At a Washington event marking the launch of the new America.gov AI‑powered portal, President Donald Trump declared that the United States would not undertake a joint venture with China in artificial intelligence. He warned that such a collaboration would be “giving away secrets” to the country he called America’s main economic rival.
Trump stressed that the U.S. is already “leading by a lot” in AI and that partnering with China would undermine that position. “If we do that, we’re going to be giving a lot of secrets that we have that they would want to have,” he said, adding that the technological race is strictly a two‑way contest between the United States and China.
The comments come after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent White House visit, during which the two sides announced a new AI dialogue and set a follow‑up meeting for November. They also established a direct communication channel to prevent misunderstandings during AI‑related incidents.
Trump reiterated that while AI was discussed during his meeting with Xi, he remains firmly opposed to any joint development program. He argued that allowing China to access U.S. AI breakthroughs would “immediately give them access to things that we know that they don’t know.”
Domestic opposition to unregulated AI also grew in recent weeks. A Politico poll released late September found that two‑thirds of Americans see a “moderate” risk that AI could pose a danger to humanity, and 44% of Trump supporters said they would prefer to pause AI development. Despite this public concern, Trump has dismissed safety worries as a “hoax,” likening them to the so‑called “global warming scam” he claims is pushed by the “radical left Dumocrats.”
