Donald Trump, the day after his inauguration, announced this Tuesday a giant private investment in artificial intelligence. The Republican president touted a project called “Stargate” to the press, promising investments of “at least $500 billion” in technological infrastructure in the United States. It should generate “almost immediately more than 100,000 jobs,” assured the billionaire, who always liked to line up spectacular figures.
Stargate brings together the “cloud” (remote computing) specialist Oracle, the Japanese investment company SoftBank, and the generative AI start-up OpenAI, whose leaders were present at the White House. Each in turn, the three bosses thanked Donald Trump. “We couldn’t have done this without you,” said Masayoshi Son (SoftBank). He praised the promise made the day before by the 78-year-old president, that of bringing America “into a golden age”.
“Remove more than 1,000 people”
In the same vein, Donald Trump had made another commitment, much darker, that of avenging the “betrayal” of which he judges that the United States was the victim after the election in 2020 of Democrat Joe Biden. The Republican president declared overnight that he had ordered his team to “actively identify and remove more than 1,000 people appointed by the previous administration.” People “who are not aligned with our vision to make America great again,” he said on his Truth Social platform.
He assured that four people had already been “fired” – including former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Mark Milley, one of his pet peeves, removed from an advisory role. Chef José Andrés, recently decorated by Joe Biden for his humanitarian actions, was also targeted, but he assured that his function in a commission devoted, among other things, to food was over in any case. Admiral Linda Fagan, appointed by the former Democratic president to head the US Coast Guard and the first woman to head one of the six branches of the army, was also fired.
-Capitol attackers: “their sentences were ridiculous and excessive”
The new administration also withdrew the police protection enjoyed by John Bolton, former White House National Security Advisor during the Republican’s first term, who became a fierce critic. Asked about this, Donald Trump said that his former advisor was a “stupid” man and that this protection should not be guaranteed for life.
He also defended his decision to pardon 1,500 people convicted of attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to prevent Joe Biden from coming to power, or to commute their sentences for some. Among the beneficiaries of this gesture of clemency are the leaders of two far-right militias, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. “Their sentences were ridiculous and excessive,” said Donald Trump, who just before this attack had heated up his supporters with a speech about a “rigged” election – a false assertion that he maintains.
