Donald Trump appoints PayPal co-founder as ‘White House AI and crypto czar’

President-elect Donald Trump announced he created a new role for his administration, White House Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Czar.

Filling the role will be tech entrepreneur and podcast host David Sacks.

Sacks has been appointed to steer policy on Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency for the Administration. These two fields are crucial for American competitiveness. Trump expressed his confidence in Sacks, emphasizing the goal of positioning America as the dominant force globally in these sectors.

“He will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship. He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.,” Trump continued”

“David will also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology,” the president-elect said.

Sacks is a longtime Silicon Valley ally of Elon Musk and invested in SpaceX. They worked together at PayPal, a company in which Sacks is a co-founder of and later became the COO. During that time, Musk was the CEO until 2000 when Confinity went through a rebrand and became PayPal.

Sacks held major fundraisers for the Trump-Vance ticket, including one at his home for Trump in San Francisco, California in June.

Trump did an interview with Sacks on his “All In” podcast earlier this year, in which he advocated for “automatically” giving noncitizens in the U.S. green cards when they graduate from college — not just people who go through the vetting process.

“[What] I want to do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes junior colleges, too,” Trump said during the episode.

Trump’s response came after one of the hosts, Jason Calacanis, asked Trump if he could promise to “give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America.”