# DECODING: TRUMP SIGNS TWO QUANTUM EXECUTIVE ORDERS THAT REDRAW AMERICAN POWER

> On Monday June 22, 2026, Donald Trump settles into the Oval Office surrounded by the CEOs of IBM and Alphabet. This is not a propaganda photo op. It is a declaration of technological war. He signs two presidential executive orders on quantum computing — a field that most American

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Analysis
- Published: 2026-06-24
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/decryptage-trump-signe-deux-decrets-quantiques-qui-redessinentla-puissance-americaine

## Introduction: June 22, 2026, two signatures that shift the global technological balance of power

### One Oval Office, two pens, one invisible war

On Monday **June 22, 2026**, **Donald Trump** settles into the Oval Office surrounded by the CEOs of **IBM** and **Alphabet**. This is not a propaganda photo op. It is a declaration of technological war. He signs two **presidential executive orders** on **quantum computing** — a field that most Americans don't yet understand, but that **China** has been watching for fifteen years like a hawk tracking its prey. The room is spare, the speeches are technical, but what's happening here reaches far beyond any news cycle. This is a structural reorientation of American power for the decades ahead.

The first order is titled **"Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation."** The second: **"Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks."** Two texts signed the same day, forming together a coherent strategy: seize global leadership in **quantum computing**, while simultaneously armoring against the threats this technology poses to existing cryptographic systems. **Washington** has understood that the quantum race is simultaneously an arms race and a race for digital survival.

### Why now, why this fast

The question is not "why quantum" — the question is "why June 2026." The answer lies in three simultaneous convergences. First, **China** has publicly displayed its advances in quantum computing on multiple occasions since 2023. Second, America's major corporations — **IBM**, **Google**, **Microsoft** — have reached technical thresholds that now make a scientifically relevant **quantum computer** conceivable within five years. Finally, the **Pentagon** and the **NSA** have sounded internal alarms: current cryptographic systems could be rendered obsolete by an adversary equipped with a sufficiently powerful quantum computer — a scenario technically called "Q-Day," the day classical cryptography collapses.

In March 2026, **Trump** had already signed the **Cyber Strategy for America**, defining American priorities for cyberspace dominance. In June 2026, with these two orders, he moves from words to action. The administration had moreover allocated in May 2026 an investment of **2 billion dollars** from the **CHIPS and Science Act** to quantum computing companies — according to statements from Commerce Secretary **Howard Lutnick**. This is not improvised policy. It is a plan.

*I'm not a quantum physicist. But I've read enough security reports to understand this: when the NSA starts planning for its own cryptographic obsolescence, that's not political posturing. That's a distress signal dressed in a presidential executive order. And Trump, love him or hate him, at least had the merit of not burying this file in an interagency commission.*

## First order: building the national quantum supercomputer in five years

### The QC-ADDS ambition: a computer for the era of scientific discovery

The core of the first order is the creation of the **QC-ADDS** effort — Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science. The objective is precise: develop a **quantum computer** at a scale capable of initiating what researchers call "the era of quantum scientific discovery." At least one such computer must be delivered to a **Department of Energy** facility, with open access to the scientific community where possible. The deadline given to the Energy Secretary to define technical specifications: **90 days** from **June 22, 2026**.

What distinguishes this approach from previous federal attempts is the **public-private partnership** model explicitly mandated. The Department of Energy must explore, within 180 days, delivery models involving the **private sector**, potentially including advanced market commitment mechanisms. **IBM** had already received federal investment in a quantum chip manufacturing facility — a decision confirmed by Lutnick at the signing ceremony. This is not an order that depends on **Congress** for its operational funding. It is an executive directive activating resources already allocated.

### Quantum sensors and networks: the invisible military dimension

Section 5 of the order is the one that defense analysts will read most carefully. It mandates the **Secretary of War** — the official term now used in the **Trump** administration in place of "Secretary of Defense" — to identify at least three **next-generation quantum sensor** projects to prioritize for operational deployment by **September 30, 2028**. Quantum sensors can detect objects deep in the earth or underwater with precision unmatched by classical technologies. Translated into strategic language: detection of enemy **submarines**, mapping of adversary underground infrastructure, navigation without GPS.

