from the land-of-make-believe dept

Fri, Oct 30th 2026 05:22am - Karl Bode

Ideally, I think it makes sense to open up the U.S. market to Chinese goods (AI, EVs, robots), but have functional and well-funded regulators that police all labor, competition, environmental, privacy, national security, and consumer rights abuses. But big U.S. companies don’t much like that because it would boost competition and regulatory accountability, eroding quarterly revenues.

So instead we get corruption-fueled protectionism run by a bunch of racist, and incompetent clowns who gutted most of our federal regulators, then saddled them with an elaborate new policy ask that’s impossible to implement, even if the admin were competent.

Which it isn’t.

For example, I recommend this recent Verge piece about the Trump effort to ban Chinese drones, which notes how it has been trivial for Chinese companies to trick the administration and bypass the ban simply by renting a strip mall office, tweaking a few names, and pretending their equipment is produced domestically. Curiously, officials who don’t believe in government can’t govern. Fancy that.

Another report this week by Ars Technica indicates that U.S. chip giant Intel has also been so disoriented and confused they felt it necessary to get a waiver from the Trump administration’s “foreign robot ban” because executives didn’t really understand what is or isn’t covered:

“Intel’s waiver request stated that it was “unclear” whether its robotic vehicles even qualify as robots covered by the FCC ban but said it sought relief just in case. The tech company also received approval to “make certain hardware, software, and firmware changes” that would help ensure the continued operation and maintenance of the robotic vehicles.”

So it’s a foreign robot ban, unless we need foreign robots. In which case big U.S. companies have to spend a bunch of time and money kissing the Trump administration’s ass to ensure they have what they need to function. It’s far from the “free market” dogma the administration rose to power on. It’s a weird and racist autocratic nanny state operated by the dimmest people imaginable.

A recent study by the International Data Corporation predicts that the foreign robot ban could reduce US humanoid robot revenues by 58 percent over expected baseline. China is still expected to dominate the market with most of its cheaper, better gear avoiding the U.S. for the EU. And much like the FCC “drone ban,” a big impact will be less tech product availability and higher prices overall for U.S. consumers.

Not content with screwing up the drone, robot, vacuum, and lawnmower sectors, the Trump FCC last week announced it would also soon implement a ban on “foreign surveillance chips.” You’re to ignore that the FCC can’t really define what this means. And doesn’t really want to answer any serious questions about how this will be implemented in a country already dominated by Chinese tech.

The Trump administration makes an endless stink about protecting U.S. cybersecurity defenses by taking aim at Chinese-made tech. But with its other hand it has devastated U.S. cybersecurity agencies with policies that are indistinguishable from a foreign attack, make it easier for foreign governments to surveil U.S. citizens at scale (the refusal to pass real privacy laws or regulate data brokers, for example), and function largely as a way for the administration to line its own pockets.

Again, protectionism is bad. But what we have here isn’t really even that. There’s zero real indication that the Trump administration has any idea what it’s doing. There’s simply no reality in which the Trump administration can implement or enforce any of this. And because our consolidated corporate press sucks, most coverage simply refuses to make this clear to anybody.

Outlets like Reuters, for example, inform the public that the Trump administration is “aiming to safeguard the U.S. artificial intelligence supply chain from Chinese threats.” Others will parrot claims that the Trump administration is “dedicated to creating safety guardrails for AI.” But there’s no real evidence that’s true or that the administration is capable of doing literally any of that.

This sort of pseudo-journalism will be all the rage in the new year as the Trump administration sets its sights on a likely ban of foreign AI models (to lock in the dominance of U.S. giants that dutifully kiss the authoritarian ring). Which is to say: expect this sort of normalization and sanewashing to increase despite zero evidence that any of this is working or makes any coherent sense.

Filed Under: china, drones, fcc, incompetence, lawmowers, performance, protectionism, racism, robots, vacuums