Fox Star Blames Policy Trump Championed for Jobs Bloodbath
The economy hemorrhaged jobs last month.
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo has blamed one of President Donald Trump’s key policy initiatives for February’s abysmal job numbers.
The president has sought to promote and deregulate artificial intelligence, which he has called “one of the most important technological revolutions in the history of the world.
Those efforts may be backfiring, though, as the economy shed 92,000 jobs last month in a growing economic nightmare for the president. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.4 percent as the economy lost jobs in three of the last five months.
The president and first lady have repeatedly hosted tech executives at the White House, including his AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Alex Wong/Alex Wong/Getty Images
The numbers were far worse than expected, leading Bartiromo to question whether AI was to blame.
“We’ve been talking about AI efficiencies and that has to be considered here,” she said Friday. “A week ago, we heard from Block, and they’re going to cut 40 percent of their workforce because they have AI tools that are replacing people. Oracle, the cloud unit, says it’s putting a pause on hiring.”
Sign Up for The Swamp Newsletter
By clicking “SUBSCRIBE” you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Trump has brought in tech billionaire David Sacks as his artificial intelligence and crypto czar to help the White House create a legal framework for cryptocurrency and AI, though Trump himself has not always demonstrated a firm grasp of the technology.
Last year, the president signed three executive orders aimed at deregulating AI and fired the former U.S. Copyright Chief after her office published a report that could have prevented AI companies from training their models on copyrighted material without the creator’s permission.
AI is already causing political headaches for the president as he has sought to prevent domestic energy prices from rising thanks to proliferating data centers.
Nathan Howard/Nathan Howard/REUTERS
First Lady Melania Trump also hosted a White House Task Force on AI Education.
“I predict AI will represent the single largest growth category in our nation during the Trump Administration,” she said in a statement ahead of the event.
The technology has also proven to be a political headache for Trump, as his own supporters have balked at the idea of paying more for electricity as data centers threaten to drive up energy costs.
On Wednesday, Trump convened tech company executives to sign a pledge to build their own power plants to support their AI data centers.
The president, however, struggled to keep his eyes open as his scientific advisers spoke about electricity demand and consumer energy prices.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
- Account (completed)
- Payment (completed)
- Confirmation (completed)
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.
- 1Account
- 2Payment
- 3Confirmation
Sign in or create an account
Login dialog
Loading comments…