**NASA** is also mobilized, with a five-year plan for civilian applications of quantum sensors and networks in space. But let's not fool ourselves: when the **NSA** is involved in an order on sensors, and when the **Department of War** is a co-signatory, the civilian dimension is the veneer. The substance is military advantage. And **China** — which has been testing its own satellite quantum communication technologies for years — understands exactly what signal this sends.

*We talk about quantum sensors and eyes glaze over. But let's reframe: it's the ability to see where the enemy thinks they're invisible. Under 300 meters of water. Fifty meters underground. In a hardened tunnel. What Trump just signed is also a program to make Chinese submarines detectable. Tell me if that still sounds abstract to you.*

## Second order: post-quantum cryptography as a civilizational shield

### The "Q-Day" scenario and the national migration to PQC

The second order is defensive but equally critical. It mandates an **accelerated national migration** toward **post-quantum cryptography** (PQC). The stakes: before a sufficiently powerful **quantum computer** becomes operational — whether in the **United States**, in **China**, or elsewhere — the classical cryptographic systems protecting everything, from banking transactions to military communications to electrical grids, must have been replaced. The **OMB** and the **National Cyber Director** are co-leads of this migration. The transition deadline for high-value assets: **2030 and 2031** depending on use case. A pilot project must be completed by **December 31, 2027**.

What strikes in this text is its honesty about urgency. The order does not say "eventually." It says: designated agencies appoint a PQC migration lead, federal contractors must meet cybersecurity standards by end of **2030**, and critical infrastructure — **electrical grids, water systems, transportation networks** — must be supported through the transition. These are calendar commitments. Not wishful thinking.

### The international dimension: exporting the American standard

Article 9 of the cryptography order is often overlooked in coverage. It mandates the **State Department** and other federal agencies to help and encourage foreign critical infrastructure operators, allied governments, and industry groups to migrate to PQC. This is not altruism. It is standards geopolitics. If **NATO** allies adopt American PQC standards — defined by **NIST**, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, under the Department of Commerce — it is American companies deploying the solutions, and American architectures structuring allied digital security.

**China** is playing exactly the same game with its own encryption standards, including **SM2/SM4**, which it pushes through the Belt and Road Initiative to dozens of countries. The war of cryptographic standards is silent but decisive. **Washington** has just announced that it intends to win it.

*A cryptographic standard can seem less dramatic than a hypersonic missile. But if your allies use your encryption, you can read their communications when you want. And if your adversaries use theirs, you're blind. Trump understood that, or someone around him understood it for him. Either way, the order is there.*

## The geopolitical context: China as permanent horizon

### China's lead in quantum computing: real or overstated?

In 2023, **China** announced that the University of Science and Technology of China had achieved results on photonic quantum processors that exceeded classical capabilities on certain specific tasks. These claims were partially contested by Western scientists. But the question is not whether **Beijing** already has an operational **quantum computer** — the answer is no, no one has one in the full sense yet. The question is who will be first to cross the threshold of "quantum error correction" — the level where calculations become reliable and practically usable. **Trump** said at the June 22 ceremony: **"We are ahead. We will stay ahead."** That is a declaration that binds his administration.

The quantum innovation order explicitly mandates identification of the **national security implications** of increasing commercial quantum computer power, including implications for PQC migration. This task is assigned to the **Director of National Intelligence** and the **Secretary of War**, with a report due in one year. It is a public acknowledgment that quantum superiority by an adversary would have concrete consequences for national security — including the ability to break the encrypted communications of the **United States** and its allies.

### The 2 billion in quantum fabs: anchoring production in America

In May 2026, the administration had directed **2 billion dollars** from the **CHIPS and Science Act** toward quantum computing companies, according to Lutnick. The June 22 orders reinforce this logic of industrial anchoring. The **Secretary of War** must, within 180 days, take steps to broaden domestic access to quantum-relevant foundry resources. The **Director of the NSF** must issue grants to establish quantum user facilities through the National Quantum and Nanotechnology Infrastructure program. The goal: quantum chips manufactured on American soil, in verified supply chains, beyond the reach of Chinese sanctions or restrictions on **rare earth** materials.

