VP J.D. Vance blasted 40 years of globalization policies at the American Dynamism Conference, calling cheap foreign labor “a drug that too many American firms got addicted to” while warning it has stifled innovation and allowed rival nations to catch up technologically.
At a Glance
- Vice President Vance criticized globalization’s reliance on cheap labor as a “crutch” that has hindered U.S. innovation and productivity
- Speaking at Andreessen Horowitz’s tech summit, Vance positioned himself as a bridge between MAGA populists and right-leaning Silicon Valley tech elites
- Vance highlighted the Trump administration’s $100 billion investment in U.S.-based AI data centers, with plans to expand to $500 billion
- The VP argued that past globalization assumptions were flawed, enabling competitor nations to quickly bridge economic and technological gaps
Bridging The Divide: Vance’s New Role
J.D. Vance is taking on a surprising new role in the Trump administration – peacemaker. While functioning as Trump’s attack dog on foreign affairs issues, the former Silicon Valley venture capitalist is simultaneously working to build bridges between two seemingly opposing factions within the Republican coalition: the MAGA populist base and tech-oriented Silicon Valley conservatives. At the American Dynamism Conference in Washington, Vance made his position clear, rejecting the notion that these groups are destined for conflict.
“This idea that tech-forward people and the populists are somehow inevitably going to come to a loggerhead is wrong,” Vance told attendees at the conference hosted by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The Vice President’s message was calibrated to appeal to both sides, arguing they share common enemies and interests despite their different perspectives. His position is unique – having spent time as both a Silicon Valley insider and a champion of working-class concerns.
Globalization’s Fatal Flaws
The Vice President delivered a blistering critique of America’s decades-long approach to globalization, arguing that establishment leaders made two critical mistakes. First, they wrongly believed design and manufacturing could be effectively separated, with America handling innovation while offshoring actual production. Second, they embraced cheap foreign labor as the primary means to economic efficiency – a strategy Vance now condemns as fundamentally flawed.
“Cheap labor is fundamentally a crutch, and it’s a crutch that inhibits innovation, 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.”
This reliance on cheap labor, Vance argued, has created a dangerous situation where Western economies stagnated in productivity while competitor nations gained ground. The assumption that poorer countries would remain content producing basic goods while America advanced up the value chain proved catastrophically wrong. Instead, those nations have used their manufacturing experience to develop their own innovation capabilities, directly challenging American technological leadership.
A New American Industrial Renaissance
Vance’s speech positioned the Trump administration as leading a “great American industrial renaissance” through policies that prioritize domestic manufacturing and innovation. Rather than treating technology and traditional manufacturing as opposing forces, Vance argued they should be seen as complementary – with technology boosting productivity and wages for American workers. His comparison of AI to ATMs highlighted this perspective, noting that ATMs ultimately increased banking jobs by improving efficiency.
“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, because there were two conceits that our leadership class had when it came to globalization.”
The administration’s commitment to this new direction was underscored by Trump’s recently announced AI infrastructure plan, which includes a $100 billion investment in U.S.-based data centers with plans to expand to $500 billion. This initiative, coupled with an executive order removing barriers to American AI leadership, represents a clear departure from previous approaches. Vance emphasized that the administration is “dead serious” about restoring American manufacturing primacy through technological advancement rather than cheap labor.
