Trump Administration and States

The Trump White House is signaling it wants states to largely stand down on regulating artificial intelligence until a federal framework passes and is preparing to formally flag certain state statutes as 'onerous' for potential challenge by a new DOJ AI Litigation Task Force, according to Axios. A bloc of 50 Republican state lawmakers sent a letter to President Trump this week accusing administration officials of pressuring legislators in Utah and other red states to abandon AI safety bills meant to protect children, jobs and privacy, and insisting state-led regulation is compatible with conservative principles. In Utah, advocates say a mid‑session 'attack memo' from the White House helped kill an AI safety bill, prompting local groups to buy billboards targeting White House AI adviser David Sacks, while in Florida a DeSantis-backed 'AI Bill of Rights' passed the Senate but was blocked from a House vote after Speaker Daniel Perez aligned himself with the administration’s stance. Ohio Republicans are reworking a bill to bar any form of legal personhood for AI while watching how far the White House will go, even as Trump’s executive order points first at existing laws in California, New York and Colorado as likely early targets. The clash sets up a major federalism fight over who writes the rules for AI — Washington or the states — at the same time industry lobbyists are loudly warning against a patchwork of state requirements.