This is the lesson drawn from the semiconductor crisis of 2021-2023, applied proactively to a still-emerging technology. Don't wait for dependence to be established before correcting it — identify and prevent it while there is still time to build a national industrial base. On this precise point, **Trump**'s 2026 industrial policy more closely resembles a dirigiste administration than a free-market government. But geopolitical realities leave no other credible option.

*I remember an analyst report that concluded in 2022 that "quantum is twenty years away." People said the same about drones ten years ago. And about military GPS thirty years ago. The timing error on these emerging technologies is costly. The sheer fact that Trump signed these orders now, surrounded by the CEOs of IBM and Google, means someone at the White House drew the lessons from those past mistakes.*

## The quantum workforce: the plan's Achilles heel

### Training quantum engineers at scale: a structural challenge

The orders are ambitious on paper. But they identify their own primary constraint: **workforce**. The Labor Secretary has 120 days to develop an approach to tracking labor statistics for the quantum ecosystem, including a definition of "QIST-relevant occupations" and associated skills. The **NSF** must launch a network of national quantum workforce development institutes within 180 days. These deadlines are tight because the problem is urgent: there are not today a sufficient number of engineers and physicists trained in quantum computing to fill the positions these orders will create.

This is not a criticism of the policy — it is a statement of fact. Training a physicist specializing in quantum computing takes between seven and ten years from the undergraduate level. No executive order can accelerate this biological training timeline. What **Trump** can do — and what these texts effectively do — is allocate resources for **registered apprenticeships**, hands-on training on real quantum systems, and accelerated academic partnerships. But the effect won't materialize before 2030 at best. In the meantime, the competition runs with understaffed teams.

### Quantum counterintelligence: the Quantum Counterintelligence Protection Team

Section 7b of the first order is among the most discreet and most revealing. It mandates the **FBI Director**, in coordination with the **NSA**, the State Department, the Department of War, and intelligence services, to propose staffing requirements to expand the **Quantum Information Science and Technology Counterintelligence Protection Team (QCPT)**. The deadline: **60 days**. This team already exists — but it is clearly considered undersized relative to the threat. Its mission: protect quantum R&D activities from adversarial threats, including cyber threats, and coordinate threat information sharing with federal, industry, and academic entities.

This signal is strong. It means the American administration knows its quantum laboratories are priority espionage targets for **China**, **Russia**, and potentially other actors. Intellectual property theft programs in the semiconductor and **artificial intelligence** fields have cost the **United States** hundreds of billions of dollars over the past decade. The administration intends not to repeat that mistake in quantum. Whether the allocated resources will match the identified threat remains to be seen.

*The QCPT — I'll admit it, I had to read it twice to make sure I understood what it was. A counterintelligence unit dedicated to quantum technologies. It sounds exotic. But China has been penetrating quantum physics laboratories in Europe and North America for years — published academic studies document it. Trump just officially acknowledged that this threat is no longer deniable. That's honest, at least.*

## Quantum supply chains: the silent front of the economic war

### Mapping dependencies before they become vulnerabilities

Section 6 of the first order reveals another fundamental concern: **quantum technology supply chains**. The Commerce Secretary, in consultation with the Energy Secretary, must develop a plan to strengthen the QIST ecosystem by analyzing its supply chains, encouraging standards adoption, and supporting research pathways that eliminate barriers to quantum manufacturing. The implicit threat: certain components essential to quantum systems — including special materials like **rare earths** — come from supply chains where **China** controls critical segments.

Information about quantum supply chains, including that generated by **DARPA**'s quantum benchmarking initiative, must be shared across agencies for government-wide decision-making. This is an acknowledgment that vulnerability mapping had not been sufficiently coordinated until now. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — **DARPA** — had been working on this issue, but its findings were not efficiently flowing up to decision-makers. This order changes the organizational plumbing.

