Trump Contemplates Executive Order Targeting State AI Laws

The Trump Administration is considering an Executive Order as soon as today aimed at curbing new state AI laws.

Why it matters: If successful, the effort could halt the growing patchwork of state AI laws and pave the way for a uniform national framework.

What’s in the Executive Order? According to multiple news outlets, the Order would seek to block state AI regulations through several specific actions, including:

• Creating an “AI Litigation Task Force” at the Department of Justice tasked with challenging state AI laws in court.

• Withholding federal funding—including broadband funds—from states that pass “onerous” AI laws.

• Directing the Federal Trade Commission to issue new disclosure and reporting standards that would preempt conflicting state requirements.

The effort to forestall state AI laws is meant to foster continued AI innovation without over-regulation: “We remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution and are still in a race with adversaries for supremacy within it,” the draft Executive Order language states, according to the Hill. “To win, American AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation.”

• Notably, several state governors—including Democratic governors in California and Colorado—have recently vetoed or sought to scale back AI laws for similar reasons.

Shaky legal ground: The DOJ litigation task force would seek to eliminate state AI laws on the basis that they unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce—an uncertain legal argument at best that would likely be challenged. Efforts to create new regulatory standards to preempt such state laws would likely face similar challenges.

A federal AI law? President Trump has made it clear—both through the potential Executive Order and a recent social media post—that his end goal is to pass a uniform, national AI law to replace a potential state AI patchwork.

• In theory, a national AI standard would likely draw bipartisan support in Congress amongst both Republicans and Democrats.

• In practice, reaching a compromise that has enough support to clear the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle —and includes state law preemption—remains a tall order.

• Regardless, momentum toward a federal solution is rising, as states continue to pass legislation and the effects of AI integration and workforce displacement start to hit home.

Employer considerations:

• A uniform federal AI standard would significantly reduce compliance complexity created by a state patchwork of laws.

• A single standard that preempts potentially more restrictive state rules could limit regulatory risk and operational burdens.

• Any eventual federal law is unlikely to match the EU AI Act in scope or compliance demands—expect a more moderate approach.