White House Readies Executive Order to Preempt State AI Laws — DOJ Task Force and Multi‑Agency Push Expected

The White House is preparing an executive order, possibly as soon as Friday, that would use federal authority to limit or block state artificial intelligence regulations, according to four people familiar with the matter and a leaked draft confirmed by three sources. The draft would direct multiple federal agencies to review and, where appropriate, challenge state AI laws.

Central to the draft is the creation of an "AI Litigation Task Force" at the Department of Justice to pursue legal challenges against state statutes the administration deems problematic. Government lawyers would be instructed to consider arguments that state laws impermissibly regulate interstate commerce, are preempted by federal rules, or otherwise fall within the attorney general’s discretion to contest.

The draft also calls for a 90‑day review by the Commerce Department — naming Howard Lutnick in the document as the official to publish findings — to identify state laws it regards as "onerous." It would condition federal broadband funding on whether states adopt rules the administration finds acceptable and ask the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether laws that "require alterations to the truthful outputs of AI models" conflict with the FTC Act.

In addition, the document asks the Federal Communications Commission and the White House's special adviser for AI and cryptocurrency — a role the draft identifies with investor David Sacks — to consider a federal reporting and disclosure standard for AI models that could preempt conflicting state requirements.

The move reflects a broader debate over whether Washington or state capitals should set national AI policy. Tech companies and many Republican lawmakers argue a patchwork of state rules would create compliance headaches and slow innovation for developers working across state lines. Supporters of federal action have also pushed a proposed AI moratorium in Congress that could be folded into the year‑end defense bill.

At an event on Wednesday, President Trump said it would be a "disaster" for each of the 50 states to regulate AI independently, warning that could result in a single state imposing a "woke" approach on developers.

Legal scholars and state officials are already raising questions about the draft's legality and scope. Mackenzie Arnold, director of U.S. policy at LawAI, who analyzed an earlier moratorium proposal, argued that states retain the power to regulate technologies within their borders and that recently passed state laws do not clearly exceed federal commerce powers.

"The EO is an instruction to look into this, but there’s a chance that if the task force interprets that instruction very broadly, they won’t have the better argument," Arnold said, noting uncertainty about how aggressively the administration would proceed.

State lawmakers have pushed back as well. California State Senator Scott Wiener, sponsor of a recent California AI safety law that the draft appears to reference, said the president cannot simply cancel laws adopted by states.

Officials cautioned that the draft could change or be abandoned before any official announcement. A White House spokesperson said that until an executive order is "officially announced," discussion of potential orders was speculative.

Note: Reporting for this article included contributions from Chase DiFeliciantonio.