Venture capitalist David Sacks appeared on episode 270 of the All-In Podcast fresh from a meeting at the White House, where he offered an assessment of President Trump’s approach to artificial intelligence.
Sacks began by pushing back against media portrayals of Trump’s temperament. “When I read in the media, they’re always describing him in a certain way that, you know, he’s yelling at people or he’s moody or something like that,” he said, adding that “that’s never ever been my experience with him. He’s always pleasant to be with. He’s always genial.”
He then turned directly to AI policy, framing Trump’s leadership as advantageous during a pivotal technological shift. “I think on our issues of AI, I think we’re really lucky that he’s the president who’s in the White House when this AI revolution is happening,” he said.
When co-host Jason Calacanis asked what the AI landscape would look like under a Kamala Harris administration, Sacks offered a stark prediction. “We’d have no data centers and they’d be using AI to censor us and they’d be promoting DEI values through AI,” he said, before adding, “That was in the Biden executive order.”
Sacks drew a sharp contrast between Trump’s posture and that of his predecessor, portraying Trump as focused on national competitiveness rather than caution. “President Trump just wants the country to win and be successful and he doesn’t have these like doomer neurosis about it,” he said.
At the same time, he emphasized that this did not mean rejecting oversight entirely. “That’s not to say we don’t support any regulation at all,” he added, arguing that “we should have specific solutions for specific problems as opposed to being cowering in fear over this and just trying to halt all progress.”
He pointed to a specific policy idea as evidence of what he described as Trump’s foresight on infrastructure. “A really good example of that was his idea around data centers where he said over a year ago before data centers even became a hot political topic that we should let our AI companies stand up their own power generation behind the meter,” Sacks said, concluding that “that’s a much better approach than the Bernie Sanders approach of just shutting everything down.”
Sacks wrapped up his remarks on Trump and AI with a statement of confidence in the president’s engagement with the technology sector.
“I think we’re like very fortunate that he’s the president during this critical time and development of this technology,” he said. He continued, “And like I said he’s always been interested in it. He talks to a lot of business leaders.”
Reflecting on those interactions, Sacks added, “I’m always actually very impressed with what he already knows. He listens to like all the top guys in the industry and he synthesizes what he hears. I think he’s very good at that.”
On the topic of Anthropic’s relationship with the White House, Sacks described Trump’s view of the company as nuanced rather than adversarial.
“I thought what he said was very balanced and accurate,” he said. He elaborated, saying that Trump believed “that they were very smart guys. They do have a great product. I’ve certainly acknowledged that.” At the same time, Sacks noted that Trump also recognized ideological differences, explaining that “he also said that they were very left wing, but that was something we could work through.”
Sacks added that tensions had arisen over defense policy, saying Trump believed “they tried to tell the Pentagon what to do, which the Pentagon didn’t like.” Despite those disagreements, Sacks emphasized that Trump’s overarching priority was domestic success in the technology sector.
“But in any event, look, he wants American companies to be successful,” he said. He concluded with a personal observation about Trump’s preferences, stating, “And I think he genuinely really does like high IQ people. He says it all the time and people think he’s joking, but I actually think it’s like one of his core convictions. He just really likes smart people.”
