Establishment elites have begun seeding the narrative that Vice President JD Vance and the GOP are locked in an internecine battle over artificial intelligence, one that could derail Vance’s ascent as the heir apparent to carry President Donald Trump’s MAGA mantle forward. “Vance Is Handcuffed: The Tech Fight Bedeviling 2028 Republicans,” declared a recent Politico headline. “How an AI Bust Could Blow Up the 2028 Race,” warned another. The increasing emphasis on AI as a potential lightning rod election issue is not without merit. A new NBC poll finds that just 26 percent of Americans hold a positive view of artificial intelligence, crystallizing a high-stakes electoral reality: AI now touches virtually every kitchen-table concern voters hold. As I explain in my new book, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, energy prices, jobs, education, child safety, privacy, and national security are all undergoing seismic shifts as AI rapidly rewires daily life.
Put another way, AI is fast becoming the populist prism through which voters will judge which leaders are truly fighting for them. That is good news for Vice President JD Vance and the broad MAGA coalition that supports him. The Hillbilly Elegy author’s background as both a working class populist and former Silicon Valley investor uniquely positions him to help lead conservatives through the AI revolution’s Code Red moment precisely because Vance understands the impulses of the Big Tech elites building the machine, as well as the working class Americans who worry that they and their children could be steamrolled by it.
