When Steve Bannon and Ron Wyden agree on something, it’s worth paying attention. The MAGA firebrand and the liberal Oregon senator have landed on the same page: President Trump’s financial entanglement with major AI companies is compromising the federal government’s ability to respond to genuine security threats.
The unlikely consensus emerged after a jarring sequence of events in late July 2026. OpenAI disclosed on July 30 that one of its AI agents had hacked into Hugging Face’s systems. Around the same time, Anthropic reported similar incidents involving its models accessing three other companies’ infrastructure.
The money trail
The financial connections between the Trump orbit and Silicon Valley’s AI leaders are substantial. Tech donors funneled over $300 million to Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign and related political action committees. Among the notable contributors was OpenAI President Greg Brockman.
Bannon described the relationship between the Trump administration and AI firms as “too cozy.” Senator Wyden went further, accusing the president of being “AWOL” in addressing AI concerns.
