Trump’s Digital Strategy: U.S. Hegemony or Polycentric Architecture?

The second administration of Donald Trump marked a pivotal transformation in the U.S. digital diplomacy. This article examines how technologies – such as artificial intelligence, digital currencies, and even tech-diplomacy – were recast as instruments of strategic influence within a global power projection strategy. Recent executive orders, investment restrictions, and regulatory innovations introduced by the Trump administration illustrate a shift from multilateral digital governance to a model of digital hegemony anchored in national sovereignty and selective technological partnerships. The findings show that Trump’s digital strategy operates at two levels: a political doctrine emphasizing national technological dominance, and a practical framework involving the creation of new institutions and partnerships, including the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and alliances with specific countries. These measures institutionalize the U.S. control over digital financial flows and redefine cryptocurrencies as strategic assets of the federal government. The administration has effectively weaponized digital infrastructure to pursue economic protectionism, geopolitical containment of China, and a model of alliance-building based on “trusted” partners. The policy excludes the PRC from key technological ecosystems through investment screening, export controls, and restrictions on cross-border financial transactions involving the digital yuan. The TikTok case illustrates the evolution of digital containment into expropriative management, where foreign platforms face pressure either to divest or comply with American regulations. Furthermore, the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy plays a central role in enforcing digital sanctions and coordinating cross-border cyber deterrence campaigns. Trump’s approach undermines the idea of a polycentric digital order and promotes a closed, American-led digital bloc instead. Technology is no longer framed as a common good but as a sovereign resource with geopolitical utility. This shift transforms digital diplomacy from a mediating mechanism into an instrument of strategic control. The article concludes that the United States under Trump has begun constructing a new digital architecture that replaces global inclusivity with a normative framework rooted in unilateralism.