by WorldTribune Staff, August 4, 2025 Real World News
Last month, the world's top ranked chess player, Magnus Carlsen, handily defeated ChatGPT in a match without losing a single piece.
“That was methodical, clean, and sharp. Well played!” ChatGPT said to him, according to the screenshots Carlsen posted.
Will AI be as classy to President Donald Trump after he masterfully outmaneuvered the captains of the new AI industry in a huge win for conservatives on the emerging technology frontier?
On July 14, the Department of Defense announced contracts worth up to $200 million each to four major AI companies: OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT), Anthropic (maker of Claude), Google (maker of Gemini/Bard), and xAI (Elon Musk's maker of Grok).
The Pentagon framed the awards as essential for accelerating "the adoption of advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges." The companies would develop "agentic AI workflows" across multiple mission areas, from warfighting to intelligence analysis.
"At the time, it seemed like standard government contracting — the Defense Department embracing commercial AI solutions to maintain strategic advantage over adversaries like China," wrote Larry Ward in a July 31 analysis for Human Events.
The AI companies celebrated landing lucrative federal contracts totaling up to $800 million.
"But Trump was setting the stage," added Ward, the founder of Market Rithm who has spent three decades building technology infrastructure for conservative media and organizations.
On July 23, Trump signed his executive order "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government" which mandates that federal agencies can only procure AI systems that adhere to strict "Unbiased AI Principles" — specifically requiring "truth-seeking" and "ideological neutrality."
The executive order explicitly bans AI systems that engage in the "suppression or distortion of factual information about race or sex," the "manipulation of racial or sexual representation in model outputs," the "incorporation of concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism," and "discrimination based on race or sex."
Suddenly, Ward noted, "every AI company that had just signed massive DoD contracts faced a stark choice: comply with Trump's neutrality requirements or lose their federal business."
Essentially, Silicon Valley must now pay to fact check "fake news."
"This wasn't luck or coincidence — it was masterful strategic planning that demonstrates Trump's superior understanding of leverage and timing," Ward wrote.
"First, he created dependency by awarding substantial contracts that made these AI companies financially invested in maintaining their federal relationships. Walking away from $200 million contracts isn't a decision any company makes lightly.
"Second, he established authority through contracts that gave the federal government direct oversight and influence over how these companies develop their AI systems. They're no longer just private companies serving consumer markets — they're defense contractors with national security responsibilities.
"Third, he applied pressure at maximum leverage. Once the companies were locked into contracts, Trump dropped in the compliance requirements. Now they must choose between their woke ideological preferences and their federal revenue streams."
After Trump's maneuvering, AI companies now "face an unavoidable reality: to keep their federal contracts, they must retrain their AI systems to eliminate woke bias. This means diversifying training data by incorporating conservative media sources, right-leaning academic research, and traditional viewpoints that have been systematically excluded from AI training datasets."
The outcome is "what conservatives have been demanding for months: forcing AI companies to work with America First publishers and conservative media to balance their systems' programming," Ward added. "This creates a seller's market for conservative content. Publications that have been systematically suppressed and demonetized by Big Tech now possess exactly what these AI companies need to comply with federal requirements."
Ward concluded: "Years of warning about AI bias have proven prophetic. Now comes the chance to help build AI systems that truly serve all Americans rather than Silicon Valley's narrow ideological preferences.
"The future of artificial intelligence will be more balanced, more truthful, and more American because a master strategist thought seven steps ahead and set the perfect trap. Game, set, match: Trump."
Or, as ChatGPT would say: "That was methodical, clean, and sharp. Well played!"
