President Donald Trump’s approval rating on AI was underwater in polls conducted before several artificial intelligence (AI) researchers warned that the rapidly developing technology could pose catastrophic risks to humanity in the coming years. The issue of AI safety catapulted to the forefront of American political discourse over the past few days after Jacob Coxon, a former AI researcher for Anthropic and OpenAI, sounded the alarm last week, warning that the industry is not acting responsibly. He said there will soon be “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.” The warning prompted calls from legislators, AI experts and industry leaders to pace AI development to mitigate the risk it poses to humanity.
As the president of the United States, Trump would likely play a major role in any government efforts to address those concerns but has so far downplayed the risk. But as the House of Representatives convenes this week, Congress faces growing calls for AI regulation as the issue gains new salience. It could become a major issue for voters heading into the 2026 midterms and could hang over candidates plotting potential 2028 presidential runs.
How Trump responds could have major political implications. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday that the “only control or ‘guardrails’” needed “is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” “The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ - and we will continue to do so!
We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies,” Trump wrote. He said that there is a “SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.” “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so.
Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE,” Trump wrote. A new poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst conducted last month found that many Americans are unhappy with Trump’s performance on AI issues. Only 23 percent said they believe he has handled AI “very well” or “somewhat well,” while 57 percent said he has handled it “not too well” or “not well at all.” An additional 20 percent were undecided.
The poll surveyed 1,000 respondents from August 21 to 26, 2026—before the latest round of AI safety warnings—and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Broken down by party, only 5 percent of Democrats and 7 percent of independents said they believe he has handled the issue well. Even among Republicans, only 51 percent said they believed he has handled it well, while 24 percent rated his performance as “not well,” the poll found.
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