{"id":9989,"date":"2026-04-05T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ai-pacs-trump-lobbying\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:30:00","slug":"ai-pacs-trump-lobbying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ai-pacs-trump-lobbying\/","title":{"rendered":"Groups Set Up to Shill AI and Data Centers Are Pouring Huge Sums of Money Into the Midterm Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Artificial intelligence remains deeply unpopular with the American public. One <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/artificial-intelligence\/hate-ai-more-ice-poll\">poll found<\/a> it\u2019s even more reviled than ICE, which is no small feat given the mass protests that erupt whenever the agency\u2019s goons march into another US city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">A few political action groups are hoping to turn that around. Going into the 2026 midterm elections, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6a3f1938-759d-4ae4-924e-6a0feac14e24?syn-25a6b1a6=1\"><em>Financial Times<\/em> reports<\/a>, newly-formed PACs with major tech industry backing are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shape how voters think about AI regulation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Some of the groups cast a wide net, like Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by Trump donors and AI barons like OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and tech venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz. Founded in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/ai-industry-launches-leading-the-future-to-drive-us-ai-leadership-economic-growth-national-security-and-innovation-302537548.html\">August of 2025<\/a>, Leading the Future has raised over $125 million to back pro-AI candidates who oppose state-level regulations, according to the <em>FT<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Others, like the pro-regulation PAC Public First Action, serve as vehicles for individual AI companies to push their agendas. Backed solely by Anthropic, this group aims to raise $75 million to boost candidates who want to preserve state\u2019s individual rights to regulate AI. Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Meta also has its own pet super PAC, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/09\/23\/meta-superpac-ai-regulation\">American Technology Excellence Project,<\/a> which aims to spend $65 million on state-level candidates who will \u201cdefend American tech leadership at home and abroad\u201d \u2014 a fluffy way of saying \u201coppose AI regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">This jockeying over states\u2019 rights to regulate AI is the key question in the 2026 PAC wars. Though Republicans have largely staked their flag as the party of small government \u2014 which was always a <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonmonthly.com\/2018\/01\/10\/the-gop-only-selectively-cares-about-states-rights\/\">selective attitude<\/a>, to be fair \u2014 Donald Trump is now pushing for a major expansion of federal power. His latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/releases\/2026\/03\/president-donald-j-trump-unveils-national-ai-legislative-framework\/\">AI framework<\/a> seeks to concentrate regulatory authority over the tech at the executive level, which would effectively strip all 50 states of oversight power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Bankrolling that push is Innovation Council Action, a hawkish super PAC backed by Trump advisor and <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/article\/paypal-mafia\/\">PayPal mafioso<\/a> David Sacks and led by former Trump communications aide <a href=\"https:\/\/popular.info\/p\/ai-industry-taps-january-6-operative\">Taylor Budowich<\/a>. The newly formed group plans to spend at least $100 million supporting candidates who aren\u2019t just pro-AI, but who will commit to carrying out Trump\u2019s consolidation agenda, exclusively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">That PAC marks a major challenge to groups like Leading the Future, which Trump and his cabinet found to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/new-pro-ai-group-backed-trump-allies-plans-100m-midterm-spending-push\">insufficiently loyal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">\u201cPresident Trump has made it clear, America will win the AI race against China, period,\u201d Budowich told <em>Fox<\/em>. \u201cHe built the framework, he\u2019s leading from the front, and this organization exists to make sure he doesn\u2019t fight that battle alone. The cavalry is coming to back up the policymakers who stand with the president and will hold accountable the ones who don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>More on AI and politics: <\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-ceos-nationalization\">Insiders Afraid the Government Will Nationalize the AI Industry<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/future-society\/ai-pacs-trump-lobbying\">Groups Set Up to Shill AI and Data Centers Are Pouring Huge Sums of Money Into the Midterm Elections<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/\">Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artificial intelligence remains deeply unpopular with the American public. One poll found it\u2019s even more reviled than ICE, which is no small feat given the mass protests that erupt whenever&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,3841,3842,3936],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-ethics","category-future-society","category-the-industrialists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}