The future of American security hangs on a single technological battleground, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent isn’t mincing words about what’s at stake.
“Beating China, there is no day after tomorrow if China wins at this,” Bessent declared during a Breitbart News policy discussion on the economy. “Like everything, a trillion-and-a-half-dollar defense budget, the Iron Dome. If they were to pull ahead of us on AI, then nothing else matters.”
The blunt assessment from one of President Trump’s top cabinet officials underscores the administration’s view that artificial intelligence represents an existential competition with America’s chief global adversary. Bessent made clear that maintaining U.S. dominance in AI isn’t just an economic priority; it’s a matter of national survival.
But the secretary also delivered a pointed rebuke to the very tech companies leading America’s AI charge, giving them what he called a “D-minus” for their failures to work with local communities affected by massive data center construction projects sweeping the nation.
“Whether it’s the data center companies themselves, the big incumbent hyperscalers, or the large language labs like Anthropic, OpenAI, they have done a horrendous job reaching out to communities,” Bessent said. “It was just kind of let the chips fall where they may, and I don’t blame people for having a backlash.”
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The former professor turned treasury chief didn’t hold back on his assessment. “Someone asked me the other day, and I said I used to be a professor and I was known as a tough grader, but it’s easy to give these guys a D-minus,” he continued. “They haven’t failed because they’re getting them built, but they have taken their credibility to the edge, and they need to come back.”
Bessent also raised concerns about foreign interference in local opposition movements, pointing to Chinese influence operations targeting American communities where data centers are being built.
“We also need to acknowledge there is a lot of Chinese agitprop in there,” he said. “These protesters who show up in rural areas, that was not a spontaneous outpouring of the community. It’s very well organized, but everyone in that ecosystem needs to take some responsibility.”
Despite his criticism of tech industry community relations, Bessent expressed pride in America’s organic innovation ecosystem that created the current AI advantage. He pointed to Anthropic, an AI company he said could soon go public at a valuation of $2 trillion, making it the largest IPO in history.
“This is the United States of America in its 250th year. Anthropic, in 2021, 2022 during COVID, was eight very bright people sitting in a park in San Francisco with their laptops. Imagine that,” Bessent said. “We have never seen anything like this before, and that could only happen in the United States of America.”
The secretary highlighted economic benefits already flowing from AI development, noting that companies using the technology are hiring workers and that small business formation is surging. He said entrepreneurs can now launch firms with just one to three employees that previously would have required a dozen or more.
“We’re seeing the one, the two, three-person company where, like, if you worked for a big architecture firm that had 200 employees, and you wanted to start your own firm, before you probably need critical mass, 12, 15 employees. Now you can do it with one, two, or three,” Bessent explained.
The treasury secretary called on tech companies to help Americans understand the benefits coming their way, particularly in medicine and disease treatment, while urging the industry to rebuild trust with the communities hosting their infrastructure.
This article originally appeared on American Faith, and is reposted with permission.
