Top Trump Official Responds to Rural Americans’ Concerns About AI

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell

•   September 17, 2026

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the issue of artificial intelligence must be approached with intentionality, as many of the rural Americans she talks to have serious concerns about the rapidly developing technology.

“I do trust the president. I do believe that if we don’t stay focused on winning the AI race that the future of the American experiment is very dim, that we will be overtaken by China or other countries,” she told the Daily Signal in an interview. “However, I also understand and listen.”

Rollins makes a point of talking to real farmers to understand what issues matter to them, she said.

“I’m in rural America every day,” she said. “Whether it’s data centers or the fear of AI, artificial intelligence, and what that could mean for the great American story and the great American dream, it is frightening, and we have to be extremely intentional on how we approach it,” she said.

The agriculture secretary and former director of the Domestic Policy Council under the first Trump administration, emphasized that she trusts the president’s leadership.

“I believe in that team with everything I have,” she said, “and believe we will come out on the right side of all of this because of that leadership.”

President Donald Trump has called concerns over AI a “hoax,” saying the “only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

Attorney General Todd Blanche sang a similar tune at a press conference Tuesday, saying fears about artificial intelligence “should not be breaking news.” He said the timing is “nothing but an effort to influence the midterms.”

Fears about the future of AI have intensified after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, saying, “We’re on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios where, by the end of next year, things could be out of control already.” Another Anthropic employee, Evan Hubinger, chimed in, “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!”

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said, “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”

Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell | White House Correspondent

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell is the White House correspondent for the Daily Signal.


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