A last-minute reversal
President Donald Trump on May 21, 2026 called off a planned Oval Office signing ceremony for an executive order that would have established a federal pre-release review process for advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models, telling reporters he had postponed the action because he "didn't like certain aspects" of the draft. <cite index="6-5,6-6,6-7">Trump called off the signing because he worried it could dull America's edge on AI technology, saying he did not like what he saw in the order's text, and announced the change hours before the event was scheduled to take place in the Oval Office.</cite>
The president framed the decision in terms of competitive positioning against China. <cite index="3-3,3-4,3-5">"I didn't like certain aspects of it. I postponed it," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, adding that he believed the order "gets in the way of" the United States' lead over China and others on AI.</cite>
What the order would have done
<cite index="4-7,4-8">The postponed executive order would have established a voluntary agreement for AI companies to share advanced models with the government before public release, with federal agencies given up to 90 days for security review.</cite> <cite index="2-3">An earlier version of the draft would have compelled AI companies to share advanced models with the government ahead of launch, but it was later watered down to make participation voluntary.</cite>
The initiative would have represented a notable shift for an administration that has otherwise pursued a deregulatory stance. <cite index="7-20,7-21">Trump's return to the White House was heavily funded by tech industry leaders who argued that the Biden administration's approach to AI regulation was too heavy-handed, and in his early weeks in office Trump overturned the Biden administration's landmark AI executive order, which had required tech companies to notify the government when they were building advanced models and share their safety evaluations with the Commerce Department.</cite>
Industry pressure
Reporting from multiple outlets attributed the delay to last-minute lobbying. <cite index="2-4,2-5">According to The Washington Post, the delay came about due to last-minute pressure from AI industry leaders, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, along with former US AI and crypto czar David Sacks, who told Trump the new system could slow development of AI technology that has become integral to the US economy.</cite> <cite index="2-18">White House officials were reportedly taken aback by the delay, particularly as Sacks had previously indicated he could accept the order.</cite>
<cite index="7-6,7-7">The White House had invited executives from major AI labs to the event, including Anthropic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dario Amodei, who had feuded with the Trump administration this year over limitations on the Pentagon's use of Anthropic's software, and many invitees based in California had little advance notice to plan travel to Washington.</cite>
Backdrop: new cyber-capable models
The drafting effort had gained urgency after the release of frontier models with offensive cybersecurity capabilities. <cite index="4-14,4-15,4-16">The administration had taken a more hands-off approach to AI regulation until Anthropic unveiled its Mythos model, which it says can exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities at an unprecedented pace; Anthropic has not released the model publicly and is instead granting access to a tightly controlled consortium through its Project Glasswing.</cite> <cite index="4-17">OpenAI is also granting businesses and governments special early access to its latest AI models to shore up their cyber defenses.</cite>
<cite index="4-18,4-19">Earlier in May, the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) had announced that major tech companies would share unreleased versions of their AI models with the government for national security and public safety evaluation, but that announcement is no longer available on the Commerce Department's website.</cite>
<cite index="3-7">It remains unclear when, or whether, a revised executive order will be signed.</cite>