Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Trump's AI Executive Order Has a $100 Million Lobby Behind It

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Trump's AI Executive Order Has a $100 Million Lobby Behind It · Elon Musk Podcast

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  tremendously. Thank you so much.
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  President Trump cited an executive order on Thursday that
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  tells states to step aside on AI.
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  The order blocks states from enforcing their own AI
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  regulation and replaces that patchwork with what the White
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  House calls a single national framework for AI.
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  That is a massive policy shift and it happened in the Oval
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  Office with venture capitalists standing right behind the
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  president. This one stopped me in my
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  tracks. I was like, what is going on
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  here? It looks like the industry is
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  taking over the White House. Now. 4 states have already
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  passed AI laws. Colorado, California, Utah, and
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  Texas all have rules on the books.
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  So what happens to those laws now?
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  The executive order creates A litigation task force inside the
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  Justice Department specifically designed to sue states over
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  their AI laws. We're going to cover how this
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  order works, who is behind it and why Republicans are fighting
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  each other over it and whether it will survive the courts.
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  And we'll get right into that after this very short break.
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  Now, Trump just gave tech companies a federal shield
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  against state oversight. The executive order dropped
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  December 11th, and it carries real enforcement teeth.
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  Attorney General Pam Bondi now has orders to build an AI
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  litigation task force. Now, that task force has one job
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  to sue states. The signing ceremony in the Oval
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  Office told you everything you needed to know about who wanted
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  this. David Sachs stood next to the
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  president. And Sachs is a venture
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  capitalist and the White House crypto and AI czar.
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  Now, another tech investor and podcaster was there.
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  Tech Senator Ted Cruz rounded out the group.
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  Now, hold on to that detail. The people celebrating this
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  order are not consumer advocates or state attorneys generals.
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  They are from Silicon Valley. Money.
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  Here is what the order actually does.
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  It directs the Justice Department to challenge state AI
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  laws in court. It tells the Federal Trade
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  Commission and the Federal Communications Commissions to
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  work with the DOJ to circumvent what the White House calls
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  onerous state and local regulations.
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  It threatens to withhold federal broadband funding from states
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  that pass AI laws the administration doesn't like.
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  That is a funding penalty, which is a serious lever from the top.
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  Now. Commerce Secretary Howard
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  Lutnick now has to study which states might lose that money
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  now. Sachs offered one carve out
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  during the ceremony. Child safety regulations stay in
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  place. The administration will not push
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  back on state laws designed to protect kids from EI harms.
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  Sachs also wrote on social media that the order does not mean the
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  administration will challenge every state AI law.
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  Now that sounds reasonable until you realize the order gives the
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  executive branch unilateral power to decide which state laws
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  count as onerous. Now, there is no definition, no
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  list. The White House picks the
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  targets. A quick definition here, though.
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  When policy people say preemption, they actually mean
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  the federal government overriding state authority.
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  That is what this order attempts to do.
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  The question is whether an executive order can actually do
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  that. Legal experts say no Brad Carson
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  runs Americans for Responsible Innovation.
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  He called the order in attempt to push through unpopular and
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  unwise policy. He predicted it will hit a brick
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  wall in the courts. Now that changes all these
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  stakes. This is not a set of law.
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  It's a fight in the courts right now.
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  And here is a pretty key point here.
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  Congress already already rejected this.
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  In July, the Senate voted nearly unanimously to remove a 10 year
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  moratorium on state IEI regulations from Trump's
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  domestic policy bill. Republicans joined Democrats.
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  The moratorium died. Then Republican lawmakers tried
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  again, pushing AI preemption into the National Defense
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  Authorization Act. That also failed.
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  The executive order is attempt #3 now that is the key.
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  When the legislative branch says no twice, the executive branch
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  does does it anyway, executive orders it.
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  This is not a clean partisan fight.
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  Republicans are on both sides. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
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  called the idea a subsidy to Big tech.
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  He wrote that denying people the ability to channel these
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  technologies through self government constitutes federal
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  overreach and let's technology companies run rampant.
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  That is a conservative Republican governor attacking A
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  conservative Republican president.
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  Steve Bannon went further on his War Room podcast.
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  He said we have more regulations about launching a nail salon on
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  Capitol Hill than we have on the Frontier Labs.
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  We have no earthly idea what they're doing.
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  So what do we know? Right now, though, the MAGA
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  Coalition is fractured on this. The tech industry wanted this
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  very badly. Open AI, Google, and the venture
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  firm Anderson Horowitz have all lobbied to limit state
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  regulations. AI companies have been opening
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  offices near the Capitol and launching campaigns through a
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  super PAC, with at least $100 million earmarked for the 2026
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  midterm elections. Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI,
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  has argued the navigating 50 different state regulations
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  would slow innovation and hurt America.
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  In the AI race with China, that's how they frame it.
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  National security versus state rights A critics see it
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  differently. Sasha Hayworth runs the Tech
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  Oversight project. She said we are in a fight to
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  determine who will benefit from AI, big Tech, CE, OS or the
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  American people. Democratic Senator Ed Markey
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  called the order in early Christmas present for his CEO
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  billionaire buddies. He called it irresponsible,
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  short sighted in an assault on state's ability to safeguard
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  their constituents. Hundreds of organizations signed
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  letters to Congress last month opposing the idea of blocking
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  state AI regulations. Tech employee unions, consumer
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  protection, nonprofits, education institutions.
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  The opposition is very broad now.
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  What have states actually done here?
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  4 states passed laws setting rules for AI across the private
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  sector. Those laws limit the collection
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  of certain personal information and require more transparency
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  from companies. And beyond those broader rules,
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  many states have regulated specific AI uses, banning
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  defects, elections, prohibiting AI generated non consensual
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  videos, putting guardrails on government use of AI.
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  Those laws now face potential federal challenge.
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  Now the legal question comes down to one word, authority.
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  Mackenzie Arnold directs U.S. policy at the Institute for Law
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  and AI. She pointed out that by the
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  administration's logic, states would not be allowed to pass
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  Product Safety laws either. That's almost all of them affect
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  companies that sell goods nationally.
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  That makes the order vulnerable. Courts have historically allowed
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  states to regulate products and business practices within their
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  borders, even when those businesses operate across state
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  lines. The Commerce Clause argument
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  cuts both ways. Now do a little recap here.
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  Trump signed an executive order blocking states from enforcing
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  their own AI regulations. The order creates a Justice
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  Department task force to sue those states.
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  They threaten federal funding if they don't comply.
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  It gives the White House power to decide which state laws cross
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  the line. Congress rejected similar
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  measures twice this year. Republican governors and
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  commentators oppose it alongside the Democrats.
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  They're in this together. They don't want this to happen.
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  Tech companies and their investors 100% want this so they
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  can control everything that we do with AI.
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  Look, I'm not a conspiracy theory person.
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  I don't have a tinfoil hat. I've never worn one.
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  But I know what money does to people.
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  If they can have control over the laws, they can do whatever
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  they want with the technology and make more money.
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  That's what Sam Altman wants. He's not your friend.
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  None of the tech billionaires are your friends.
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  I'm not a politician, but anybody that runs these
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  companies, they have profit in mind.
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  They don't care about you. Now courts will likely decide
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  whether this survives and hopefully an executive order
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  does not limit states rights to do what they need to do to
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  protect people from AI. Hey, thank you so much for
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  listening today. I really do appreciate your
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