### The international ecosystem: allies included, adversaries excluded

Section 9 of the first order is explicit on the international engagement policy: the **United States** must ensure its quantum companies have access to **strategic markets and capital from allied countries**, while preventing "countries of concern" — read **China**, **Russia**, **Iran**, North Korea — from acquiring quantum technologies and critical enabling technologies. The Secretary of State has 120 days to align existing bilateral and multilateral engagements, including the **Pax Silica** framework, with the order's priorities.

This is not a novelty — export controls on quantum technologies already existed. But the explicit integration of this dimension into a **presidential executive order** on quantum innovation signals that the question is no longer treated as a foreign commerce file, but as a national security priority. The signal to allies — notably the **United Kingdom**, **Australia**, **Canada**, **Japan** — is clear: **Washington** wants to build a Western quantum technology club, with shared standards and supply chains. It is a coherent strategic vision, even if its realization depends on dozens of bilateral negotiations that haven't yet begun.

*Pax Silica. I'd never heard that term before reading this order. A quick search reveals it's a technological coordination framework between allies for semiconductors and emerging technologies. And it has just been extended, implicitly, to the quantum domain. It's quiet. It matters. And it's exactly the kind of decision that shapes the balance of power at a ten or twenty year horizon — not Trump's tweets.*

## Critiques of the plan: ambition versus execution capacity

### Tight deadlines, multiple mandates, complex governance

The two orders generate a cascade of deadlines — 60, 90, 120, 180, 210 days — involving a dozen different federal agencies. The required coordination is massive. The first order alone involves the **OMB**, the **NSA**, **DARPA**, the **Department of Energy**, the **Department of Commerce**, **NASA**, the **NSF**, the **FBI**, the **State Department**, and the **Department of War**. Each of these agencies has its own hierarchy of priorities, its own budget constraints, its own institutional culture. The history of large multi-agency federal projects teaches that the risk of fragmentation and slipping timelines is high.

Liberal voices and conservative think tanks alike have noted that ambitious presidential mandates on emerging technologies have often produced reports at n-days rather than concrete change. The **National Quantum Initiative Act** of 2018, signed during **Trump**'s first term, had already established an institutional framework. The legitimate question is: what fundamentally changes in 2026 compared to what has been in place since 2018? The honest answer: the urgency of the competitive context with **China**, and the concrete industrial investments of **2 billion dollars** in May 2026, give more substance to these new directives than their predecessors. But execution remains to be proven.

### The risk of China accelerating in response

There is a strategic paradox in the public display of such a detailed national quantum policy. By publishing its objectives, timelines, and governance mechanisms, **Washington** gives **Beijing** a roadmap of what it must compete against — and an additional incentive to accelerate. **China** has been devoting considerable resources to quantum under its five-year plans since 2016. The **14th Five-Year Plan** (2021-2025) had identified quantum computing as a priority "disruptive technology." The **15th Plan** currently being finalized maintains this priority. Any spectacular American announcement is a signal to Beijing to intensify its own investments.

This is not a sufficient reason to do nothing — passivity in the face of a massively investing adversary would be worse than open competition. But it implies that the **China**-**United States** quantum race will not end with these two orders. It is accelerating. And the final outcome will depend less on the texts signed on **June 22, 2026** than on the capacity of American universities to train the quantum physicists of 2035.

*Presidential orders are intentions. What transforms an intention into reality is money, people, and time. On money: the 2 billion already committed in May is concrete. On people: the workforce problem is real and unresolved. On time: five years for a scientifically relevant quantum computer is ambitious but not impossible. I'm not ready to bet on failure. But I'm not ready to write the victory proclamation before the deliverables are there either.*

## What these orders say about Trump's vision of American power

### Technology as an instrument of domination, not merely growth

Reading these orders through a **Trump** ideological lens is striking. These are not texts of classical economic liberalism. They mandate the federal government to direct industrial investment, define technological standards, train the workforce, and exclude adversaries from supply chains. It is a form of **technological dirigisme** that Democrats would not have disowned — and that Trump justifies not through progressive ideology but through national security imperative. The political outcome is the same: the state pilots the country's technological direction.

