Latest news with #AmericanDynamism
Reuters
26-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
VC firm Eclipse taps former Trump trade advisor to lead policy
March 26 (Reuters) - Venture capital firm Eclipse has hired former Trump administration trade advisor Thomas Storch as its first head of policy and government affairs, the latest Silicon Valley firm seeking to build a larger presence in Washington and establish a line of communication with the administration on policymaking. The move comes as Eclipse, which focuses on backing startups serving the physical industry across advanced manufacturing and defense, seeks to strengthen its ties with a new administration expected to be tech-friendly. In an interview, Storch said he has seen more openness from the administration to work with the tech industry. Get a look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets with the Morning Bid U.S. newsletter. Sign up here. "Obviously, in this administration, there's a number of people who now come from the tech world, so I think it's very natural that some of those conversations would come together," he said. Vice President JD Vance previously worked as a venture capitalist. "I think that it gives a sense of optimism that they're rowing in the same direction, that when they go in for meetings with government, the atmosphere and the message is, how can we do things together productively, and not what are the things that are going to slow you down?" Storch said. Storch, who has worked in both private and public sectors, will focus on explaining White House policies to portfolio companies and participating in policymaking conversations in Washington. Amid rising geopolitical competition, his pitch focuses on strengthening U.S. physical industries through collaboration between the private and public sectors, including deploying more energy and adopting advanced AI infrastructure. Not every policy from the new administration would benefit tech companies. Tariffs, for example, could increase manufacturing costs for startups building physical products. Storch, who worked on trade policy during Trump's first term, emphasized that tariffs were not just about trade policy but represented a broader approach to economic security, which could strengthen domestic manufacturing and protect critical industries. Founded by Lior Susan in 2015, Eclipse's portfolio companies include chipmaker Cerebras, space startup True Anomaly, and Ursa Major. The appointment highlights a growing trend of VC firms hiring policy experts as government involvement in technology sectors increases, particularly in areas deemed critical to national security and economic competitiveness. Firms like Andreessen Horowitz, known for its American Dynamism investment strategy, has established a major presence in DC.
New York Times
18-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Vance Tries to Bridge a Republican Divide Between Populists and Tech Leaders
Vice President JD Vance made an explicit attempt on Tuesday to bridge warring factions within the Republican Party, arguing that the 'tensions' between the populist and tech wings of the conservative movement could be overcome. Mr. Vance's remarks, delivered at a technology conference in Washington, amounted to the most intentional effort from the administration to date to manage these groups within President Trump's movement. Some conservatives have worried that the uneasy alliance between Mr. Trump's populist base and his new support from Silicon Valley was destined to unravel. That political divide is a consequence of the support Mr. Trump has won from many tech leaders, particularly that of Elon Musk. Mr. Musk has fought with populist, longstanding members of Mr. Trump's coalition, including Steve Bannon, over issues such as the H-1B visa program, which allows skilled workers like software engineers to work in the United States and is typically embraced by the tech industry to fill their engineering ranks. 'I'd like to speak to these tensions as a proud member of both tribes,' said Mr. Vance, a former venture capitalist who is now backed by much of the populist right. 'While this is a well-intentioned concern, I think it's based on a faulty premise. This idea that tech-forward people and the populists are somehow inevitably going to come to a loggerheads is wrong.' Mr. Vance was the headliner at the American Dynamism conference organized by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose leaders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have embraced Mr. Trump. Mr. Vance declared himself to be a 'huge fan' of the pair and said that he was 'very moved' by a recent, pro-technology manifesto from Mr. Andreessen. Mr. Andreessen, who has become the avatar of a movement that pushes for domestic technological development, has been deeply involved in the Trump administration, helping to evaluate hires during Mr. Trump's transition and advising Mr. Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency. 'What I propose is that each group — our workers, the populists on the one hand, the tech optimists on the other — have been failed by this government. Not just the government of the last administration, but the government, in some ways, of the last 40 years,' Mr. Vance said. The vice president argued, for example, that technology development was good for poor Americans by raising the standard of living, and that the 'drug' of cheap labor that comes from globalization was bad for American companies because it kept them from innovating. 'And so I'd ask my friends, both on the tech-optimist side and on the populist side, not to see the failure of the logic of globalization as a failure of innovation,' Mr. Vance said. 'Both our working people, our populists, and our innovators gathered here today have the same enemy. And the solution, I believe, is American innovation. Because in the long run, it's technology that increases the value of labor.' Mr. Vance pitched Mr. Trump's accomplishments on manufacturing, immigration enforcement and artificial intelligence investments to the crowd. The vice president promised that the Trump administration would clear red tape and give them more incentives to manufacture and develop tech products in the United States. 'We can only win by doing what we always did: Protecting our workers and supporting our innovators, and doing both of those things at the same time,' he said.
