DOMINANT ANGLE
Brasília sees Trump's move as confirmation that the technological rivalry with China takes precedence over any security concerns, with the White House transforming a debate on the dangers of AI into an argument for geopolitical supremacy.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Trump writes on Truth Social that the only safeguard for AI is "a STRONG AND SMART president (with a high IQ!)"
- 02
Trump compares AI warnings to climate change and calls both a "joke" ("farce")
- 03
Dario Amodei (Anthropic), backed by Sam Altman and Elon Musk, called on Saturday, September 12, to slow down the development of advanced models
ANALYSIS
Brasília, September 15, 2026. The Brazilian press dedicated several articles, between Sunday, September 13, and Monday, September 14, to Donald Trump's messages downplaying the warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence. On Truth Social, the American president wrote that the only "safeguard" AI needs is "a STRONG AND INTELLIGENT president (with a high IQ!)", according to the quote reported by the Folha de S.Paulo. He claimed that Washington already has "tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power" over these companies and denounced a "sick conspiracy" against AI and data centers, which, he said, only China would benefit from.
G1 Globo Mundo reported that Trump compared concerns about AI to climate change predictions, calling both a "farce"; the media explicitly corrected this by recalling that global warming is a "real and widely recognized phenomenon by the scientific community". The president also called critics "very negative forces" that raise scenarios that "will not happen", during a statement from his golf course in Ireland.
The Jornal de Brasília and Veja placed these statements in the wake of the call to slow down launched on Saturday, September 12, by Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, endorsed by Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Elon Musk. Trump acknowledged that "rules may be necessary" but refused any pause: "whoever wins AI, wins everything", he repeated, while claiming that the United States is ahead of China. The issue is expected to be on the agenda of a meeting scheduled for this month with Xi Jinping, according to the Jornal de Brasília, which also noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson defended "some barriers" while judging that a loss of leadership to China would threaten national security, while Democrat Hakeem Jeffries called for faster action from Congress to slow down AI.
The Brazilian press finally noted that AI leaders are funding the midterm campaign through super PACs like Elon Musk's America PAC, which has already been credited with millions of dollars in expenses in favor of Republican candidates.
SOURCES (4)
- G1 Globo MundoMEDIUM
- Jornal de BrasíliaMEDIUM
- VejaMEDIUM
