# Corporate mercenary is a bipartisan profession > Source: > Published: 2026-09-16 10:30:25+00:00 The AI industry has placed a huge bet on President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. For example, in the 2026 cycle alone, AI executives and corporations have donated $42 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC. But the political winds may be changing. Trump’s popularity is near an all-time low. Republicans could lose control of one or both chambers of Congress in November’s midterm elections. This all comes at a time when the public is increasingly concerned about the safety of frontier AI models, data center construction, and the impact of AI on their jobs. AI companies are looking to the federal government for help. In a essay this month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for “regulation that targets all US frontier AI companies.” While this is framed around an altruistic concern about safety, Amodei acknowledged that government regulation would allow AI incumbents to coordinate their activities while avoiding “antitrust” issues. Amodei’s letter was endorsed by the two other biggest AI players, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk. Trump, however, immediately rejected the idea. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump [wrote](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117269745153543631) on Truth Social. According to reports, the AI industry may now be hedging its bets. According to [Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/14/democratic-megadonor-ron-conway-taps-jay-carney-to-lead-new-ai-policy-center-01074043), Jay Carney, who served as White House press secretary during the Obama administration, has been tapped “to run a new initiative aimed at shaping national AI policy.” Carney has been hired by SV Angel, an investment firm led by Ron Conway, a major Democratic donor. The new initiative is called “Project Blueprint,” which the New York Times [reports](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/business/dealbook/ai-slowdown-dc-beijing.html) is an effort to “rebuild bonds between leaders in the artificial intelligence sector and Democrats who are demanding new rules to regulate the technology.” On X, former Vice President Kamala Harris [called](https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/2099621712140579038) Carney’s hiring an “encouraging effort to bring industry and government leaders together.” It is unclear who should be encouraged by Carney’s new role. While Carney worked for a Democratic administration, he abandoned public service more than a dozen years ago. After leaving the Obama administration, Carney spent seven years as a hired gun for Amazon, where he reported directly to Jeff Bezos. (His official title was Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs.) In that role, Carney fought against government efforts to protect privacy and regulate AI. A 2021 Reuters article describes Carney as the “[architect of \[an\] under-the-radar campaign to smother privacy protections](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-privacy-lobbying/).” Internal documents obtained by Reuters revealed that Carney’s “mission included defeating restrictions on artificial intelligence and biometric technologies, along with blocking efforts to make companies disclose the data they keep on consumers.” A memo reviewed by Reuters said that such restrictions could “impede growth for [Amazon’s] Alexa-powered devices.” It celebrated Carney’s role in “killing or amending privacy bills in ‘over 20 states.’” Early in his tenure, Carney’s team targeted “a Washington state bill to regulate biometrics, including voice recordings, fingerprints and face scans.” The bill eventually passed “but only after lobbyists for Amazon and other firms had chiseled away at its privacy protections by convincing lawmakers to insert alternative language, often verbatim.” Among other concessions, voice recordings were exempted, sparing Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant from regulation. In an internal document, Amazon celebrated that the revised legislation “would have ‘little, if any, direct impact on Amazon’s practices.’” After joining the company, Carney criticized Amazon’s lobbying efforts as “frugal” and “narrow.” Under Carney’s leadership, by 2020, “Amazon had registered at least 180 lobbyists in 44 U.S. states, up from at least 62 lobbyists in 27 states in 2014, the year before Carney arrived.” At Amazon, Carney expanded a program called “Watering the flowers.” According to a 2019 CNBC report, “The flowers represent elected officials, and the goal is to create a well-tended ‘garden’ of pro-Amazon policymakers, from state governors and senators down to local officials and economic development teams.” In a 2025 [interview](https://www.axios.com/2025/04/25/jay-carney-trump-media), Carney said in his corporate roles he spent “a lot of time thinking about how we can flood the zone with our narrative.” *"If you are interested in how the American right went insane, TPM is your actual publication of record," declared historian Rick Perlstein. We agree, and recommend that if you want to keep tabs on the reactionary movement that has gripped American politics and culture, [sign up for TPM's flagship newsletter, The Brief](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/the-brief?utm_source=publicinfo&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=thebrief).