This convergence is instructive. Facing **China** — which fully embraces its state technological capitalism — neither Republicans nor Democrats can afford to rely on the market alone. Competition with **Beijing** has produced an implicit bipartisan consensus on the need for active industrial policy in critical technologies. The **CHIPS Act**, adopted in 2022 under **Biden** with bipartisan support, was already that signal. **Trump**'s **quantum orders** of 2026 are its continuation. What Trump brings is the style — the Oval Office, the CEOs, the cameras — but the policy substance transcends party lines.

### The symbolism of signing in public

**Trump** could have signed these orders quietly, as technical documents. He did not. He gathered the heads of **IBM** and **Alphabet** in the Oval Office. He invited **Secretary of War Pete Hoekstra**, **Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick**, and **Energy Secretary Chris Wright**. The staging is calculated: it is a message to **China** (**we see you and we're investing massively**), a message to financial markets (**the American government backs the quantum sector**), and a message to allies (**American technological dominance is a state policy, not a market accident**).

**Trump** declared at the signing: **"We are ahead. We will stay ahead."** That is a political statement, not a scientific one. But in global technological competition, projected confidence is part of the game. Engineers and researchers also choose where to work based on the clarity of vision and funding signals given by their governments. In this sense, the ceremony of **June 22, 2026** had value beyond the orders themselves: it signaled that America is fighting to remain the center of the technological world.

*Trump in the Oval Office with the CEOs of IBM and Google. For some, it's theater. For others, it's exactly what the country needs to see. I note that quantum engineers in Zurich, Tokyo, and Toronto are watching these images — and some are wondering whether they should submit their CV to an American university. Soft power, sometimes, looks like a stylish signature on a sheet of paper in an oval office.*

## The impact on allies and security partners

### The Five Eyes and quantum coordination: a missed or seized opportunity?

The **United States** is part of the **Five Eyes** intelligence alliance with the **United Kingdom**, **Canada**, **Australia**, and **New Zealand**. These countries already share intelligence at the most sensitive levels. The natural question raised by the June 22 orders is: will this cooperation extend to the quantum domain, and on what terms? The text of the order is cautious but explicit: the Secretary of State must align "existing bilateral and multilateral commitments" with the order's priorities. The term **Pax Silica** refers precisely to a framework created to facilitate this type of coordination among technological allies.

**Canada**, notably, has significant quantum capabilities, with research centers in **Waterloo** (Perimeter Institute and Waterloo Quantum Institute), **Montreal**, and **Vancouver**. If **Washington** chooses to treat these capabilities as allied assets to integrate rather than as competition to surpass, it could accelerate the Western trajectory in the quantum race. The signals given by these orders — shared standards, secured supply chains, adversary exclusion — point toward such a vision. But realization will depend on bilateral negotiations that nothing in the orders guarantees.

### Japan and South Korea: natural quantum allies

**Japan** and **South Korea** both have advanced quantum programs and sophisticated semiconductor industries. **Samsung** and **SK Hynix** manufacture chips that enter quantum system supply chains. **Fujitsu** and **NTT** in Japan have active quantum computing programs. Section 9 of the orders explicitly states that the **United States** must ensure its companies have access to the strategic markets of allied countries — in the other direction, this means Asian allies will more easily access American technologies in this domain if both countries remain on the right geopolitical side.

This is a geopolitical loyalty lever. While China tries to anchor **Japan** and **South Korea** to its technological standards through commercial pressure and integrated supply chains, the **United States** offers an alternative: access to the Western quantum ecosystem, secured and interoperable. In a world where **China** still represents a major commercial partner for **Tokyo** and Seoul, this choice is difficult. These orders are also an argument in that competition for technological alignment.

