Silicon Valley billionaires want the government to legalize theft.
They're not even hiding it anymore.
And conservatives are sounding the alarm on one scary power grab by Big Tech.
Steve Bannon exposes Big Tech's scheme to steal from American creators
Steve Bannon just caught Google, Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta red-handed trying to pull off what might be the biggest robbery in American history.
These companies want Trump to give them legal permission to steal every book, article, song, photograph, and video ever created by Americans without paying a single penny.
And they're claiming it's necessary to beat China.
Bannon led a coalition of 13 conservative leaders in sending a scorching letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi exposing this scam for what it really is.
"This is un-American and absurd," the letter stated flatly.
Here's the con: Big Tech companies train their AI systems by copying millions of copyrighted works without permission or payment.
When creators objected, Silicon Valley invented a legal excuse called "fair use" to justify the theft.
They're telling Washington that forcing them to pay for what they steal would somehow let China win the AI race.
Think about that for a second.
Google is worth $2 trillion but says paying journalists and photographers would "cripple" them.
Microsoft has $200 billion in the bank but insists licensing music and books is impossible.
The conservative coalition brought together Mike Davis, one of Trump's closest legal advisors, along with leaders from groups defending American workers and families.
They're telling Trump that letting Big Tech get away with this would betray everything the America First movement stands for.
Silicon Valley's China excuse is garbage and everybody knows it
Big Tech executives claim that unless they can steal content for free, China will win the AI race.
The letter destroys that argument in one devastating paragraph.
"While AI leadership is undeniably important for US geopolitical goals, one hardly needs a machine learning degree to question the national security imperative of unlicensed SpongeBob productions or erotic chatbots," it stated.
Wait, so stealing copyrighted cartoons and building sex chatbots is how we beat China?
Microsoft and Meta have been wining and dining Trump administration officials, trying to convince them this theft is actually patriotic.
Punchbowl News exposed those private dinners back in August.
Here's what they're not telling anyone: American creators already contribute more than $2 trillion to the economy every single year.¹
These are your neighbors writing books, musicians recording songs, photographers shooting weddings, journalists covering local news.
They earn good livings doing honest work — an average of $141,000 annually.²
The creative sector employs 11.6 million Americans and generates $272.6 billion in foreign sales.³
"In a free market, businesses pay for the inputs they need," the letter explained. "Imagine if AI CEOs claimed they needed free access to semiconductors, energy, researchers, and developers to build their products. They would be laughed out of their boardrooms."
But that's exactly what they're doing with creative work.
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for stealing their articles.
News Corp filed suit against AI companies ripping off their content.
Big Tech's response?
They want Trump to crush those lawsuits.
The Chamber of Progress — a Big Tech front group — sent a letter to the White House in October demanding Trump "intervene in legal cases to defend generative AI training as fair use."
They want the President of the United States to step into private lawsuits and kill them to protect Silicon Valley billionaires.
They want executive orders forcing the Justice Department to take Big Tech's side against American workers trying to protect their property.
That's not capitalism.
That's crony corruption at its absolute worst.
Trump faces a defining choice on property rights
Bannon and his allies are telling Trump this is about more than AI or copyright law.
"We must compete and win the global AI race the American way — by ensuring we protect creators, children, conservatives, and communities," the letter concluded.
This is about whether property rights still mean anything in America.
If trillion-dollar companies can take whatever they want without paying, where does it stop?
Every photo you've uploaded, every video you've shared, every document you've stored in the cloud — all of it could be fair game for AI training.
The precedent Silicon Valley wants to set here is dangerous: if Big Tech needs your content, Big Tech can take your content.
Trump campaigned on defending American workers against coastal elites.
Silicon Valley is testing whether he meant it.
One side wants Trump to protect property rights and American workers.
The other side wants him to let billionaires steal whatever they want as long as they claim China made them do it.
Bannon just made it crystal clear which side conservatives are on.
Now Trump has to choose.
¹ International Intellectual Property Alliance, "Copyright Industries in the U.S. Economy: The 2024 Report," IIPA, February 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
