Vice President JD Vance speaks at the American Dynamism Summit on supporting U.S. industry and workers, in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP)
Vance said the efforts have led to an addiction to cheap labor that has halted innovation.
"Cheap labor is fundamentally a crutch, and it's a crutch that inhibits innovation," he said. "I might even say that it's a drug that too many American firms got addicted to. Now, if you can make a product more cheaply, it's far too easy to do that rather than to innovate. And whether we were offshoring factories to cheap labor economies or importing cheap labor through our immigration system, cheap labor became the drug of Western economies.
"And I'd say that if you look in nearly every country, from Canada to the UK that imported large amounts of cheap labor, you've seen productivity stagnate," he said. "And I don't think that's that's not a total happenstance. I think that the connection is very direct."
Vance argued that "innovation is key to winning the worldwide manufacturing competition, to giving our workers a fair deal and to reclaiming our heritage via America's great industrial comeback."
The American Dynamism Summit is an annual tech summit hosted by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The event, which is in its third year, acts as a bridge between California's Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.
Vance headlined the event at the Waldorf Astoria and was joined by other notable speakers during the summit, such as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, General Bryan P. Fenton, who serves as U.S. Special Operations Command commander, and Democratic New York Rep. Ritchie Torres.
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Vice President JD Vance attended a separate tech summit in February in Paris, called the AI Action Summit, where he railed against Europe's "trepidation" of artificial intelligence. (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)
Vance attended a separate tech summit in February in Paris, called the AI Action Summit, where he railed against Europe's "trepidation" of artificial intelligence, and regulation of it as hampering the future of innovation and jobs.
"Now, at this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution, one on par with the invention of the steam engine or Bessemer steel," he said in the Paris speech. "But it will never come to pass if overregulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball, nor will it occur if we allow AI to become dominated by massive players looking to use the tech to censor or control users' thoughts.
"And as AI creates new jobs and industries, our government, businesses and labor organizations have an obligation to work together to empower the workers not just of the United States but … all over the world," he added. "To that end, for all major AI policy decisions coming from the federal government, the Trump Administration will guarantee American workers a seat at the table, and we're very proud of that."
"American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas," the White House said of the executive order. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump additionally signed an executive order on his third day in office called, "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence." The executive order rescinded previous Biden-era AI policies that Trump said "established unnecessarily burdensome requirements for companies developing and deploying AI" that handcuffed the private sector.
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"American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas," the White House said of the executive order. "With the right government policies, the United States can solidify its position as the leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans."
Fox News Digital's Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vance-knocks-globalizations-cheap-labor-lauds-americas-great-industrial-comeback-ai-summit