This piece originally appeared in Compact.
Earlier this month, President Trump became the most pro-nuclear executive our nation has seen in over half a century when he signed four separate executive orders dedicated to quadrupling American nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Trump’s actions have already drawn comparisons to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose 1953 “Atoms for Peace” speech initiated America’s quest to master nuclear technology for civilian purposes. While Eisenhower sought to birth the nuclear power industry, Trump seeks to resurrect it. “The United States originally pioneered nuclear energy technology during a time of great peril,” reads one order. “We now face a new set of challenges, including a global race to dominate in artificial intelligence, a growing need for energy independence, and access to uninterruptible power supplies for national security.”
The comparison runs deeper than their support for nuclear power. Like Eisenhower, Trump sees America in a dead heat race for technological superiority with a global competitor. Whether or not he can succeed in massively expanding the American energy supply may dictate whether or not America can stay ahead of China in the race for AI dominance. Although there is bipartisan recognition of this challenge, Trump’s task may prove steeper than his predecessor’s, in large part due to the obstacles put in front of him by his own party and parts of his own administration.
Eisenhower rode to the White House after two decades of New Deal rule, which saw the federal government explode in scale and scope. To balance the budget, he decided, the government would beat a strategic retreat. Eisenhower calculated that he could pull off this gambit while keeping up the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
