The AI moratorium is showing signs of life.

By James Erwin

Reports of a federal moratorium preempting ill-considered state AI laws were greatly exaggerated. Yesterday the idea rose like a Phoenix from the ashes.

What changed? Presidential leadership.

President Trump endorsed a federal moratorium on AI regulation this past summer, shortly after a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Representative Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) was stripped from the Big, Beautiful reconciliation bill. Other provisions took precedence during the debate over that legislation, which sought to satisfy as many Republican policy demands as possible. While this was a major missed opportunity, President Trump is making his desires clearer than ever as end-of-year must-pass legislation comes up for debate.

Late this morning, President Trump posted to Truth Social that federal preemption was necessary to both prevent the Californication of American AI development and maintain America’s global competitiveness as an attractive destination for investment.

“Investment in AI is helping to make the U.S. Economy the ‘HOTTEST’ in the World,” the president wrote. “But overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Growth Engine.”

He continued:

Some states are even trying to embed DEI ideology into AI models, producing “Woke AI” (Remember Black George Washington?). We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. We can do this in a way that protects children AND prevents censorship!

The National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passes every year to maintain our military, is widely seen as a possible vehicle for the moratorium because of the national security implications of AI development. However, members of the Armed Services Committees in both House and Senate tend to resent provisions they do not see as directly impacting defense policy getting shoehorned into their annual package.

They should reconsider this position. Trump is right about the economic benefits and culture war de-escalation a moratorium would produce. But ensuring the United States remains the top innovator in AI and the primary producer of the global tech stack matters more to our national security than many of the hard-power provisions in the NDAA. The Soviet Union did not fall to American bombs – it fell to bankruptcy when it couldn’t keep up with American economic growth and missile production. China will be a similar story, so ensuring America’s global tech dominance should be part of the conversation.

If they balk at the moratorium’s inclusion, the president’s fall back position seems to be an executive order that leaked yesterday evening. In it, President Trump orders the DOJ to stand up a task force that would challenge state AI regulations in court. This unit would surely find legitimate legal problems – on free speech, privacy, and other individual rights grounds – with some of these laws. The existence of this task force alone, however, will likely have a chilling effect on most states seeking to pursue this kind of regulation, not to mention a financial disincentive to do so.

This will not solve the problem. There is no guarantee that destructive laws will not hold up in court or that a state like California, which has a massive legal war chest despite eye-watering budget deficits, will shy away from the fight. It is also a temporary measure.

To ensure long-term digital liberty and AI leadership, Congress should heed the president and pass this moratorium posthaste.