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President Trump cited an executive order on Thursday that
tells states to step aside on AI.
The order blocks states from enforcing their own AI
regulation and replaces that patchwork with what the White
House calls a single national framework for AI.
That is a massive policy shift and it happened in the Oval
Office with venture capitalists standing right behind the
president. This one stopped me in my
tracks. I was like, what is going on
here? It looks like the industry is
taking over the White House. Now. 4 states have already
passed AI laws. Colorado, California, Utah, and
Texas all have rules on the books.
So what happens to those laws now?
The executive order creates A litigation task force inside the
Justice Department specifically designed to sue states over
their AI laws. We're going to cover how this
order works, who is behind it and why Republicans are fighting
each other over it and whether it will survive the courts.
And we'll get right into that after this very short break.
Now, Trump just gave tech companies a federal shield
against state oversight. The executive order dropped
December 11th, and it carries real enforcement teeth.
Attorney General Pam Bondi now has orders to build an AI
litigation task force. Now, that task force has one job
to sue states. The signing ceremony in the Oval
Office told you everything you needed to know about who wanted
this. David Sachs stood next to the
president. And Sachs is a venture
capitalist and the White House crypto and AI czar.
Now, another tech investor and podcaster was there.
Tech Senator Ted Cruz rounded out the group.
Now, hold on to that detail. The people celebrating this
order are not consumer advocates or state attorneys generals.
They are from Silicon Valley. Money.
Here is what the order actually does.
It directs the Justice Department to challenge state AI
laws in court. It tells the Federal Trade
Commission and the Federal Communications Commissions to
work with the DOJ to circumvent what the White House calls
onerous state and local regulations.
It threatens to withhold federal broadband funding from states
that pass AI laws the administration doesn't like.
That is a funding penalty, which is a serious lever from the top.
Now. Commerce Secretary Howard
Lutnick now has to study which states might lose that money
now. Sachs offered one carve out
during the ceremony. Child safety regulations stay in
place. The administration will not push
back on state laws designed to protect kids from EI harms.
Sachs also wrote on social media that the order does not mean the
administration will challenge every state AI law.
Now that sounds reasonable until you realize the order gives the
executive branch unilateral power to decide which state laws
count as onerous. Now, there is no definition, no
list. The White House picks the
targets. A quick definition here, though.
When policy people say preemption, they actually mean
the federal government overriding state authority.
That is what this order attempts to do.
The question is whether an executive order can actually do
that. Legal experts say no Brad Carson
runs Americans for Responsible Innovation.
He called the order in attempt to push through unpopular and
unwise policy. He predicted it will hit a brick
wall in the courts. Now that changes all these
stakes. This is not a set of law.
It's a fight in the courts right now.
And here is a pretty key point here.
Congress already already rejected this.
In July, the Senate voted nearly unanimously to remove a 10 year
moratorium on state IEI regulations from Trump's
domestic policy bill. Republicans joined Democrats.
The moratorium died. Then Republican lawmakers tried
again, pushing AI preemption into the National Defense
Authorization Act. That also failed.
The executive order is attempt #3 now that is the key.
When the legislative branch says no twice, the executive branch
does does it anyway, executive orders it.
This is not a clean partisan fight.
Republicans are on both sides. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
called the idea a subsidy to Big tech.
He wrote that denying people the ability to channel these
technologies through self government constitutes federal
overreach and let's technology companies run rampant.
That is a conservative Republican governor attacking A
conservative Republican president.
Steve Bannon went further on his War Room podcast.
He said we have more regulations about launching a nail salon on
Capitol Hill than we have on the Frontier Labs.
We have no earthly idea what they're doing.
So what do we know? Right now, though, the MAGA
Coalition is fractured on this. The tech industry wanted this
very badly. Open AI, Google, and the venture
firm Anderson Horowitz have all lobbied to limit state
regulations. AI companies have been opening
offices near the Capitol and launching campaigns through a
super PAC, with at least $100 million earmarked for the 2026
midterm elections. Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI,
has argued the navigating 50 different state regulations
would slow innovation and hurt America.
In the AI race with China, that's how they frame it.
National security versus state rights A critics see it
differently. Sasha Hayworth runs the Tech
Oversight project. She said we are in a fight to
determine who will benefit from AI, big Tech, CE, OS or the
American people. Democratic Senator Ed Markey
called the order in early Christmas present for his CEO
billionaire buddies. He called it irresponsible,
short sighted in an assault on state's ability to safeguard
their constituents. Hundreds of organizations signed
letters to Congress last month opposing the idea of blocking
state AI regulations. Tech employee unions, consumer
protection, nonprofits, education institutions.
The opposition is very broad now.
What have states actually done here?
4 states passed laws setting rules for AI across the private
sector. Those laws limit the collection
of certain personal information and require more transparency
from companies. And beyond those broader rules,
many states have regulated specific AI uses, banning
defects, elections, prohibiting AI generated non consensual
videos, putting guardrails on government use of AI.
Those laws now face potential federal challenge.
Now the legal question comes down to one word, authority.
Mackenzie Arnold directs U.S. policy at the Institute for Law
and AI. She pointed out that by the
administration's logic, states would not be allowed to pass
Product Safety laws either. That's almost all of them affect
companies that sell goods nationally.
That makes the order vulnerable. Courts have historically allowed
states to regulate products and business practices within their
borders, even when those businesses operate across state
lines. The Commerce Clause argument
cuts both ways. Now do a little recap here.
Trump signed an executive order blocking states from enforcing
their own AI regulations. The order creates a Justice
Department task force to sue those states.
They threaten federal funding if they don't comply.
It gives the White House power to decide which state laws cross
the line. Congress rejected similar
measures twice this year. Republican governors and
commentators oppose it alongside the Democrats.
They're in this together. They don't want this to happen.
Tech companies and their investors 100% want this so they
can control everything that we do with AI.
Look, I'm not a conspiracy theory person.
I don't have a tinfoil hat. I've never worn one.
But I know what money does to people.
If they can have control over the laws, they can do whatever
they want with the technology and make more money.
That's what Sam Altman wants. He's not your friend.
None of the tech billionaires are your friends.
I'm not a politician, but anybody that runs these
companies, they have profit in mind.
They don't care about you. Now courts will likely decide
whether this survives and hopefully an executive order
does not limit states rights to do what they need to do to
protect people from AI. Hey, thank you so much for
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