Trump opposes state AI regulations, but Republican lawmakers push back

The Trump administration is blocking state efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, but some Republican lawmakers are pushing forward with their own rules anyway. The conflict reflects a broader state-federal split over how to manage AI technology as public concern about its risks mounts, with eight in ten Americans saying they are concerned about artificial intelligence in a recent poll.

The disagreement reflects a fundamental question about which level of government should regulate emerging technologies, with states arguing they must act when the federal government moves slowly and the administration insisting that a national standard would better protect American competitiveness.

Federal Pressure and State Response

The White House wants to set national rules for artificial intelligence, and it has made its position clear: a patchwork of state regulations is too much. The Trump administration issued an executive order with legal threats and funding penalties aimed at deterring states from regulating AI technology. It has actively intervened to block state proposals, sending letters to state legislatures calling particular bills “unfixable.”

Yet states continue to move forward. More than 1,000 state legislative proposals addressing artificial intelligence are pending across the country, demonstrating the momentum behind regulation at the state level. Public polling shows why: eight in ten Americans said they were concerned or very concerned about artificial intelligence in a Quinnipiac poll last month. About three-quarters said government is not doing enough to regulate the technology.

“There’s a lot of state lawmakers looking at what the federal government is doing and saying, ‘We want to take action because we’re not satisfied,’” said Craig Albright, senior vice president for government relations for the Business Software Alliance, which represents software companies.

Republican Lawmakers Defy the Administration

Doug Fiefia, a Republican state representative from Utah, used to work at Google. After managing a team working with companies on the implementation of Google’s artificial intelligence models, he said he became concerned about the technology’s risks and its developers’ priorities.

“I know it sounds like ‘Doug, this is all you talk about,’” Fiefia said at a backyard gathering of Republican activists in the Salt Lake City suburbs. “That’s because it’s coming, it’s here and it’s going to be our biggest fight.”

This year, Fiefia introduced legislation in Utah requiring companies to include child safety protocols in their AI systems. A House committee passed it unanimously. Then the Trump administration intervened. The White House sent a letter to the state Senate saying the measure was “unfixable.” The bill died without a vote.

Despite sharing Republican identity with the White House, Fiefia said he thought it was important to stand up for state autonomy when it came to emerging technology risks.

“The Trump administration is, ‘We want zero regulations on AI,’” Fiefia said. “I think that’s wrong. I agree with a lot of what Trump says on taxes. I disagree with him on this.”

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joined the challenge to the White House. He added artificial intelligence to a special legislative session he called for later in April. He pushed a bill to implement parental controls for minors using AI and to prohibit systems from using anyone’s likeness without permission. The bill overwhelmingly passed the state Senate but fell short in the House.

Bills addressing AI have stalled in Republican-controlled Louisiana and Missouri after the Trump administration made its opposition known.

Tech Industry Pressure on Lawmakers

While some Republican state lawmakers challenged the Trump administration, lawmakers from both parties faced enormous pressure from tech industry lobbyists. Alex Bores, a former data scientist at Palantir, quit that company after it signed a contract to help the Trump administration with immigration enforcement. Bores moved into Democratic politics and wrote New York’s bill requiring major AI developers to report dangerous incidents to the state. The bill was signed into law.

Now Bores is running for Congress in a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler representing much of Manhattan. A pro-AI campaign committee has spent $2.3 million against his candidacy, an effort Bores said was intended to intimidate other lawmakers.

“It’s one reason it’s so important for me to win this race is because, if I don’t, that intimidation they’re trying on Congress will be successful,” Bores said.

Monique Priestley, a Vermont Democrat who has worked in tech, said the pressure was relentless. She co-chairs the AI task force of the Future Caucus, a network of younger state lawmakers. When she introduced a data privacy bill last year, 166 of Vermont’s 482 registered lobbyists weighed in against it. Her state’s governor vetoed the bill.

What States Want to Regulate

Popular proposals among state lawmakers include requiring chatbots to disclose to users that they are not human and banning the use of artificial intelligence to create nonconsensual sexual imagery.

California and New York have enacted the most significant state regulations, focusing on disclosure of catastrophic risks such as AI-controlled failures at nuclear power plants or AI systems refusing to follow human direction. These are Democratic-led states, but the appetite for regulation crosses party lines.

The Trump administration’s framework for potential congressional legislation calls for preempting state laws considered “too burdensome” while allowing some rules to protect children and copyright material. But without progress in Congress, states continue to act.

In Utah, Daniel McCay, the state senator Fiefia is challenging in the primary, defended the decision to block Fiefia’s bill. He said the bill would have driven Utah out of the AI innovation business and expressed skepticism of regulation efforts more broadly.

“I’ve been around long enough to recognize the invention of fire, the wheel, cars and the internet did not ruin society and I’m very skeptical of anyone trying to scare society into regulations,” McCay said.

But the public opinion data suggests most Americans are not as sanguine. In the Quinnipiac poll, roughly nine in ten Democrats and six in ten Republicans said they wanted more government involvement in AI regulation.