*The Indo-Pacific is the decisive terrain of global technological competition. Not Washington. Not Silicon Valley. That's where semiconductor supply chains exist, where manufacturing capacity is concentrated, where China deploys its influence strategy most intensely. The June 22 orders don't explicitly name Japan or South Korea. But they concern them directly. As always, the most important texts are the ones that don't name everyone they affect.*

## Back to the Chipset: CHIPS Act, quantum, and strategic continuity

### From Biden to Trump: technological continuity despite the appearance of rupture

The **CHIPS and Science Act**, signed by **Biden** in August 2022, had allocated **52 billion dollars** to restart semiconductor manufacturing in the **United States**. **Trump** had criticized it during the campaign as an example of excessive government spending. But in May 2026, his administration used that same **CHIPS Act** to direct 2 billion toward quantum. This is not inconsistency — it is pragmatism. **Congress** had voted the funding, Trump deploys it differently but in the same strategic direction: American technological dominance facing **China**.

This continuity is important to note because it reveals something structural: regardless of which administration is in power, technological competition with **China** imposes a relatively stable agenda. The instruments change — **CHIPS Act**, **National Quantum Initiative**, executive orders — but the target remains the same. And **NATO** allies, like **Canada** with its own technological defense investments, participate in this broader dynamic, even when the respective governments appear to disagree on other matters.

### University funding: the critical unaddressed variable

The orders mandate the **NSF** to establish quantum workforce development institutes and support basic science research. But the funding of American university research in quantum physics has experienced significant fluctuations across budget cycles. The **National Science Foundation** is funded annually by **Congress** — and its appropriation can vary according to legislative priorities of the moment. If Congress chooses not to adequately fund the mandates created by these orders, timelines will slip and objectives won't be met.

This is the fundamental limit of any executive order: it can define priorities but cannot guarantee funding. **Trump** can sign, but it is **Congress** that votes the budgets. With a Republican Congress where some libertarian factions look with suspicion at any federal spending, even for national security reasons, nothing is guaranteed. The next two budget cycles — 2027 and 2028 — will be the real tests of the administration's commitment.

*In twenty years, we'll look back and say either that June 22, 2026 was a turning point, or that it was one of those moments where America understood the problem but lacked the discipline to fund it over time. I hope for the first version. The history of American technology policy since 2010 gives more arguments for the second. But this time, the geopolitical stakes may be grave enough to force the discipline.*

## Quantum and freedom: the forgotten political dimension

### Cryptography as infrastructure of democracy

Discussions about **quantum computing** too often stay in the register of economic and military competition. There is a third dimension: **political and democratic**. Cryptography — the kind that protects journalists' communications, election votes, citizens' medical data, households' financial transactions — rests on algorithms that will be potentially vulnerable to sufficiently powerful quantum computers. If an authoritarian power — **China**, **Russia** — develops such a tool before democracies have completed their migration to PQC, it creates an explosive asymmetry.

Imagine an authoritarian regime capable of retrospectively reading encrypted diplomatic communications stored for ten years — a technique called "harvest now, decrypt later." Or compromising the electoral systems of rival democracies. Or neutralizing military allies' communications in a crisis. The second order signed by **Trump** on June 22 is not only a cybersecurity policy. It is a policy to preserve the infrastructure of Western democracy. This framing should be front and center in the administration's communication far more often than it currently is.

### Civil liberties in a quantum-secured state

There is a less-discussed tension in the June 22 orders: the same quantum technology that protects democratic communications also allows, in uncontrolled state hands, to surveil them with unprecedented efficiency. Quantum sensors could one day make any unauthorized private communication impossible. The government **quantum computer** could — theoretically — be used for internal surveillance purposes, not only external defense. These scenarios are not in the orders, which speak only of competitive advantage and national security. But they deserve to be named.

In a democracy, surveillance technologies require a framework of democratic oversight proportional to their power. The June 22 orders mention no mechanism for **Congressional** oversight of the uses of quantum technologies by intelligence or military agencies. This is a notable blind spot. The administration should address it — not because bad faith is presumed, but because the power of these tools demands transparency proportional to their capacity to affect citizens' freedoms.

