Some say the order — which seeks to override state regulations on AI — might soon be met with legal challenges.
But Democratic lawmakers and state officials, as well as consumer advocacy groups, are raising alarms about the impact of the order that Trump signed on Thursday night .
President Donald Trump and his tech allies say that his new executive order to establish a national framework for artificial intelligence regulation will give the U.S . an edge over China in the AI war and pave the way for innovation.
U.S. President Donald Trump shows a signed executive order on AI next to Sriram Krishnan, Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX), U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, David O. Sacks, Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. Dec. 11, 2025.
The order is a win for tech companies such as OpenAI a nd Google and the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz , which have all lobbied against state regulations they view as burdensome.
The Commerce Department was also directed to identify "onerous" state regulations aimed at AI.
"We need a strong federal safety standard, but we should not remove the few protections Americans currently have from the downsides of AI," Klobuchar said.
"This is the wrong approach — and most likely illegal," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a post on X Thursday.
It follows a push by some Republicans in Congress to impose a moratorium on state AI laws. A recent plan to tack on that moratorium to the National Defense Authorization Act was scuttled.
Collin McCune, head of government affairs at Andreessen Horowitz, celebrated Trump's order, calling it "an important first step" to boost American competition and innovation. But McCune urged Congress to codify a national AI framework.
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