As he faces cratering poll numbers and widespread backlash to a gamut of administration policies, Donald Trump is throwing his support behind a push to implement one of his movement’s least-popular proposals — one that could benefit his Big Tech benefactors.
Trump’s Truth Social account posted Tuesday about barring states from regulating artificial intelligence, which would leave only the federal government to set the rules for how companies use AI — many of whose developers, such as Sam Altman-led OpenAI and Elon Musk-led X, are run by major Trump donors.
“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 ‘Growth Engine,’” the post read. He endorsed “one Federal Standard” for AI regulation before the president — whose administration is currently engaged in aggressive media censorship — vowed, “We can do this in a way that protects children AND prevents censorship!”
Several major tech companies lobbied for a 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation, which made it into the House draft of the Trump-backed spending bill but was stripped from the Senate version on a 99-to-1 vote in July, after public outcry and terrible poll numbers. Forty state attorneys general also issued a rare, bipartisan statement condemning the proposal.
But now Trump is trying to bring it back, after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise spoke Monday of a push to add it to the National Defense Authorization Act. And as with the first time, outrage over the idea’s revival hasn’t been confined to liberals — even among MAGA faithfuls, there’s a strain of distrust toward Big Tech companies and their expressed desire for deregulation.
“Shows what money can do,” Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said in a post resharing right-wing lawyer Mike Davis’ rebuke of the proposal.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t too keen on the idea either, posting that a move that “lets technology companies run wild” is “not acceptable.”
It’s also worth noting that Trump’s support of a ban on state regulation of AI stands in blatant contradiction of his administration’s “states’ rights” arguments for other issues, such as education laws.
