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President Donald Trump called off plans to sign an executive order on artificial intelligence hours before a scheduled White House ceremony, according to an Associated Press report. Trump said he was postponing the Oval Office event with tech industry executives because he believed the measure could dull America’s edge in AI, and because he did not like what he saw in the order’s text.
Trump told reporters that he did not want to take action that could get in the way of U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” he said.
The AP report said the executive order would have established a framework for the government to vet national security risks of the most advanced AI systems before their public release. The directive was being characterized as a voluntary collaboration with participating U.S.-based tech companies, which the report said could include Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, based on what a person familiar with the White House’s deliberations told AP.
AP also reported that the push for some form of government review followed growing concern in the banking industry and other institutions about how quickly AI systems have advanced—particularly as they can identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities in widely used software. In April, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell convened an urgent meeting with Wall Street CEOs at the Treasury Department, warning them about cybersecurity risks tied to an Anthropic model.
Bessent described that effort at CNBC’s “Invest in America Forum” in Washington in April, saying, “This new Anthropic model is very powerful.” He also said, “Some banks are doing a better job in cybersecurity than others, and we want to have the ability to convene them and talk about what is best practices and where they should be heading.” AP reported that the industry discussions helped drive interest among some Republican allies in alternative ways to get advanced AI tools into the hands of trusted cybersecurity experts.
Trump’s decision also unfolded against a backdrop of competing pressures inside his administration. AP reported that Serena Booth, a computer science professor at Brown University and a former AI policy fellow in a Democratic-led Senate committee, said the episode reflected “fractures” as the administration shifted between announcing and canceling plans. Booth said, “We do see this kind of public fighting,” adding, ”‘We will release an executive order. No, we won’t. We’re going to sign it this afternoon. Oh, the signing is canceled.’ I think this whiplash is because we’re seeing these fractures.’”
Booth told AP that some people involved view testing leading AI models before public release as a “reasonable idea,” but she said others worry that government scrutiny could impose a “potential very large cost to innovation and speed of development.” AP reported that Booth said there was “a real risk here” and that she saw “both sides.”
The AP report said the White House has pushed back against state laws that seek to regulate AI, arguing that such steps could curb growth. It said a new executive order that could be seen as government screening of commercial models would have signaled a meaningful shift in the administration’s approach—though AP noted that similar screening efforts were already underway through agreements the Commerce Department announced earlier this month to evaluate powerful AI models from Google, Microsoft and xAI.
Before the canceled order’s reported withdrawal, AP said the White House described a balance between safety and innovation. At a White House press briefing Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance declined to discuss specifics from the text being considered, but said the administration wants to promote innovation while addressing cybersecurity threats and data privacy. Vance said the president “wants us to be pro-innovation,” and that he “wants us to win the AI race against all other countries in the world,” before adding, “We also want to make sure that we’re protecting people.”
Asked about new models that could pose security risks, Vance said the administration is taking a collaborative approach with tech companies and that it was working to balance safety against innovation. “It also does have some downsides,” he said, “and we’re trying to balance that safety against innovation.”
AP also reported that Dean Ball, a former White House tech policy adviser and lead author of Trump’s AI policy roadmap, said the disagreement likely represents “healthy tension” within an administration wary of regulating “frontier AI” companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. Ball said, “They don’t want to do it because it’s politically risky in a million different ways,” and he said he would welcome an executive order that would get those companies working more closely with the government on cybersecurity, while also saying, “ultimately, I’m fine with them taking time to get this right.”