America's AI Action Plan

President Trump revoked President Biden's 2023 AI executive order shortly after returning to office and directed his administration to develop a new national AI strategy. In July 2025, the White House released America's AI Action Plan, outlining more than 90 policy actions intended to strengthen U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence.

The plan is organized around three broad goals: accelerating AI innovation, expanding U.S. AI infrastructure, and strengthening American leadership in international AI policy and security.

Among other measures, it calls for agencies to review or remove federal rules considered barriers to AI development, speed construction of data centers and energy infrastructure, support exports of American AI technology, expand AI research and workforce programs, and strengthen protections around advanced AI and national security.

The plan also says federal agencies should consider a state's AI regulatory environment when making certain discretionary funding decisions. At the same time, the document says states should remain able to enact laws that are not considered unduly restrictive to innovation.

The administration later went further on state regulation.

In December 2025, President Trump issued an executive order calling for a minimally burdensome national AI policy framework, directing the Justice Department to establish a task force to challenge certain state AI laws and calling for legislation that would preempt conflicting state rules.

In March 2026, the White House released legislative recommendations asking Congress to establish a federal AI framework and preempt state AI laws it says impose undue burdens, while preserving some areas of state authority, including child protection, consumer and fraud laws, zoning, and states' own use of AI.

The federal-versus-state question has also become a major issue in the 2026 elections.

Leading the Future, an AI-focused super PAC network backed by technology executives and investors, says it supports a national regulatory framework and opposes a patchwork of state AI rules. Other groups and policymakers argue that states should retain greater authority to impose AI safeguards, particularly while Congress has not enacted a comprehensive federal AI law.

The debate is therefore about more than how much AI should be regulated. It is also about who should write the rules: the federal government, the states, or some combination of both.