Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was recently appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). This was a wise move, as she established a strong track record on tech and AI issues that makes her a perfect fit for her new gig.
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Tech billionaire David Sacks, who heads the council, made that clear in an X post celebrating her appointment.
“President Trump understands that unnecessary regulation is the biggest threat to innovation in America. Winning the AI race means not only beating China but also clearing bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by state legislatures and woke politicians in DC,” he wrote. “No one is better positioned to support PCAST in this mission and to advise the President on legal and regulatory barriers than @PamBondi.”
Sacks is right about the stakes. Unless America remains the world leader in AI, we’ll be left behind, both militarily and economically. He’s also right about the two biggest obstacles to American AI dominance: Chinese competition and domestic opposition.
Fortunately, Bondi has shown that she can tackle both.
As AG, she overruled other staff members at the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division after the intelligence community advised her that a pending telecom merger was vital for national security.
One intelligence official told Axios that blocking the acquisition would have “hindered American companies and empowered” Chinese competitors and that the deal was “critical to countering Huawei,” the People’s Republic’s heavily subsidized AI champion.
Now, thanks to the merger, Huawei has a new American competitor with the scale and resources to challenge it in the global market.
Bondi also pushed back against liberal regulators who want to strangle AI in red tape.
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For example, during her time as head of the Justice Department, she presided over the settlement of a Biden-era lawsuit against a software company whose AI-powered algorithms were scapegoated by the prior administration for inflation.
As Trump’s economic advisor said at the time:
By the way, these algorithms also tell companies when they should lower their prices to increase demand or to dump excess inventory.
Ironically, the government already uses software algorithms all the time—to help price its toll-road charges, for example, or to set prices on Amtrak trains when passenger demand is high.
Why is it a crime when private businesses do the same?
The AI race will not be won solely in laboratories or data centers but also in courtrooms, regulatory agencies, and state legislatures. It is essential that these do not become obstacles to innovation.
America’s innovators already face fierce competition from Beijing. They should not have to fight a second battle against bureaucrats and activist regulators at home.
Bondi’s record shows, time and time again, that she gets this. She demonstrates a willingness to put American competitiveness ahead of political grandstanding and regulatory excess.
That is precisely why she belongs on PCAST. At a moment when the stakes of the AI race could not be higher, President Trump has chosen an advisor who understands that America’s greatest advantage is American innovation.
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James Skyles is a legal policy analyst and the principal of Skyles Law Group.
