The Trump administration is contemplating an executive order to assert federal dominance over artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, potentially setting the stage for a clash between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and individual states crafting their own tech laws.

According to a draft of the order obtained by Axios, this move would empower President Donald Trump’s administration to centralize AI regulatory authority. It would allow the DOJ to challenge states that are considering implementing their own AI regulations.

David Sacks, appointed as the Trump administration’s AI and cryptocurrency advisor, has expressed concerns that state-level regulations could stifle innovation within the industry. He argues that such fragmentation poses a unique threat, one that does not hinder the rapid growth of AI in China.

Additionally, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly stated in a private meeting that the Trump administration does not require congressional approval to address these regulatory concerns, as reported by Axios on Thursday.

A White House official, speaking to the Daily Mail, commented, “Until officially announced by the White House, discussion about potential executive orders is speculation.”

The draft order, which remains subject to revision, would instruct Attorney General Pam Bondi to establish an “AI Litigation Task Force” within 30 days of the order’s implementation.

Members of the team would be empowered to litigate AI laws set by the states, ‘including on grounds that such laws unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce.’

The order also instructs various US agencies to examine existing state AI laws that could run afoul of the reported executive action. 

The White House is mulling a plan to have the DOJ litigate states who set their own AI rules, a draft of an executive order obtained by Axios reveals

The reported plan comes one day after First Lady Melania Trump gave a speech about AI to US service members and their families 

The report comes a day after First Lady Melania Trump warned a group of soldiers about the ‘dystopian’ dangers of the nascent technology and how regulations must be put in place to protect children.

‘To win the AI war, we must train our next generation, for it’s America’s students who will lead the Marine Corps in the future,’ the first lady told military personnel and their families at Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

She warned how the AI revolution is thee most pressing societal change since the development of nuclear weapons and that the US can not afford to lose the AI race. 

The unsettling theme sparked a meltdown online, with some social media users slamming the grim warning as ‘dystopian.’

On Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted at a briefing how she has not seen the president personally use AI, despite his support of the tech. 

The White House had been pushing a 10-year moratorium on states’ ability to regulate AI to be included in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill over the summer. 

However, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene loudly condemned the provision in the bill, arguing its an infringement on states’ rights.  

‘I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights,’ Greene wrote in June. ‘We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous.’

Soon after, the Senate amended the bill and removed the moratorium. 

White House crypto and AI czar David Sacks is pushing a plan to have federal control over AI regulations in the US

The move upset Sacks, who recently has been advocating for reforms similar to the 10-year ban on AI regulation. 

‘We should let Donald Trump write these rules,’ Sacks said recently on the All-In podcast that he co-hosts.

The AI advisor stopped short of ridiculing Republican lawmakers for killing the measure, but made clear that the current approach is not working. 

‘Republicans are in power in Washington, and the states are making a bunch of bad decisions with respect to AI,’ he said. 

States that do not align themselves with the reported executive order would risk losing federal grant funds, according to the current proposal. 

One of the White House’s top concerns is that if states are left to regulate AI on their own there could be a patchwork approach where each of the 50 states create individual rules for AI companies to abide by.

This could prompt 50 different regulations, filing deadlines and other cumbersome processes for the accelerating industry that is trying to compete with China.

‘It doesn’t make sense to have model companies needing to report to 50 different states, 50 different agencies within those states, each with a different definition of what needs to be reported, each with different reporting deadlines,’ Sacks said on his podcast.

He also warned that major Democratic strongholds, like New York and California, could draft their own regulations that get adopted by other states.

‘Why would you allow the big blue states to essentially insert dei into the models, which will affect the red states too?’

In California, for example, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in September mandating that large AI companies publish their safety protocols, risk mitigation strategies and critical safety incidents annually. 

The law does not go into effect until 2026, but its advocates have hailed it as a framework that could be adopted in other states, like New York.