SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration is drafting an executive order that would direct the Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post and confirmed by a person familiar with the White House effort, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. But the proposal could conflict with legal limits to presidential power.
The proposed executive order comes after a split among Senate Republicans in July killed a proposal backed by the White House to block all state AI regulation, as part of Trump’s signature tax and immigration law. It foundered after pushback from lawmakers in both parties concerned about the need to protect Americans from potential harms caused by AI. The White House declined to comment for this article.
Worries over the technology’s impact on jobs, potential harms to children and increased electricity prices due to energy consumption by data centers that power AI software are becoming major political issues for lawmakers in both parties. Pew Research Center found in a June survey that 50 percent of Americans are more concerned than excited about increased use of AI in daily life.
The Republican Party has traditionally been vocal about limits to federal power over states, as defined in the U.S. Constitution. If signed by President Donald Trump, the draft executive order would escalate his efforts to force states into line with his priorities during his second term.
The Trump administration has sued several states in recent months, including California over a law that sought to block law enforcement officers from covering their faces, and New York and Vermont over laws that require oil companies to pay toward the cost of climate-related disasters.
The draft AI order would direct the Justice Department to challenge state laws regulating the technology on the grounds that they interfere with interstate commerce. Travis Hall, state director at the nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology, said the approach appeared to be unconstitutional.
“Preemption is a question for Congress, which they have considered and rejected, and should continue to reject,” Hall said. “This proposal is shocking in its disregard for the democratic processes of state governments in their work to address the real and documented harms arising from AI tools.”
The draft order would establish a federal task force to evaluate existing state laws on AI and identify whether they impinge on freedom of speech. Under the order, the commerce secretary would be directed to withhold federal funding for broadband internet from states identified as having such laws.
Trump and Republican lawmakers have not given up on the idea of using Congress to limit state AI regulation. On Tuesday, the president wrote in a post on his social network Truth Social that the United States should have a single federal standard on AI, and suggested adding it to the defense authorization bill that passed the Senate last month and is now before the House.
“We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race,” Trump said.
On Wednesday, some GOP politicians and activists voiced opposition to that proposal. Republican governors Ron DeSantis from Florida and Spencer Cox from Utah both said in posts on X that they oppose efforts to pass a federal preemption.
“Sneaking it into the defense bill is an insult to voters,” DeSantis wrote.
Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report.
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