The Message Box

The Message Box

Are Dems Missing the Moment on A.I.?

Plus a discussion of electability, whether climate change is a winning issue, and the

Dan Pfeiffer's avatar
Dan Pfeiffer
Dec 13, 2025
∙ Paid

Welcome to this week’s mailbag. I want to apologize again for last week’s mishap. There were some technical difficulties compounded by human error. I’ll do my best to prevent that from happening again.

I may also have oversold the finger injury. People responded as if I had lost a portion of my finger. It wasn’t that bad. The problem was that it was on the tip of my finger, and the band-aid made it challenging to type coherently.

I am fully recovered and back in the saddle with all ten fingers this week.

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Robby Earle

Do you think Trump’s executive order re AI moves the needle much one way or the other?

Answer

I’m really glad you asked this question. I’ve been noodling around on a longer post about the politics of artificial intelligence for a while now but haven’t been able to finish it. While I do plan to come back to it, the executive order referenced here is a good reason to talk about my broader concerns about how Democrats are mostly MIA on what may be the most important political, technological, economic, and cultural issue of our time.

For those who haven’t been following this closely: on Thursday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at stopping states from regulating A.I. The order directs the Department of Justice to sue states that pass laws that “do not support the United States’ global A.I. dominance.” This threatens a wide range of state laws designed to protect consumers from the risks posed by A.I.

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