President Donald Trump has disrupted global trade and combines the market in an effort to bring manufacturing work back to the US some of his top technology allies, however, has supported the efforts that replace human workers with robots.
Elon Musk, a donor and the best advisor for Trump, has heralded the humanoid robot as a future growth area for Tesla’s electricity makers. “You can produce any product,” Musk said about the robot potential capacity during the February interview with the Dubai World Government Summit.
The founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, who Trump last month called “great,” has invested in several sophisticated robotics companies.
Bezos last year poured funds into the figure, a humanoid robot company that said the launch would initially focus on producers and warehouses, among other business applications. “We believe that humanoids will revolutionize various industries,” the company said on its website.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Openai CEO Sam Altman -both of them joined Trump on his new journey to the Middle East -leading their respective companies because each of them invested in the picture. Openai ended his partnership with a figure last year.
“Trump talks about restoring work, and he does not understand the tension between the purpose and automation, which is owned by technology brooches,” Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and former head of economist at the US Department of Manpower, told ABC News. “There is a fundamental conflict between those goals.”
Musk did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comments made through Musk Spacex’s company. Both Bezos, Huang and Altman did not respond to ABC News’s requests.
Speaking at a conference in April, Huang said the emergence of artificial intelligence would trigger a “new type of factory,” which in turn would create employment in construction and steel making, as well as in trade such as plump pipes and electricity.
What’s more, said Huang, AI will trigger a surge in productivity in companies that adopt new technology, allowing them to add employees because companies increase output and income.
“New work will be created, some work will be lost, every job will be changed,” said Huang. “Remember, it is not AI who will take your work. It’s not AI who will destroy your company. This is a company and people who use AI who will take your work. And that’s something to be internalized.”
Even after the setbacks of several levies, consumers faced the highest level effective tariff level since 1934, Yale Budget Lab found earlier this month.
The main reason for tariffs, White House officials say: Remove the factory and rejuvenate work in the manufacturing industry.
Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick said this month in an interview with Fox News that Trump’s vision to deliver the “golden age” for America involving attractive producers to open factories and build in the United States.
“We will have a big job in the field of manufacturing. You have heard the president talking about trillions and trillions of factories that are being built in America,” he said in an interview on May 11.
Responding to ABC News’s comments request, White House spokesman Kush Desai said “The importance of President Trump’s encouragement to revive the American industry beyond creating good salary for daily Americans.”
“The supply chain shock from critical drugs, medical equipment, and semiconductors during the Covid era proves that America cannot rely on foreign imports. Trump’s administration remains committed to controlling manufacturing importantly for our national and economic security with a variety of tariff approaches, tax cuts, rapid deregulation, and domestic energy production,” double.
The US worker section in the field of manufacturing has plummeted for decades. About 8% of US workers are currently holding a position in the field of manufacturing, which marks a sharp decline from about a quarter of all new employees in 1970.
The researchers link the decline in overlapping trends, including manufacturing offshoring to the low wage market abroad and the adoption of labor saving technology in all sectors.
Long before the current progress, automation significantly increases productivity in US factories, which means the same number of workers can produce more items, researchers at Ball State University found In 2015. As a result, they said, the production of stagnation work for decades even when output rose.
“Automation is something we have seen for a long time,” Philipp Kircher, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University, told ABC News.
Meta CEO and Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, Google’s CEO of Google Sundar Pichai and Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk attended the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool via AFP via Getty Images, File
Some Trump’s technology allies have supported companies that seek to automate further manufacturing, heralding new waves that are equipped with artificial intelligence as a substitute for some workers and ointments for lack of labor.
Vicarious Robotics Clothing offers an investment of $ 250 million from a set of supporters that include Bezos CEO, Musk and Meta Mark Zuckerberg – all of which flank Trump during his inauguration.
On a web page Showing robot photos to be used in warehouse settings, Vicarious tells potential clients that the product can “reduce the costs and needs of your people.”
In 2022, Vicarious was acquired by a robotics software company supported by intrinsic alphabet. CEO Alphabet Sundar Pichai also sat with technology leaders in the inauguration of Trump.
Alphabet did not respond to ABC News comments requests. Meta refused to comment.
Yong Suk Lee, a professor of economics and technology at the University of Notre Dame, illustrates the view of automation among Trump technology allies and some of his trade advisors as “opposed.”
The position of technology, said Lee, is likely to win, even if some companies open in the US
“If you want to reshore, are you going to pay the same wages as Vietnam? Maybe not,” Lee said. “Companies are faced with higher labor costs. In this case, they might automate.”
Different views between several technology leaders and White House officials appeared in April, when Musk sharply criticized Peter Navarro’s tariffs, Trump’s senior advisor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro, the word musk, is “really stupid.”
In an interview with CNBC, Navarro responded, saying Musk “Not a Car Manufacturer – He is a car assembler.”
To be sure, analysts say, automation in the field of manufacturing is likely to continue regardless of the support of Trump technology allies, because producers are locked in competitions to reduce costs and increase output. The right prospects for manufacturing work are unclear, they added, because additional technology can add work for those who maintain and optimize the machine.
“Whether the company currently supports the US President or not, someone will make this innovation, maybe a little slower,” Kircher said.
Even at the current level of work, lack of labor makes US producers. About one in every five US factory that failed to produce in full capacity to quote the lack of workers, Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, was discovered in January Study analyze government data.
Agility Robots, a company supported by Amazon that built a humanoid robot, identified the current push for US manufacturing that was rejuvenated as an opportunity for greater adoption of technology.
“Manufacturing companies see a large -magnitude -magnitude movement that includes various industries,” Agility Robots said on its website. “Adding a humanoid robot to your manufacturing facility is a good way to stay at the spearhead of automation.”
Responding to ABC News’s comments request, an Amazon spokesman pointed to a previous comment about a robotics made by a company executive.
“Our goal is to ensure these systems improve safety and productivity. Technology should be used to help us retain and grow our talent through skill development and reimagining how we make our workplace better Certain to always innovate for our customers, “Tye Brady, Chief Technologist at Amazon Robotics, Said in a September Blog post.
Amazon has “created more US jobs in the last decade than other companies,” Amazon said this month.