Trump Halts AI Executive Order Over Competitiveness Concerns
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the signing of a planned executive order on artificial intelligence on May 21, hours before a scheduled White House ceremony, telling reporters he worried the regulatory framework could weaken America’s technological edge over China and other global competitors.
“We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, according to AP News. He added that he “really thought [the order] could have been a blocker.”
The last-minute cancellation highlights deep internal divisions within the administration over how to balance AI innovation with national security concerns, particularly in the wake of Anthropic’s powerful Mythos AI model demonstrating novel cybersecurity capabilities.
What the Order Would Have Done
The executive order, which had been in development for weeks, would have established a voluntary framework for the government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems before their public release, according to sources familiar with the deliberations. The directive was characterized as a voluntary collaboration with U.S.-based tech companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google.
NBC News reported that the order was split into two main sections: one focused on cybersecurity and the other on testing and vetting frontier AI models. It would have directed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of the National Cyber Director, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy to establish methods for determining which AI models fall under the voluntary testing regime.
The Mythos Catalyst
The push for government AI review followed growing concern about Anthropic’s Mythos Preview model, announced in April 2026, which demonstrated the ability to autonomously discover thousands of severe and critical cyber vulnerabilities in leading operating systems and web browsers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell convened an urgent meeting with Wall Street CEOs in April to warn about the risks.
“This new Anthropic model is very powerful,” Bessent said at CNBC’s “Invest in America Forum” in April. “Some banks are doing a better job in cybersecurity than others, and we want to have the ability to convene them and talk about what is best practices and where they should be heading.”
Internal Divisions and Political Risk
The cancellation reveals fractures within the Trump administration over AI policy. According to Serena Booth, a computer science professor at Brown University and former AI policy fellow, competing factions are pulling in different directions.
“We do see this kind of public fighting. ‘We will release an executive order. No, we won’t. We’re going to sign it this afternoon. Oh, the signing is canceled.’ I think this whiplash is because we’re seeing these fractures,” Booth told AP News.
Dean Ball of the Foundation for American Innovation, a former White House tech policy adviser and lead author of Trump’s AI policy road map, said the administration is wary of regulating frontier AI companies. “They don’t want to do it because it’s politically risky in a million different ways,” Ball said, adding that he is “fine with them taking time to get this right.”
At a White House press briefing on May 20, Vice President JD Vance described the administration’s balancing act. “The president wants us to be pro-innovation. He wants us to win the AI race against all other countries in the world,” Vance said. “Right now, we’re working in a collaborative way with the technology companies, and we’re just trying to make sure that the American people are as safe as possible.”
Pre-existing Agreements and Uncertain Status
Notably, some form of AI testing was already underway. Trump’s Commerce Department announced earlier in May that it signed agreements with Google, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI to evaluate their most powerful AI models before public release, building on previous agreements the Biden administration made with Anthropic and OpenAI. However, the South China Morning Post reported that the announcement later disappeared from the Commerce Department website, raising questions about the status of those agreements.
Broader Policy Context
The decision continues Trump’s deregulatory approach to AI. On his first day in office, he repealed President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14110, which had required leading AI companies to share internal testing results and security protocols with the government. The administration has consistently viewed the AI sector as an engine for economic expansion, promoting its major players at White House events and international summits.
What’s Next
No new signing date has been announced. Trump characterized the move as a postponement rather than a full cancellation, but the path forward remains unclear. The delay may slow the development of a coordinated U.S. government approach to AI safety and cybersecurity, even as other countries — particularly China and the European Union — move forward with their own regulatory frameworks.
Major tech CEOs were invited on short notice to the planned signing, and several could not attend, which may have contributed to the delay. The administration has not indicated whether the order will be revised and resubmitted or abandoned entirely.