David Sacks’ big Iran warning gets big time ignored
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Surprisingly, artificial intelligence does not take the highest political priority during a war — much less an ill-conceived war with Iran that’s paralyzed the energy markets, destabilized America’s relationships with the Middle East and Europe, and alienated members of President Donald Trump’s diehard MAGA coalition. (Just yesterday, Joe Kent, election denier and onetime Trump-endorsed congressional candidate, announced that he was stepping down as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of the Iran war.) But the effect it’ll have on the tech and AI industry — and industry in general — is so dire that David Sacks, billionaire and the AI and crypto czar shaping the Trump administration’s tech policies, did something politically risky: He publicly suggested that Donald Trump find some way to get out of the Iran war.
Last Friday on his podcast All In, Sacks and his crew laid out several alarmingly realistic scenarios based on recent developments: Iran indicated it was willing to attack oil and gas depots in neighboring countries, destroy desalination plants crucial for supplying water to over 100 million people (which Sacks described as a “humanitarian crisis” that would render the Middle East uninhabitable), and bombard Israel until it either relented or decided to use a nuclear weapon. The Democrats would probably win the midterms. But also, and arguably worse, World War III was possible. “This would be a really good time to take stock of where we are and try, I think, to seek an off-ramp,” he told his co-hosts. “And look, if escalation doesn’t lead anywhere good, then you have to think about, well, how do you de-escalate? And de-escalation, I think, involves reaching some sort of ceasefire agreement or some sort of negotiated settlement with Iran.”
Whatever advice Sacks may have tried to offer has fallen on deaf ears. On top of the US military’s continued assault on Iranian oil infrastructure, over the past few days, Trump said he was open to putting US troops on the ground in Iran, said that NATO countries hesitant to support him were making a “foolish” decision, and just because, added that he was thinking of invading Cuba next. Trump also told reporters this week that Sacks had not spoken to him about the war, either. Whether that’s true or not, Trump often defaults to this explanation when trying to diminish a critic. And the sources I speak to around the White House — especially the ones familiar with Trump’s MO — are pessimistic that Sacks will have any shot at getting the president to listen to him.
