(The Lion) — The president, key cabinet members and top tech executives gathered in Pittsburgh on Tuesday to promote tens of billions of dollars in energy and AI investments in the state as Trump continues to push forward his America First agenda.

“We’re back in Pittsburgh to announce the largest package of investments in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Trump said. “And it’s not even close. … This afternoon, 20 leading technology and energy companies are announcing more than $92 billion of investments in Pennsylvania.”

The president also boasted of the trillions of dollars of investments he’s secured since taking office.

“When we came back from the Middle East, we came back with $5.1 trillion of investments from the three countries that I mentioned,” Trump said, adding total investments since January are “about $16 trillion.”

One of the major themes of the event was the “arms” race to AI global dominance, especially between the U.S. and China. The president declared the U.S. is well in the lead, but must continue to push forward.

“We’re here today because we believe that America’s destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in every technology, and that includes being the world’s number one superpower in artificial intelligence,” he said. “And we are way ahead of China. I have to say we’re way ahead of China. And the plants are starting up, the construction starting up. …

“Remaining the world’s leader in AI will require an enormous increase in the energy production, and that’s taking place, and you’re doing it yourself in a massive build out of physical infrastructure and the tremendous technology skill that Pennsylvania has. You have tremendous skill in this state.”

Just ahead of the Inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, The Lion’s Chris Stigall caught up with Sen. Dave McCormick, who hosted the event at Carnegie Mellon University, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito. Each underscored the importance of investing heavily in energy for America’s future.

Sen. Dave McCormick: Make America energy dominant

McCormick told Stigall the summit was years in the making, and credited Trump for agreeing to make it happen.

“Today, we have 60 major CEOs,” he said. “We have the building trades leadership. We have $90 billion of commitments in our Commonwealth in terms of data centers, energy production, transmission, distribution operations, and we have big commitments, millions of dollars to help train skilled workers.”

In a press release, McCormick called the $90 billion the “largest private investment in the Commonwealth’s history.”

“I am proud to partner with President Trump and the business leaders here today to drive a new era of industrial growth that helps make America energy dominant while creating jobs and opportunities for working families across Pennsylvania,” the senator also said.

The event notably includes both sides of the aisle, as Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and Gov. Josh Shapiro are also attending, McCormick told Stigall:

“We did an event last night with Sen. Fetterman and Josh Shapiro… the governor is here for a panel with me with the president of Amazon, because the president of Amazon just announced a $20 billion investment in Pennsylvania that the governor and I worked on together. …

“And if you’re in a state like Pennsylvania and you want to create energy jobs and AI data centers, you’ve got to be able to work across the aisle. Sen. Fetterman and I have sponsored a bunch of legislation, and in the case of energy and innovation, I don’t agree with the governor on everything, but we found a lot of ways to work together.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright: AI is the 2nd Manhattan Project

Wright emphasized the significance ramping up varied energy generation to power rapidly growing AI technologies, not only for consumers and commercial interests, but for national security.

“AI is the next energy intensive manufacturing industry,” the energy secretary said. “It takes the highest form of energy, electricity, and turns it into intelligence that’s truly transformative to business, to science, to national security.”

“AI is simply critical. It is. I compare it to the Manhattan Project for World War Two, where we had a rushed development of the atomic bomb. AI I’ve called the second Manhattan Project. Not only will it be uplifting for our society, but we must win. It is a national security threat if China pulled ahead and led us meaningfully in AI, we need to stop that.”

Wright is also bullish on the future of nuclear energy, saying it will be an important source for growing energy demand.

“I’ve been a passionate pro nuclear guy my entire life,” he said. “I went to college to work on nuclear energy many years ago, and you’re right, it’s been a boogey man. It hasn’t really grown for the last three or four decades, (but) we need it to grow. We want it to grow, and absolutely big tech’s embrace of nuclear energy: very helpful financially for the money they will invest into it.”

The Trump administration is also doubling down on traditional energy sources, such as oil and coal, and opening up mines for rare earth materials.

“President Trump has just seen what happens when you don’t do big things, or outdoor things or big things in your country. You just let all those industries go overseas,” he said. “You become feeble. You’re just entirely dependent upon other countries to deliver these key materials. In fact, Friday, I was at the first coal mine opened in Wyoming in 50 years, and the only the second rare earth element mine in the United States, just opening now. These are materials we are entirely dependent on China for.”

Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito: AI is necessary, but will disrupt

Zito discussed a wide range of issues with The Lion, including the state’s history in energy, the threat to jobs posed by AI and her book on the attempted assassination of Trump one year ago in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“This is an event about making Pennsylvania more prosperous,” she told Stigall about the Summit. “You know, the first industrial revolution in America actually happened out here, and it happened because of energy. That’s where Drake’s oil was discovered in Titusville, that then fed steel, iron ore, coal, everything before that. There was no way to power up manufacturing in a way that made sense.”

With the predicted dominance of AI in the near future, what about the potential loss of jobs for Americans whose work can be more effectively and cheaply done by computers?

“The place to be is in the trades right now,” Zito said. “You’re always going to need a plumber. You’re always going to need a welder, carpenter, mechanic – people that build things and make these data power centers in AI flourish to make the energy be able to supply those data power centers.

“So just like the industrial revolution in the 1850s changed the way that America functioned, changed the way that people received jobs and worked, moved the country away from being a farming industry into moving into cities, this is also going to change.”

She also underscored the promise of tens of thousands jobs related to the data centers proposed for Pennsylvania, and the national interest in AI. “We have to be dominant for national security,” she said.

The Lion also asked Zito about the reception of her new book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland.

“People are most interested in what the emotions were of that day and what happened,” she said. Zito was just four feet away from the presidential podium when Trump was shot in the right ear and spoke to Trump by phone soon after the incident. “They’re also really interested in why people, why President Trump goes to places like Butler, right? Why does he go to places like East Palestine? And the same could be said for Shapiro. Shapiro is someone that shows up as well, and that is sort of a fading characteristic of an American politician, but it’s the one that people are most attracted to.”

Pennsylvania has in fact been especially important to Trump, not just for campaigning in the swing state he won in November, but for announcing economic deals as part of his America First agenda.

The Lion reported from Pittsburgh in May when Trump announced a steel deal before a large crowd of steelworkers at Mon Valley Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

Both Pittsburgh events mark the president’s vision for the reindustrialization of America, which in the 21st century, includes investing in energy and AI.