In recent weeks, Donald Trump has repeatedly complained about states creating their own regulations and safeguards on artificial intelligence, which the president has described as untenable.
“I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week,” he wrote online on Monday. “You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”
The list of concerns related to such a move is quite long, but near the top is a basic legal truth: Presidential executive orders cannot nullify state laws. The Republican administration might like the idea of having “one rule” for AI regulations, but that’s not up to Trump to decide unilaterally.
Nevertheless, four days after publishing this vow to his social media platform, the president did, in fact, sign an executive order intended to advance his broader goal. NBC News reported:
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to create an ‘AI Litigation Task Force’ within 30 days whose ‘sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws’ that clash with the Trump administration’s vision for light-touch regulation.
In addition, the order instructs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to identify existing state laws that ‘require AI models to alter their truthful outputs,’ echoing earlier Trump administration efforts to prevent what it calls ‘woke AI.’ States found to have these and other ‘onerous’ laws may have to enter into agreements not to enforce those statutes in order to receive discretionary federal funding.
As a substantive matter, there’s ample room for debate about the White House’s efforts to “insulate Big Tech companies … many of which are led by people who have showered him with money and gifts,” as my MS NOW colleague Ja’han Jones put it.
What’s more, as Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota explained in a New York Times op-ed this week, the more Congress struggles to enact federal regulations, the more important it becomes for states to fill the vacuum and approve safety standards. (Congressional Republican leaders urged the White House to hold off on this executive order, as they explore a legislative compromise. As is usually the case, Trump ignored his own party’s leaders and did what he wanted.)
But let’s also consider the two core elements of the presidential order.
Trump telling the Justice Department to create a “litigation task force” related to state AI laws is easy to overlook. After all, he could’ve just picked up the phone, called the attorney general and said, “Go try to tear down state laws in the courts.” But of greater interest is the directive to the Commerce Department. As a New York Times report summarized, “If states keep their laws in place, Mr. Trump directed federal regulators to withhold funds for broadband and other projects.” In effect, the White House policy is telling state officials — in red and blue states, alike — to go easy on Trump’s Big Tech pals or expect troubles with their federal funds. The volume of litigation is likely to be robust. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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