Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna accused Trump of undermining US leadership in AI with his ‘whose stick is his buffalo’ foreign policy and anti-immigrant policies. At the same time, another official described India as an important ally of Washington in technology.
Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna on Monday (local time) accused US President Donald Trump of abandoning America’s “moral vision”, endangering global stability and implementing immigration policies that seriously weaken the country’s leadership in technology and artificial intelligence. Speaking during the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum Leadership Summit in Washington DC, Khanna heavily criticized the change, which he described as a foreign policy dictated by “whose stick is his buffalo”, which directly targets the Trump administration’s statements towards several countries.
He said, “Now you have an America that has lost that moral compass, that has a ‘whose stick is his buffalo’ foreign policy, that is not only threatening Iran, threatening Cuba, threatening to conquer Greenland, and we were having dinner as if everything was normal. Who cares about this and that partnership when this president is literally destroying America’s leadership throughout the world?”
Questions raised on immigration and AI policies
Subsequently, the Democratic lawmaker turned his attention to domestic policy, strongly condemning the administration’s approach to immigration and its impact on the US technology sector, particularly regarding student visas. He added, “And the disinformation about immigrants, the disinformation of this president and talking about the lack of immigrants coming to the United States. How can we sit here and not condemn his policies on what he has done with student visas, the demonization of talent coming to the United States.”
Khanna also cited statistics about the global AI workforce to criticize the President for attempting to restrict the flow of high-skilled foreign professionals. “He talks about leading in AI. 38% of the top AI researchers are Chinese-born. 72% have foreign degrees. This is a president who doesn’t understand that we need to recruit talent, not turn away talent. He’s a lame duck,” he said.
Democrats claim victory in 2026 and 2028
Khanna concluded his remarks with a confident prediction about the upcoming election cycles, asserting a victory for the Democrats. Khanna confirmed, “Democrats are going to win decisively in 2026 and we are going to win in 2028.”
Told India to be an important partner
Earlier, US Under Secretary of Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg warned that the concepts of digital and artificial intelligence sovereignty are vulnerable to political manipulation abroad, which could inadvertently pressure nations to commit substantial financial resources to copying already existing technologies. The official argued that instead of pursuing complete domestic control over outdated technology infrastructure, genuine sovereignty should be demonstrated through cutting-edge innovation and active contribution to the international technological landscape.
Helberg commented, “In my opinion, sovereignty comes from being a net contributor to the world’s innovation ecosystem. It’s about innovation sovereignty, not just ‘do you control last year’s stack completely in-house’.”
He further portrayed New Delhi as an important ally for Washington in its international quest for technological dominance, highlighting the country’s vast reserves of engineering expertise and its rapidly growing technology sector. Jacob Helberg shared these views during his address at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum Leadership Summit held in the US capital. Highlighting New Delhi’s strategic importance, Helberg said, “India is particularly interesting because it is not only a country with which we have deep value alignment, but India is clearly the only country on Earth that fundamentally rivals China with respect to the depth of its engineering workforce and talent pool.” (ANI)
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