(11/24) The Trump administration has placed a hold on the executive order.
President Donald Trump is calling for a unified, single AI framework “instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes.” Doing so would dramatically thwart states’ current AI policies.
The draft executive order is titled “Eliminating State Law Obstruction of National AI Policy.” It comes in the wake of the president’s Truth Social post criticizing the overregulation of AI.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has been given 30 days to establish an “AI Litigation Task Force,” which will be responsible for challenging state AI laws. Challenges will be issued “on grounds that such laws unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce, are preempted by existing Federal regulations, or are otherwise unlawful in the Attorney General’s judgment,” according to the draft.
Challenged states may also receive notice from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that they are ineligible for funding under the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.
The draft specifically calls out AI laws in Colorado and California. The latter, according to the document, enacted a disclosure and reporting law “premised on the purely speculative suspicion that AI might ‘pose significant catastrophic risk.'” In Colorado, the state’s postponed “algorithmic discrimination” law may force AI models to embed DEI in their programming, the executive order asserts.
“But the United States’ AI regulatory framework must prioritize truth,” the document reads.
However, multiple reports suggest that any discussion around the executive order is merely speculation until it is passed.
A major hurdle for state guidance
The rapid evolution of AI since ChatGPT’s release in November 2022 has motivated states to protect users, including students and educators who frequently fall victim to deepfakes and other forms of AI manipulation.
At the start of the school year, administrators at the North Polk Community School District in central Iowa investigated AI-generated deepfake videos of school staff, Radio Iowa reports. The videos, which were shared on TikTok, appeared to show staff members in “inappropriate contexts,” according to the district.
In Florida, a law took effect in October, making it illegal to produce sexual images of a person using AI or similar technologies without their permission, another issue plaguing school districts.
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Trump’s executive order draft unacceptable in a social media post.
Stripping states of jurisdiction to regulate AI is a subsidy to Big Tech and will prevent states from protecting against online censorship of political speech, predatory applications that target children, violations of intellectual property rights and data center intrusions on… https://t.co/g0FciT0gLN
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) November 18, 2025
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey also called out Republicans for “trying to sneak their AI regulation moratorium into the defense bill,” while accusing Trump of conspiring “with his billionaire Big Tech buddies,” according to a post he made on X.
Hundreds of organizations, including tech employee unions and other labor groups, tech safety and consumer protection nonprofits and educational institutions, signed letters to Congress this week opposing the blocking of state AI regulations, CNN reports.
“Federal preemption would invalidate key state laws that protect against ‘high impact’ AI, which is contrary to the Trump administration’s executive memo aiming to protect the public from harms in federal agencies’ use of AI in employment, lending education and beyond,” reads a letter signed by prominent education-serving groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, Common Sense Media and others.
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