Trump's AI executive order could leave US in a 'regulatory vacuum'

By Emma Woollacott for IT PRO
Monday, December 15, 2025

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US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at banning individual states from regulating AI in a move one expert said could create a “regulatory vacuum” in the country.

In a move welcomed by a host of AI companies, Trump said he plans to create a federal AI Litigation Task Force responsible for challenging states’ AI laws.

"State-by-state regulation, by definition, creates a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes that makes compliance more challenging, particularly for start-ups. Second, state laws are increasingly responsible for requiring entities to embed ideological bias within models," he said.

The order also calls for the Secretary of Commerce to publish an evaluation of state AI laws that conflict with national AI policy priorities - and withhold non-deployment Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding from any offenders.

Move could create a “regulatory vacuum”

Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb, said the executive order and subsequent disruption to state-level efforts to regulate the technology could risk leaving the country in a “regulatory vacuum”.

“While President Trump's Executive Order may prevent some US states from enacting or enforcing complex and sometimes contradicting AI state laws and regulations – thereby considerably simplifying business for tech companies in America – it might also have a possible drawback by leaving America in a regulatory vacuum,” Kolochenko commented.