• With China looming large in AI, Trump is betting on data centers, exports and a national AI vision, a strategy that now faces legal limits and bipartisan resistance

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump has sought to overhaul nearly every aspect of the US’ artificial intelligence environment during the first year of his second term, issuing executive actions that seek to both accelerate development and overhaul the laws that govern it.

Looming large over Trump’s actions has been China, whom Trump has repeatedly pointed to as he seeks to maintain the US edge in the AI race. Indeed, China was referenced no fewer than 19 times by the US president as he rolled out his latest action this month.

“We’re leading China. We’re leading everybody by a tremendous amount,” Trump said at the White House Dec. 11. “China is unified, because they have one vote. That’s President Xi (Jinping). He says, ‘do it’, and that’s the end of that. You know, we have a different system, but we have a system that’s good, but we only have a system that’s good if it’s smart.”

As the remarks suggest, Trump’s latest action seeks to challenge state-level AI regulations in favor of a yet-to-be-established federal regulatory framework that Congress has repeatedly balked at crafting.

The order itself does not establish those federal standards because it is Congress that has those authorities under the Constitution. Instead, it directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to form an “AI litigation task force,” which the order says will “challenge State AI laws inconsistent with” what the order describes as “a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI.”

It is unclear what would constitute a violation of the terms, but David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, pointed to state-level laws in California, New York and Illinois that he said were “creating a confusing patchwork of regulation, and what we need is a single federal standard.”

All of the states mentioned by Sacks are governed by Democrats. But pushback to the president’s latest effort has come not just from Trump’s partisan opposition, but also his fellow Republicans.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a prominent member of the party, vowed to forge ahead with his state-level regulations, saying he believes the push will survive any federal review while maintaining his state’s “right” to implement regulations.

“An executive order can’t block states. You can pre-empt states under Article 1 powers through congressional legislation on certain issues, but you can’t do it through executive order,” DeSantis said during an AI event at Florida Atlantic University. “But irrespective, clearly, we have a right to do this.”

The defiance comes after Trump repeatedly called on Congress to pass a national AI framework, but at each turn was faced with setbacks on Capitol Hill.

A Trump-encouraged effort led by Sen. Ted Cruz to include the national standard in the annual defense spending bill was rejected earlier this month. At the time, Sen. Josh Hawley, another vocal stalwart of the president, lauded the defeat.

“Good. This is a terrible provision and should remain OUT,” he said on US social media platform X.

Orders speed data center construction, ‘prevent woke AI’ alongside AI action plan

Trump made his first major splash in the AI world in July when he rolled out a sprawling 24-page “action plan” comprised of 90 policy recommendations for the increasingly important tech sector.

The document emphasizes that “America is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence” as it seeks to build policy momentum in three major sectors.

Those include building out American AI infrastructure, accelerating innovation and leading in international AI diplomacy.

The US president sought to give the document teeth by simultaneously issuing three related executive orders.

They separately seek to accelerate the development of AI data centers by expediting the federal permitting process, promote the export of what is called the “American AI Technology Stack” and “preventing woke AI in the federal government.”

There is no universally accepted understanding for what “woke” means, but it is generally used pejoratively against left-leaning ideals. Trump’s order purports to eliminate perceived political bias, presumably liberal, in AI.

The Commerce Department announced in October the launch of an export program for Trump’s “American AI Technology Stack,” which it said seeks to advance the US’ “global leadership in AI” by seeking input from industry leaders on what it should be comprised of.

An AI stack is essentially the entire foundation for artificial intelligence, from hardware to data center storage, AI models and apps.

A key component of Trump’s AI action plan is the establishment of what has been dubbed the US Tech Force, an administration-wide push to hire early-career individuals from the tech sector to modernize the federal government.

“This is a clarion call,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said as the initiative was launched this week. “Tech Force offers the chance to build and lead projects of national importance, while creating powerful career opportunities in both public service and the private sector.”

Central to the Tech Force’s mission is fast-tracking the use of AI in government. About 1,000 early-career software engineers, data scientists and others are slated to be hired under the initiative.

Trump push focused on executive action as limits come to light

As with much of Trump’s first year in office, his revamp of the AI ecosystem has leaned heavily on executive action. Doing so allows the US president to execute attempted run-arounds of Congress, but it has repeatedly shown the limits of his authorities.

Without legislative approval, Trump’s actions can be more easily defeated in court, or slowed by repeated legal challenges. And without the added weight of law, his policies are increasingly likely to be met with defiance from state and local officials who believe they are an overreach, as was the case with his effort to roll back state AI regulations.

Trump is preparing to enter his second year in office with an even larger challenge for the president’s legislative prospects. Midterm elections are slated to be held in November, and the party in power typically loses sway in the federal legislature.

Republicans, for their part, have sounded the proverbial alarm.

“The chances are Republicans will go down and will go down hard,” Joe Gruters, the head of the Republican National Committee said during an interview with the Trump friendly Salem News Channel. “This is an absolute disaster. No matter what party is in power, they usually get crushed in the midterms.”