Tea at Trianon: Trump's AI Diplomacy Is America First

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Trump's AI Diplomacy Is America First

From Amuse on X:

The criticisms are familiar, almost rehearsed. Congressman Ro Khanna, one of the Democratic Party's reliable progressives, recently asked why President Trump would approve the construction of major AI data centers and research hubs in the United Arab Emirates, rather than planting those high-paying jobs on American soil. "What about Ohio? What about Pennsylvania?" he asked, implying that Trump had traded Rust Belt prosperity for Gulf petro-dollars. At first glance, the critique appeals to patriotic instinct. But its logic is superficial, and its conclusions are wrong.
Trump's AI strategy, particularly his deal with the UAE, is not a betrayal of "America First," but a shrewd fulfillment of it. If we seek American technological dominance, global standards set by US companies, and the marginalization of China's growing AI imperialism, this is the only play.
Let us begin where the critics do: the location of the data centers. While the Abu Dhabi complex has captured headlines, it is not a substitute for domestic investment, but a complement to it. Indeed, Amazon Web Services is investing $1 billion into new AI infrastructure in Ohio. OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, is actively scouting Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon, and Wisconsin for sites. Plans are even underway to revive Pennsylvania's shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant, which could soon power data centers throughout the Mid-Atlantic. In other words, these are not either-or decisions. They are both-and. Trump is doing what any good strategist would do: establishing beachheads at home and abroad. (Read more.)