*I recognize I'm raising a question that nobody in the quantum technology expert circuit asks. They talk qubits, decoherence, error correction. They don't talk press freedom or political surveillance. But the two questions are connected. The state that can break all encryption can also read the emails of political opponents. I'm not saying Trump will do that. I'm saying the tools he's building would allow it, and that the absence of legislative guardrails is a legitimate question.*

## The international reaction: allies, rivals, observers

### Beijing reacts without reacting

As is its custom, **Beijing** did not officially react to **Trump**'s **quantum orders** on **June 22, 2026**. No statement from the **Ministry of Foreign Affairs**. No stinging editorial from the **Global Times** on the day itself. This absence of reaction is itself a signal: **China** has no interest in drawing attention to a domain where its own race is intensive. Reacting confirms that the stakes are real. Silence allows not amplifying American urgency while continuing its own quantum investments in the relative discretion of the Chinese political system.

But **Beijing**'s response will come through its own technological announcements — calculated demonstrations of its quantum capabilities, designed to invalidate the American narrative of superiority. This dynamic of technological declarations and counter-declarations has become a new dimension of Sino-American competition. The **June 22, 2026** orders will certainly be used in the coming months by Chinese officials to justify an acceleration of their own programs. This is the paradox of open technological competition: every announcement by one side is the other's argument to invest more.

### European allies: between admiration and concern

In **Europe**, reactions to **Trump**'s **quantum orders** will likely be ambivalent. On one hand, the **European Union** has its own flagship quantum program — launched in 2018 with a budget of **1 billion euros** over ten years — and certain member states, notably **Germany**, the **Netherlands**, and **France**, have significant national programs. The American announcement of June 22 confirms that quantum competition is a reality, which the EU already knows. On the other hand, the American ambition to have its PQC standards adopted by its allies — including Europeans — raises questions of digital **sovereignty** that **Brussels** jealously defends.

The **European Commission** has developed its own cybersecurity policy, including reflections on the PQC transition, and will not be enthusiastic about having that transition orchestrated from **Washington**. This is a real tension between allies — not a conflict, but an ongoing negotiation over who defines the digital security standards of the Western world. **Trump**'s orders have intensified it, perhaps unintentionally.

*Europe has something America doesn't: political time to build compromises. And something it sorely lacks: the urgency to stamp its foot and decide. Brussels is still discussing quantum computing while Trump signs orders with IBM and Google. I don't know which approach will win the race. But I know that bureaucratic slowness never beats determination when the stakes are existential.*

## The role of universities and national laboratories in the American quantum revolution

### What was just signed will outlast Trump himself

**Trump**'s policy is often presented as unpredictable, transactional, short-sighted. These two **quantum orders** of **June 22, 2026** are the exception to that narrative. They commit institutional trajectories — training, investment, standards, counterintelligence — that will have effects well beyond this term. The American federal bureaucracy will absorb these directives and continue executing them even if Trump changes his mind tomorrow on **quantum**. **IBM** will continue building its manufacturing facilities. The **NSF** will continue funding its institutes. **DARPA** will continue its benchmarks. That's the difference between a tweet and an executive order: one disappears, the other becomes institutionalized.

For the **West** as a whole — which includes allied democracies in **Europe**, the **Indo-Pacific**, and **North America** — these orders are good news. America signals it is taking technological competition with **China** seriously at the highest executive level. It is investing. It is coordinating. It is armoring its allies. This is not enough, and it doesn't guarantee victory in a race that will last decades. But it is far better than inaction. And in the competition to remain the center of the technological world, every day of lead time counts.

### The real question: does America have the patience to finish what it starts?

This is where honesty demands its say. **America** is brilliant at launching technology programs and mediocre at funding them over time when results aren't visible within an electoral cycle. **Quantum computing** is a ten- or twenty-year investment. The gains — superiority over **China**, protection of democratic infrastructure, transformative scientific discoveries — will not be visible in 2028, during the next American elections. If a new administration decides in 2029 that **quantum** is less urgent than federal deficits, the entire edifice weakens. That is the real risk. Not the ambition of the orders. Their continuity.

