed deals with a slew of AI companies to “deploy their advanced AI capabilities” in military activities. Included in the deals are Spacex, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle. Notably absent, however, is Anthropic, which fell out of favor with the administration in March after it objected to the government using its Claude model to deploy autonomous weapons and surveil Americans. The government moved to ban federal use of the company’s products by declaring it a supply chain risk, though the Defense Department is currently violating its own guidance by using cyber security-focused tool Mythos.
While the administration claims these AI services will be for “lawful operational use,” the military has played fast and loose with international law in its foreign policy. Its strikes in the Caribbean have killed nearly 200 civilians. It kidnapped a foreign head of state in Venezuela and bombed civilians in Iran—two operations that reportedly used Anthropic software. This track record doesn’t inspire much confidence that AI tools won’t be used to continue to commit such crimes.
The administration isn’t blind to the public resentment building towards artificial intelligence tools and the data centers powering them. Over the past few months, the White House has touted its Ratepayer Protection Pledge and its National AI Legislative Framework as proof it is taking the public’s concerns seriously. The problem, however, is that both are little more than publicity stunts.
The Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which was signed by Google, Oracle, xAI, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Amazon, is a nonbinding pledge directing companies to cover the costs of infrastructure upgrades needed to power data centers, while also calling for increased data center build out as essential for “economic and national security.” The pledge does nothing to actually address the regulatory framework that allows utilities to spread the cost of data centers onto ratepayers, nor does it address data centers’ impact on noise, air, and water pollution. Indeed, Trump’s DOJ is reportedly considering intervening on behalf of xAI in a lawsuit alleging the company operated 27 natural gas turbines without permits to power a Mississippi data center.
The White House’s AI framework is similarly light on substance. Though it contains sensible headers like “Safeguarding and Strengthening American Communities” and “Respecting Intellectual Property Rights and Supporting Creators,” the actual guidance does nothing to assuage concerns. Its safeguards section calls for the Congress to “streamline federal permitting for AI infrastructure construction.” Its intellectual property section calls for “clear exceptions for parody [and] satire” presumably because the President himself is obsessed with using AI images and videos to disparage his political opponents. These efforts are not the product of an administration that is seriously grappling with what widespread adoption and buildout of AI might mean. It’s all just window dressing.
Look to Trump’s recent appointments and financial disclosures to see where his loyalties lie. At the end of March, Trump announced the first 13 appointees to his President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). As we documented in our profiles of PCAST, most of the council is connected to the AI industry, including executives of AI-invested firms Oracle, Google, Dell Technologies, Nvidia, and Meta. Will this advisory panel, with a net worth over $1 trillion, really have the interests of the American people at heart? Not likely.
Trump’s lack of interest in properly regulating AI and data centers is hardly surprising—his recently released financial disclosure shows millions of dollars invested in the industry. Since February 2026 alone, he’s purchased somewhere between $1 and $5 million of stock in Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, and Dell Technologies. Actions, specifically millions of dollars worth of stock purchases, speak much louder than words.
In an administration where self-enrichment appears to be the sole guiding principle, insurrectionists and AI barons are the main constituents poised to benefit.
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Want more? Check out some of the pieces that we published or contributed research or thoughts to in the last week:
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Image Credit: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host business and technology leaders for a dinner in State Dining Room at the White House via the White House Gallery.