President-elect Donald Trump’s recent nominations and Cabinet appointments point to four years of deregulation in the tech industry and the mighty potential for competitive growth in the industry and around the world, as technology executives predict.
Trump has recently made several choices, both for existing positions, such as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and creating recent ones for his term, such as “artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar.”
“There appears to be much more cohesion and support within his camp in supporting a number of geopolitical, technological and innovation issues that have lost importance during his first term,” said software founder Yashin Manraj.
Trump has elected FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to become the agency’s next president, replacing Lina Khan, who fought against Big Tech’s overreach during her tenure. He is expected to be joined by antitrust specialist Mark Meador, who served in his previous position. Together, they will likely continue to scrutinize Big Tech agencies, but through the lens of the “censorship” issue that was a major talking point for Republicans during the election.
Earlier this month, Trump named cryptocurrency advocate and former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins as his running mate for SEC chairman and named former PayPal executive David Sacks to a recent role as “artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar.” She reported to PBS.
The move comes as Trump’s view on digital currencies evolves. During his first presidency, Trump called it “highly volatile and air-based,” but has since changed his tone. In September he launched a recent cryptocurrency trading venturecalled World Liberty Financial and said during his 2024 campaign that his goal was to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.”
On Monday, Trump met with the CEO of Japanese investment firm SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, who made the announcement an investment worth USD 100 billion in US projects during Trump’s term, many of which will focus on artificial intelligence.
The nominees set the tone
These nominees and tech industry connections lean toward “traditional Republican deregulatory instincts,” said Dev Nag, founder and CEO of Bay Area-based artificial intelligence automation company QueryPal.
It’s a shift toward what Nag calls “technopragmatic nationalism,” or a combination of Republican deregulatory instincts with an industrial policy that focuses on maintaining U.S. status in the global technology economy.
Ferguson’s appointment to the FTC will likely result in policies that continue to enable vast U.S. technology companies to thrive while addressing specific competition concerns.
We’re also likely to see tougher barriers to foreign technology competitors, especially China, Nag said.
Manraj, founder and CEO of Eagle Point, Oregon-based Pvotal Technologies, also sees Trump’s appointments as an attempt to focus on growing local tech economies rather than global ones.
“These policies will weaken the tech industry in the European Union and many emerging countries that had hoped that tighter regulation under Harris would prevent further brain drain and promote [foreign direct investment] in their startup ecosystems,” Manraj said.
There has been significant technological progress under President Joe Biden, but increased technology regulations have caused some “confusion and hesitation” in the industry, Manraj said.
“Based on the track record of these appointments, we will likely see a significant rollback of AI safeguards implemented during the Biden administration and their replacement with a framework that emphasizes rapid deployment and commercialization,” Nag said.
SoftBank’s investment is a sign that the industry feels ready for growth and that investment dollars will flow more frequently under Trump, Manraj said.
Differences from Trump’s first term
The appointments and technology-industry relationships Trump has developed in his second term appear to make him more prepared to support technology innovation and economic growth than he was in his first term, Manraj said.
Manraj said he was relying on a “new generation of technocrats” to make changes, rather than cabinet advisers who have been politically guided since his first term.
“The cryptocurrency world is responding positively to this, with many projects that have stalled for years finally generating employment and growth locally in the U.S.,” Manraj said.
Nag predicted several potential technological advances we could see during Trump’s second term, including an easing of artificial intelligence restrictions coupled with bulky investment in technology. This could allow AI to integrate more quickly across many industries and infrastructures than it would under Kamala Harris.
Nag also noted Trump’s shift in attitude toward cryptocurrencies, saying a friendlier regulatory environment for digital currencies could position the U.S. as a global leader in this space. Under looser regulations, we may also see more progress in semiconductor manufacturing and computing capabilities.
But Nag said all these improvements raise essential management issues. Advances in artificial intelligence that advance this far without a security framework may create problems in the future that we cannot recover from.
“A key challenge for this administration will be maintaining the delicate balance between supporting rapid innovation and ensuring long-term technological resilience,” he said.
