The future of American security hangs on a single technological battleground, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent isn’t mincing words about what’s at stake.

“Beating China, there is no day after tomorrow if China wins at this,” Bessent declared during a Breitbart News policy discussion on the economy. “Like everything, a trillion-and-a-half-dollar defense budget, the Iron Dome. If they were to pull ahead of us on AI, then nothing else matters.”

The blunt assessment from one of President Trump’s top cabinet officials underscores the administration’s view that artificial intelligence represents an existential competition with America’s chief global adversary. Bessent made clear that maintaining U.S. dominance in AI isn’t just an economic priority; it’s a matter of national survival.

But the secretary also delivered a pointed rebuke to the very tech companies leading America’s AI charge, giving them what he called a “D-minus” for their failures to work with local communities affected by massive data center construction projects sweeping the nation.

“Whether it’s the data center companies themselves, the big incumbent hyperscalers, or the large language labs like Anthropic, OpenAI, they have done a horrendous job reaching out to communities,” Bessent said. “It was just kind of let the chips fall where they may, and I don’t blame people for having a backlash.”

The former professor turned treasury chief didn’t hold back on his assessment. “Someone asked me the other day, and I said I used to be a professor and I was known as a tough grader, but it’s easy to give these guys a D-minus,” he continued. “They haven’t failed because they’re getting them built, but they have taken their credibility to the edge, and they need to come back.”

Bessent also raised concerns about foreign interference in local opposition movements, pointing to Chinese influence operations targeting American communities where data centers are being built.

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