Trump Says He Will Create an 'AI Force' and Appoint an AI Tsar

The US president said he is standing up an 'AI Force' and naming an artificial intelligence tsar, and that his administration will not hinder the technology's growth. He also claimed AI could reach 25% of US GDP.

President Donald Trump said the United States will form an "AI Force" and appoint an artificial intelligence tsar, and that his administration "will not in any way hinder or stifle the growth" of the technology.

What was announced

The announcement pairs a new organisational unit with a single named official to oversee it. Neither the BBC nor TechCrunch reported a budget, a founding date, a reporting line, or who is in the running for the tsar's job.

Trump also said AI could eventually account for 25% of US GDP. No basis for that figure was given. For scale, it would put a technology sector barely a decade into commercial deployment at roughly a quarter of the world's largest economy.

In the same remarks he said it was time to rebrand AI under a new name, and claimed — without evidence, TechCrunch reported — that public backlash against the technology is a Democratic hoax.

Why it reaches Addis

US federal posture on AI sets the terms under which models, chips and cloud capacity are exported, and Ethiopian firms building on foreign models are downstream of those terms whether or not they ever deal with Washington. A stated policy of not slowing development is, in the near term, a signal about supply rather than about safety.

It is a signal, though, not a rule. Nothing announced here changes an export licence or a service agreement on its own.

Open

What the "AI Force" actually does is unstated — whether it is a procurement body, a regulator, a military unit, or a branding exercise. There is no published timeline, no appointee, and no explanation of the 25% GDP claim.

Sources: TechCrunch, 19 September 2026, BBC News, 20 September 2026, Venture Capital, 20 September 2026