Maga vs AI: Donald Trump’s Big Tech courtship risks a backlash

The defeat of the moratorium was “a major moment in American technology policy”, said Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, which pushes for free-market policies.

Despite the Trump administration’s embrace of Big Tech — with boosters such as Silicon Valley investor David Sacks directing AI policy for the president — animus on the right was building, said Thierer.

Some Republicans are still angry over the deplatforming of Trump by tech executives once known for their progressive politics. They had been joined by a “vocal and growing group of conservatives who are fundamentally suspicious of the benefits of technological innovation”, Thierer said.