The Guardian
22-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
All the president's friends, from Natalie Harp and Daniel Penny to Andrew Tate
There are three tried-and-tested strategies for getting into Donald Trump's inner circle. No 1: be young, blond and so obsessed with the president that even the Secret Service think it's kinda weird. That strategy certainly seems to have worked out well for Natalie Harp, a former far-right cable host who is now an official aide to Trump. Harp is what the New York Times diplomatically termed 'devoted'. During the campaign, she became known as the 'human printer' because she followed Trump around with a portable printer – even sometimes running after him on the golf course – to hand him hard copies of flattering coverage. The 34-year-old also reportedly offered to go to prison for Trump, and told the billionaire he is her 'guardian and protector in this life'. According to excerpts from Michael Wolff's new book on Trump, the 'Natalie situation' became so intense that Secret Service agents deemed her 'a potential danger to herself as well as to the president'. But all's well that ends well: now she's helping to run the country! Strategy No 2: kill an unhoused man. Last year, a Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, who is white, not guilty in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, an unhoused Black man. Penny has become a celebrity in rightwing circles, and was recently hired by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (whose founders are big Trump fans) as a deal partner in its American Dynamism practice. Penny has also recently been spotted schmoozing with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. No doubt it's not long before he gets a job in the Department of Defense. Strategy No 3: be a self-professed 'misogynist influencer' accused by authorities of sexually exploiting women. There's nothing that will win Trump's sympathy faster than a misogynist in a spot of legal bother: sexual predators of a feather flock together. In a move pretty much anyone could have seen coming, the Trump administration has decided to lend a helping hand to manosphere influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are dual US and UK nationals. Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration had asked Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the brothers, who were arrested in 2022 and indicted in mid-2023 on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women – charges they deny. Andrew Tate is also facing a separate civil action from four British women who have alleged rape and coercive control between 2013 and 2016. As you can imagine, those women are deeply concerned that the Trump administration seems to be interfering in the case and have asked them to leave authorities alone to 'do their jobs'. The lawyer for the victims also noted that Trump was 'interfering in due process' not just in Romania, but in the UK, where the Tates are pending extradition. Why is the Trump administration, which has a lot on its plate, seemingly going out of its way to help the Tates? As Matt Shea wrote in an explainer for the Guardian, the 'alliance … has been in the making for a long time. Paul Ingrassia, one of the lawyers Andrew Tate hired to fight his human-trafficking case, was recently sworn in as the White House liaison for the Department of Justice. Tate has also been friends with Donald Trump Jr since 2016, and Alina Habba, who holds the high-ranking political adviser role of counselor to the president, has said she is a 'big fan' of Andrew Tate. He has a lot of friends in high places. There might also be a bit of quid pro quo at play as well. Tristan Tate boasted on X in November that the brothers had helped Trump win the US election, claiming 'millions of young men in Europe and the USA have a healthy rightwing approach to politics that they would NOT have if Andrew Tate had never appeared on their phone screens'. That's broadly true: the Tate brothers have helped radicalize a generation. And they continue to be useful propagandists for Trump. As Shea notes: 'The Trump administration and Tate are both promoting a conspiracy theory that USAid and the mainstream media have worked together to fabricate charges against Tate. By supporting him, the Trump administration is forging a new axis of disinformation to go after the press and the very idea of justice and due process.' While the Tates are useful to Trump, the Trump administration might literally be the brothers' get-out-of-jail-free-card. After Trump won the 2024 election, Andrew Tate tweeted that his case would be dismissed. 'Watch this space ;-),' he said. Oh, believe me, I've been watching this space, and it's getting more and more dystopian every day. Meddling with the Tates's case is just the start. Trump has made it very clear that he doesn't think the law applies to him or any of his friends, tweeting: 'He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.' He has also likened himself to a 'king'. This isn't bombast: Trump has told us time and time again he thinks he is above the law and can do whatever he likes. We must take him at his word. On average, 130,390 women get contraceptive care each day under US-funded programs, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit that studies sexual and reproductive health. 