Division in the White House after Trump scraps executive order on AI
According to Politico, the decision by President Donald Trump on 21 May to scrap an executive order on AI has exposed a rift within the White House over how the emerging technology should be regulated.
According to two senior White House officials who requested anonymity, there are three main camps in the West Wing. The first favours lighter regulation to help the sector compete with China. It was former AI czar David Sacks who phoned the president last week and torpedoed the executive order at the last minute, out of concern within the industry that the order could be too burdensome for the relatively young sector.
On the cautious side is Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and his deputy Emil Michael, a former Silicon Valley heavyweight. According to senior White House officials, they are pushing for tighter restrictions on Mythos‑type models. They did so out of fear that the technology could be misused by rivals such as China. Hegseth and Michael are among the ‘AI hawks’ who are worried about it. “They think it can be abused for nefarious purposes, and want to make sure we do everything we can to stop it ending up in China,” said the first senior White House official.
Then, according to the White House officials, there is the middle camp, with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They have been advocating a regulatory framework in which AI companies would voluntarily give the US government first sight of their new models. These divergent camps illustrate the extent to which the Trump administration’s policy is being shaped in real time. For now, administration officials still have an opportunity to show that their position should prevail.
The order
The executive order that Trump had almost signed provided for a voluntary oversight system. AI companies would have been able to consult the US government about their latest models. It offered the federal government a framework for pre‑assessing products before they come onto the market, without making this mandatory.
“It wasn’t that the administration was laying down the law to these companies about what they could and couldn’t do, but it did ask whether the US government could have first sight of new models, purely to make sure they couldn’t be misused by bad actors,” said the first senior White House official. “It wasn’t compulsory, but we got a commitment from all of them that they would comply with it. That version is still on the table,” the official said, who believes there is still a chance to persuade the president of its merits.
“This hasn’t been cancelled, it’s been delayed,” the official said. “And could a clause be tweaked here and there? Possibly. But it’s also possible that we talk it through with the president. Trump thinks that sounds reasonable,” he said.
Last week’s order was scrapped after Sacks’s last‑minute intervention. “David Sacks wants a more hands‑off approach to AI. Hegseth thinks that doesn’t go far enough,” said the second White House official. “National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross is stuck in the middle. He’s trying to do something that both keeps industry happy and protects the US government.” Sacks did not respond to a request for comment. The Pentagon declined to comment. White House spokesperson Liz Huston maintained that the president’s team is trying to strike a balance between innovation and safety.
At the end of April, the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), led by Cairncross, began working with the major AI firms. In the weeks that followed, the cyber office held individual discussions and joint meetings with large US tech companies. These included OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which provided feedback and indicated red lines regarding the wording. According to the source, industry representatives were asked by ONCD’s legal counsel to sign non‑disclosure agreements at the start of those meetings.
Google, OpenAI and Anthropic declined to comment. But aside from the cooperation with the industry, the executive order that ended up on Trump’s desk was kept strictly confidential. It did not go through the inter‑agency process, the source said.
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