President Trump Issues Executive Order on AI

On December 11, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order (Order) to promote artificial intelligence (AI) and block states from enforcing laws to regulate AI. 

The Order states that “AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation” and that state regulation would (1) create different regulations making compliance difficult; (2) require entities to embed ideological bias within models; and (3) sometimes impinge on interstate commerce.

Four states have already passed AI regulation (CO, CA, Utah, and Texas), and the Order gives the U.S. Department of Justice 90 days (mid-March 2026) to determine whether to sue them.  Many other states have passed laws regarding the creation of deepfakes and similar AI-related issues that would tangentially regulate AI.  Section 5 of the Executive Order would cease BEAD funding for non-deployment if a state was found to have adopted an “onerous” AI law, to the “maximum extent allowed by Federal law.”  

In addition, the Order directs the FCC to start an AI proceeding to adopt reporting and disclosure standards to pre-empt state law.  President Trump’s directive for the agency to start a process to decide whether to implement a federal reporting and disclosure requirement for AI models that supersedes conflicting state regulations is welcomed by Chairman Carr.