*Two orders. Fifteen chapters of technical mandates. Twenty agencies involved. And in the end, the question that decides everything: will America hold? Not against China — that it can manage. But against itself, against its own political inconstancy, against its electoral cycles too short for challenges that are too long. That is an open question. And that uncertainty, no presidential order can close.*

## Artificial intelligence and quantum: a convergence that changes everything

### When AI meets quantum: the acceleration of accelerators

The two presidential orders of **June 22, 2026** on quantum must be read in connection with another ongoing technological revolution: **generative artificial intelligence**. The convergence between **quantum computing** and **AI** is perhaps the most important technological dynamic of the decade — and it is precisely in this space of convergence that competition between the **United States** and **China** will play out. **AI** can accelerate the development of quantum algorithms — by simulating quantum systems, optimizing quantum circuits, identifying the most promising applications for early noisy quantum computers. Reciprocally, quantum can accelerate certain **AI** problems — particularly the optimization problems at the heart of training large models.

This convergence is not yet operational — current quantum computers are too noisy to deliver concrete advantages on AI problems. But the research directions taken by laboratories like **IBM Quantum**, **Google Quantum AI**, and their Chinese equivalents (**Origin Quantum**, labs of **USTC**) indicate that this convergence is a major research priority. The **June 22** orders anticipate this convergence — including in their mandates objectives that concern **quantum AI** as much as standalone quantum. And it is this integrated vision — not quantum in isolation — that perhaps represents the true strategic ambition behind the two sheets of paper signed at the **White House**.

*AI and quantum. These two technologies I hear at every conference, in every technology article, in every political speech. They are real. Their convergence is real. And their implication for competition with China is real. What I don't know — what nobody truly knows — is how quickly this convergence will become operational. In five years? In fifteen? That uncertainty is the source of all the urgency rhetoric surrounding these orders.*

## Conclusion: the invisible power that will decide the century

### Quantum as a metaphor for the world to come

There is something almost poetic about the fact that the technology which will redefine the global hierarchy of powers is fundamentally invisible to the naked eye. A **quantum computer** does not look like a **missile** or an aircraft carrier. It fits in a refrigerated chamber at a temperature close to absolute zero. Its **qubits** are fragile, ephemeral, dependent on perfect isolation from the outside world to function. And yet, if it functions at the desired scale, it can break every cryptographic lock protecting the military, diplomatic, and economic secrets of nations. This is the absolute contradiction of our era: the greatest vulnerability of world power will be created by the most fragile thing that exists.

**Trump** signed two orders on **June 22, 2026**. They won't make headlines the next day — discussions on **Iran**, **Ukraine**, tariffs occupy far more media space. But in the laboratories, in the intelligence agencies, in the war ministries of the great powers, what was signed that day will be read carefully. Because the invisible power of **quantum** decides, silently, who will govern the world of the next century. And on June 22, 2026, America said it loud and clear: **it will be us.**

*The power that can't be seen. The fight that can't be named. The victory not declared in a press release but in a quantum edge over an adversary that never lets go. I don't know whether Trump thought about all of this when signing these orders. But his advisors did. And sometimes, in this brutal world, it's enough that someone thought of it in time.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [Executive Order: Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation — June 22, 2026](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/ushering-in-the-next-frontier-of-quantum-innovation/)

- [White House Fact Sheet: Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks — June 22, 2026](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/06/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-secures-the-nation-against-advanced-cryptographic-attacks/)

- [List of Presidential Executive Orders — White House Executive Orders, June 2026](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-orders/)

### Secondary sources

- [Fox News: Trump signs landmark executive order investing in quantum computing and cryptography security — June 23, 2026](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-signs-landmark-executive-order-investing-quantum-computing-cryptography-security)

- [White House Video: President Trump Signs Executive Orders, Jun. 22, 2026 — June 22, 2026](https://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/president-trump-signs-executive-orders-jun-22-2026/)

- [FDD: Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker June 2026 — June 2, 2026](https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2026/06/02/trump-administration-foreign-policy-tracker-june-2/)

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/decryptage-trump-signe-deux-decrets-quantiques-qui-redessinentla-puissance-americaine