President Trump on Tuesday took aim at state laws seeking to regulate AI, calling for a nationwide standard and urging lawmakers to limit the moves by state legislatures.
“Investment in AI is helping to make the U.S. Economy the ‘HOTTEST’ in the World, but overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Major Growth ‘Engine,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Some States are even trying to embed DEI ideology into AI models, producing ‘Woke AI’ (Remember Black George Washington?),” he continued. “We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race.”
He suggested lawmakers place a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act or pass a separate bill addressing these concerns.
The president’s comments come after Punchbowl News reported Monday that House GOP leaders were considering including language in the must-pass defense bill that would effectively ban state AI regulation.
The report prompted pushback from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) called the potential provision a “poison pill” and vowed to block it, while Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) suggested it “shows what money can do.”
This marks the latest push by GOP lawmakers to pass a moratorium on state AI laws, which they argue risk weighing down innovation at a crucial moment in the AI race.
A 10-year moratorium was initially included in Trump’s tax and spending bill earlier this year but was stripped out in a 99-1 Senate vote.