* ### **Carney attacked whistleblower, dismissed concerns about poor working conditions** While at Amazon, Carney also dismissed concerns about conditions in the workplace. In 2015, the New York Times published an article alleging poor conditions for Amazon’s corporate employees. The article quoted a former Amazon employee, Bo Olson, who said, “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.” Two months after the article was published, Carney [posted](https://medium.com/@jaycarney/what-the-new-york-times-didn-t-tell-you-a1128aa78931) a rebuttal on Medium. To discredit their accounts, Carney included additional details about some of the employees the Times had interviewed, including Olson. “Attributed to Bo Olson, the image of countless employees crying at their desks set the tone for a front-page story that other media outlets described as ‘scathing,’ ‘blistering,’ ‘brutal’ and ‘harsh.’ Olson’s words were so key to the narrative the *Times* wished to construct that they splashed them in large type just below the headline,” Carney wrote. “Here’s what the story didn’t tell you about Mr. Olson: his brief tenure at Amazon ended after an investigation revealed he had attempted to defraud vendors and conceal it by falsifying business records.” Olson denied the allegation. In 2022, the Wall Street Journal [reported](https://www.wsj.com/tech/amazon-washington-biden-carney-antitrust-11646763777) that Carney was directly involved in a series of posts on Twitter (now X) responding to criticisms by some politicians. In one case, an official Amazon account responded to a [post](https://x.com/RepMarkPocan/status/1374890264658120709) from Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) that said, “Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles.” “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us,” Amazon [wrote](https://x.com/amazonnews/status/1374911222361956359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1374911222361956359%7Ctwgr%5Ec49d3a72155c5b9ecad25d16023b04b97503d4c8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aboutamazon.com%2Fnews%2Fpolicy-news-views%2Four-recent-response-to-representative-pocan) back. (The company later [apologized](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/our-recent-response-to-representative-pocan?tracking_id=leeenter0889-20) for the tweet and acknowledged “that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms.”) According to the Wall Street Journal, “Unlike most tweets from Amazon’s news account, these tweets were crafted by executives including Mr. Bezos and Mr. Carney.” ### **Carney v. unions** Carney also participated in anti-union efforts while at Amazon. In April 2020, Carney defended Amazon’s firing of Chris Smalls, an Amazon warehouse worker who led a walkout at a Staten Island warehouse over worker protections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon said that Smalls “was fired for violating a company-imposed 14-day quarantine after he came into contact with an employee who tested positive for the coronavirus.” Smalls said that he was “singled out after pleading with management to sanitize the warehouse and be more transparent about the number of workers who were sick,” arguing that others had come into contact with the positive worker “for longer periods of time,” VICE [reported](https://www.vice.com/en/article/leaked-amazon-memo-details-plan-to-smear-fired-warehouse-organizer-hes-not-smart-or-articulate/). “Amazon’s warehouse workers protested because people are getting sick on the job. Their demands were not radical: a safer workplace, protective gear and paid sick leave,” Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) [wrote](https://x.com/SenSanders/status/1245466894540382208) on X. “Amazon’s response? Retaliate by firing a worker who helped organize the walk-out.” Carney [responded](https://x.com/JayCarney/status/1245474780746330119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1245474780746330119&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2020%2F4%2F2%2F21206108%2Famazon-chris-smalls-warehouse-strike-nyc-jay-carney-bernie-sanders-coronavirus-safety) to the post, “I’m confused. Thought you wanted us to protect our workers? Mr. Smalls purposely violated social distancing rules, repeatedly, & was put on Paid 14-day quarantine for COVID exposure.” Leaked notes from an internal Amazon leadership meeting obtained by [VICE](https://www.vice.com/en/article/leaked-amazon-memo-details-plan-to-smear-fired-warehouse-organizer-hes-not-smart-or-articulate/), however, show that “company executives discussed a plan to smear” Smalls. Leadership reportedly “discussed encouraging Amazon executives to use Smalls to discredit the wider labor movement at Amazon.” In 2021, Carney also responded to a [post](https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1376938268957274113) from Sanders supporting an effort to unionize a warehouse in Alabama. “Amazon workers in Alabama are sick and tired of being treated like robots. They are standing up and fighting back, and I am proud to support them,” Sanders wrote. “With all due respect, Senator @BernieSanders, you’re wrong on this. We treat our employees with dignity and respect. We offer a $15 min wage, health care from day one, and a safe, inclusive workplace,” Carney [wrote](https://x.com/JayCarney/status/1376969678896107523).