President Trump’s AI Leadership is winning support, allies, and maybe the Nobel Peace Prize

This article was authored by Cole Salvador

This week, President Trump took major steps toward agreements with China on artificial intelligence (AI) guardrails. According to President Trump, he and President Xi Jinping “talked about possibly working together for guardrails” on AI, including in biological, nuclear, cyber, and other areas.

President Trump's initiative arrives at a moment of broader moral urgency. Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, is speculated to focus on AI and international peace, continuing a tradition of papal social teaching stretching back to Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum in 1891. It is expected to be released by the end of this month. Just yesterday, the Holy Father warned at Rome's Sapienza University that investments in AI and high-tech weaponry are fueling a "spiral of annihilation," and called for expanded oversight of AI used in military contexts.

The guardrails President Trump is calling for would protect the US from the emerging national security risks posed by AI and are overwhelmingly popular among Americans. Recent polling finds that 77 percent of those surveyed support President Trump forging a deal with China “making sure terrorists can’t use AI to launch cyberattacks or build biological weapons.” Only 9 percent oppose it.

According to Treasury Secretary Bessent, initial agreements between the U.S. and China could aim to “set up a protocol in terms of how do we go forward with best practices for AI to make sure nonstate actors don’t get a hold of these models.” This is a crucial focus as cyber, biological weapons, and other new AI capabilities emerge and risk proliferating to terrorists and other rogue actors. AFPI has written about the importance of countering these threats.

This same poll also found that 83 percent of those polled are concerned that “advanced AI systems could be exploited by foreign adversaries, terrorists, criminals, or hostile governments to cause serious harm to Americans.” It also finds overwhelming support for more government action to ensure the most advanced AI is secure.

President Trump is absolutely correct to bring China to the table to stop any advanced AI development abroad that could threaten Americans’ safety. These agreements can also help the US ensure that, as Pope Leo XIV has said, “builders of [AI]... develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life,” even abroad.

It was wise to invite President Xi to visit Washington in September, where he and President Trump can follow up on the agreements. By September, through continued bilateral working talks led by Secretary Bessent and other administration leaders, the US should aim to reach implementable agreements on managing proliferation and setting standards for acceptable use.

A successful deal with China in these areas may not be easy. China has not historically been a trusted competitor and has shown a willingness to compete illegitimately in AI. Further, agreements that impose undue burdens on US companies could threaten innovation.

But these problems have solutions. The US can ensure adherence to agreements without blind trust through technical means of verification. The US and China could also agree to confront AI’s national security challenges in a way that promotes innovation.

Overall, collaboration with China on AI is a policymaking innovation characteristic of President Trump’s insight. Should he continue to forge strong agreements with China on AI that prioritize safety and the American people, he will undoubtedly have earned—for a second time—the Nobel Peace Prize.

These steps toward AI agreements with China might be why President Trump is now the most likely person to win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to prediction markets. Keeping powerful AI capabilities out of the hands of terrorists and our adversaries is a no-brainer. President Trump will continue to deliver for the American people with American First diplomacy—and might win the Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

Cole Salvador serves as a fellow for AI and Emerging Technology at the America First Policy Institute.