Ron DeSantis carves out a distinct GOP lane on AI: From the Politics Desk
Welcome to the online version of From the political officea daily newsletter bringing you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, we explore how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stands out from other leading Republicans on AI, as polls reflect public concern about the technology. Plus, Jonathan Allen dives into the Trump administration’s new “war on fraud.”
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—Adam Wollner
Ron DeSantis Charts a Separate GOP Path on AI
By Matt Dixon and Henry J. Gomez
The governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis is not convinced by the massive expansion of AI. And this conviction could allow him to regain national political relevance.
The Republican governor is appealing to a growing number of people who fear that rapid development of AI, fueled in part by taxpayer dollars, could eliminate jobs, raise energy costs and harm the environment. DeSantis’ positions stand in direct contrast to the president’s embrace of the AI industry. Donald Trump and the two potential candidates most likely to obtain his support in the 2028 presidential election: the vice president J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We don’t want to see them build a huge data center and then send you the bill,” DeSantis said this month when asked about AI companies. “Data centers consume the equivalent of a city of half a million inhabitants. We are very committed to consumer protection.”
For DeSantis, the embrace of AI skepticism is rooted in both personal policy preference and a political calculus focused on 2028 as the term-limited governor charts his political future, according to eight sources, most of whom worked in his administration or for his past campaigns at the national and state levels.
“It’s a no-brainer, right? You have JD Vance and Marco Rubio, the two top contenders for 2028 in the pro-AI path,” said a longtime DeSantis adviser. “The infrastructure is lining up behind JD and, to some extent, Marco. So the challenge for DeSantis is to stay relevant.”
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What the polls say about AI: A Gallup poll found that 12% of Americans now say they use AI on a daily basis at work, Adam Noboa Remarks. Although this figure seems modest, it represents a three-fold increase in just over a year, compared to 4% in mid-2024.
According to a Gallup poll, AI use among white-collar workers is more pronounced than among blue-collar workers, but pessimism about AI’s impact on the job market crosses the usual line when it comes to social and cultural issues.
An Economist/YouGov poll found that 63% of U.S. adults believe advances in AI will lead to fewer jobs overall. There were few differences of opinion based on education level: 67% of university graduates and 61% of non-graduates shared this concern.
This pessimism actually seems greater than concerns about computers in the workplace at the turn of the century. In 1999, an NPR/Kaiser/Harvard Technology survey found that 32 percent thought computers would lead to fewer jobs, while 43 percent thought they would lead to an increase, and 23 percent thought computers would make no difference.
This means that today’s anxiety about AI is almost twice as high as the computer anxiety of the late 1990s, as overall attitudes toward AI appear to resemble the mix of skepticism and curiosity seen in the early days of the Internet.
Read more from Adam →
Three-tier brawl in Minnesota opens Trump’s ‘war on fraud’
Analysis by Jonathan Allen
When the vice president J.D. Vance announced yesterday that the Trump administration would withhold a whopping $259 million in Medicaid reimbursements from Minnesota, he said he was “pretty confident” that federal officials have the legal authority to withhold the money.
He also announced his presence as the new fraud czar in the White House with authority.
At a 30,000-foot level, the move is the latest in the Trump administration’s broader argument that the executive branch has the power to seize — or withhold — money appropriated by Congress.
President Donald Trump was impeached in 2019 after withholding aid to Ukraine while trying to find that country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyto open an investigation into Trump’s main presidential rival, the Democrat Joe Biden.
During his second term, Trump has shown no signs of slowing his willingness to use his own discretion to determine when and how to spend legally appropriated money. Of course, Congress holds the primary power over the nation’s purse strings.
But that didn’t stop Trump from freezing money for grants, social programs and a tunnel project for New York and New Jersey — as well as pushing to eliminate entire agencies established by Congress. Sometimes the courts intervened to overturn his orders.
From 15,000 feet above sea level, Democrats say the president is abusing his power — and exceeding legal limits — to circumvent Congress and punish his political opponents.
The Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz accused the federal government of directing “targeted retaliation against a state the president doesn’t like.”
Vance and other administration officials say they are trying to save taxpayers from fraudulent Medicaid payments in the state.
At the ground level, the temporary pause in funding is about half the amount the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid threatened to withhold in a January letter to Minnesota.
Legal authority, according to CMS, arises from federal regulations that require states to submit, maintain, and, at the direction of the agency, readjust their anti-fraud plans under the federal-state program.
The Supreme Court has long shown deference to federal regulations in interpreting the law. But that began to change in 2024, and it will be interesting to see whether CMS’s freeze of Minnesota’s Medicaid reimbursements ends up in a courtroom and whether anti-fraud regulations supersede Congressional approval of funding.
🗞️ Other news of the day
- 🎙️ Split screen: In his State of the Union address, Trump said the United States had been in a “turnaround for ages,” while peppering his speech with grim reminders of crimes and tragedies. Pierre Nicolas writing. Read more →
- 🎤 Clinton Deposition: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the House Oversight Committee that she has no new information about Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, criticizing Republicans’ handling of their investigations into the recently convicted sex offender. Read more →
- 🇮🇷 Iran Update: The United States and Iran met in Geneva for high-stakes nuclear negotiations, as Trump pressures Tehran by threatening military action. Read more →
- 🤝We meet again: Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani said he had a “productive” meeting at the White House with Trump, saying he was eager to build more housing” in the city.
- 🗣️ We need to talk: Top Senate Republicans are skeptical about using a “filibuster” to pass the SAVE America Act, despite increased pressure from the right. Read more →
- 🗺️ Ripple effects of redistricting: The new congressional map Texas passed last year pits the newest Democrat in Congress against one of his longest-serving colleagues in next week’s primary. Read more →
- ⬅️The purge: The FBI, under the direction of Director Kash Patelhas fired at least a half-dozen agents linked to the search of Trump’s Florida home in 2022. Read more →
- 🏒 Outside the ice rink: Hilaire Chevalierthe captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team, said she thought Trump’s joke about being forced to invite his team to the White House or face impeachment was “in bad taste.” Read more →
That’s all that’s coming from the politburo for now. Today’s newsletter was written by Adam Wollner.
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