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How Trump's AI Policy Promotes Ethnonationalism

Justin Hendrix / Jan 18, 2026

Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.

In a forthcoming paper, George Washington University Law School scholar Spencer Overton argues that the Trump administration's AI policy is consistent with its broader efforts to advance ethnonationalism. By eliminating policies intended to ensure safeguards against algorithmic bias—and recasting work on such problems as ideological threats to innovation—Trump's policies embed exclusion into the technological infrastructure of the future. As a growing body of research suggests, when AI systems operate without regulation, they default to dominant patterns that reproduce racial inequality and suppress cultural pluralism.

President Donald Trump delivers remarks to the Detroit Economic Club, Tuesday, January 13, 2026, at the Motor City Casino Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok)

A transcript of this discussion is forthcoming.

Authors

Justin Hendrix
Justin Hendrix is CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit media venture concerned with the intersection of technology and democracy. Previously, he was Executive Director of NYC Media Lab. He spent over a decade at The Economist in roles including Vice President of Business Development & In...

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