9 views 3 mins 0 comments

Trump Names Top Silicon Valley Conservative to Oversee Crypto and A.I. in Transition Team

In Citizen
January 19, 2025

Transitioning to the

Transition of power

Transition of power

Prom

Trump has appointed David Sacks, a prominent venture capitalist and podcast host, to supervise the development of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. Sacks has expressed support for less strict regulation of these new technologies.

Written by Theodore Schleifer

For the past few years, Theodore Schleifer has been covering the political endeavors of David Sacks in his writing.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has appointed a well-known conservative figure from Silicon Valley to assist in shaping American tech policy.

The president-elect announced on social media that David Sacks, a venture capitalist and former executive at PayPal who started a popular podcast, will be appointed as the "White House A.I. and Crypto Czar." Sacks is known to be a close friend of Elon Musk and has been actively encouraging Musk to become more involved in Republican politics over the past year.

This new position solidifies the belief that the Trump administration plans to be less strict with regulating technology, especially cryptocurrencies. These digital assets have increased in value since Trump’s election, and Trump himself has a personal interest in them. The person being considered for this role, Mr. Sacks, is the head of a venture capital firm and advocates for a more lenient approach towards both cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.

Mr. Sacks successfully advocated for a consolidated approach within the Trump transition team. Rather than having multiple individuals oversee artificial intelligence and crypto separately, Mr. Sacks was selected to oversee both areas in a combined role.

"David has been appointed to lead the development of policies in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency for the Administration, which are seen as crucial for America’s future competitiveness," stated Mr. Trump during a Thursday evening announcement. "David’s main goal will be to ensure that America becomes the top global authority in both of these fields."

According to his firm, Mr. Sacks does not work full time. He informed friends that he preferred not to have a formal role as it would mean giving up his current job managing his venture capital fund. The New York Times had reported on this previously. Just this week, Mr. Sacks announced a new round of start-up funding that was led by his firm.

We are experiencing difficulties in accessing the content of the article.

Kindly activate JavaScript in your browser’s settings.

We appreciate your understanding as we confirm your access. If you are using Reader mode, please sign out and log in to your Times account, or consider subscribing to access all of The Times content.

We appreciate your understanding as we confirm access.

Have you already signed up for a subscription? Please log in

Interested in having access to all of The Times content? Subscribe now

Prom

Index of Pages

Navigation for Site Information