'If 11.7 million women and girls are denied access to contraceptive care in 2025, 4.2 million will experience unintended pregnancies, and 8,340 will die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth,' the institute calculates. The rate of sepsis, a life-threatening condition, went up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, an investigation by ProPublica found. This joyful video of women dancing to Chappell Roan at a lesbian bar in Brooklyn has gone viral. According to the Hill, the bill summary states that, if passed, Missouri would create a registry of every expecting mother in the state 'who is at risk for seeking an abortion'. The party of small government strikes again! And she has put her money where her mouth is, teaming up with a woman director either as a producer or as an actor 19 times over the last eight years. A number of prominent British feminist writers have recently described Trump, a legally adjudicated sexual predator, as a 'feminist hero' because of his anti-trans policies. How did we get here? The Guardian's Julie Carrie Wong brings this question to Sophie Lewis, whose new book, Enemy Feminisms, 'seeks to understand how and why some forms of feminism have diverged so fundamentally from others as to become, well, enemies'. Michelle O'Neill, Northern Ireland's first minister, said she could not ignore 'the suffering of the Palestinian people and the recent comments of the US President around the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza'. Alas, plenty of other people seem able to ignore Palestinian suffering. The likes of the BBC have downplayed Trump's mass expulsion plans by describing them as 'a highly controversial redevelopment proposal'. Crimes against humanity seem to have become horrifically normalized. If the news has got you stress-eating, you're not alone. A sneaky, and very hungry, opossum broke into a house in Nebraska and ate almost an entire Costco chocolate cake, then collapsed on the couch. She (the opossum doesn't seem to have a name) is now being looked after by an animal shelter. 'I think the opossum story is really relatable, like, who doesn't want to eat a whole chocolate cake?' the Nebraska wildlife rehab executive director Laura Stastny said.
Fox News
13-02-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Katherine Boyle: Vice President J.D. Vance's A.I. Speech In Paris Will Go Down As One Of The Most Important Technology Speeches Ever Given
Katherine Boyle, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and the co-founder of the firm's American Dynamism arm, spoke to Brian Kilmeade about how Vice President JD Vance's A.I. speech in Paris will go down as one of the most important technology speeches ever given. Boyle praised Vance for talking about how America is going to have a pro-worker A.I. policy, making sure workers and A.I. work hand-in-hand to improve the American worker to create jobs. According to Boyle, the most important part of the speech is when Vance said A.I. is not going to replace the American worker. Boyle says Vance is not just a great communicator but The Great communicator. Boyle believes not since Ronald Reagan has a politician understood how to connect with people. On the pushback Elon Musk is getting from the left for looking to reduce fraud, waste and spending, Boyle responded that this is how things get done in Silicon Valley and how our great businesses in America are built. Boyle thinks it is great this approach is finally being applied to the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. On the relationship between President Trump and Elon Musk, Boyle is not surprised at them having a great relationship because they're two straight shooters. Boyle says that Trump and Elon both tell people the truth and have the mentality they can accomplish great things. Listen here:
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Daniel Penny hired by prestigious venture capital firm
(NewsNation) — Daniel Penny, the Marine who was acquitted in the death of a fellow New York subway passenger he put in a chokehold, has been hired by a prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm weeks after he was set free. The firm, Andreessen Horowitz, announced Penny's position saying he will join their 'American Dynamism team.' 'Daniel is a Marine Corps veteran who served his country, and in a frightening moment in a crowded New York City subway car, did a courageous thing,' Andreessen Horowitz partner David Ulevitch said in a statement. Neely family attorney: Daniel Penny verdict sends apathetic message Penny is expected to work on a team that supports 'national interests' including the aerospace, defense and manufacturing sectors, according to the company. In an internal email to staff, Ulevitch said 'He was acquitted of all charges. Beyond that, it has always been our policy to evaluate the entire person and not judge them for the worst moment in their entire life,' according to The Free Press, which first reported the news. Penny was charged in 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney's office with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after a video of him fatally choking another passenger, Jordan Neely, on the subway for six minutes circulated online. Neely, an agitated but unarmed homeless man, did not touch any passengers. One said he made lunging movements that alarmed her enough that she shielded her 5-year-old from him, which caused Penny to intervene. A jury found Penny not guilty in Neely's death in December. Vice President JD Vace had invited Penny to be his guest at the Army-Navy college football game days after he was acquitted. In a post on X, Vance called Penny's hiring, 'Incredible news.' Andreessen Horowitz has about $45 billion in assets under management and its co-founder Marc Andreessen has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and has served as an adviser to the incoming administration, reported Bloomberg. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
