President Trump nixed a planned signing ceremony for a long-anticipated AI executive order Thursday, saying parts of the proposal could weaken the U.S. lead over China in the global AI race.
“I didn't like certain aspects of it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think it gets in the way of—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.” He did not identify which provisions he opposed or say when the administration might revive the plan.
Context and contents of the shelved order
The executive order, first announced earlier this month, would have set up a voluntary federal review framework requiring participating companies to give the government early access to advanced AI models before public release for national-security and capability testing. It also would have allowed critical infrastructure providers — including banks — to get pre-release access to covered models, and included a cybersecurity component intended to surface vulnerabilities in unreleased AI systems.
Why officials were pushing the proposal
U.S. officials have grown increasingly uneasy about the national-security risks posed by frontier AI models. That concern intensified after Anthropic’s Claude Mythos reportedly demonstrated the ability to identify hundreds of software vulnerabilities and autonomously execute complex cyber operations during testing, raising alarms about how advanced models could be misused or could compromise systems.
Industry ties with government
At the same time, major AI firms — OpenAI, Google, and xAI among them — have been deepening partnerships with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies. Axios reports the NSA is already running Anthropic’s Mythos on classified networks, even amid tensions between the agency and Anthropic.
Trump’s stance
Despite the legal and policy frictions, Trump said he supports AI development and sees it as an engine of economic growth, but argued the executive order risked creating unnecessary roadblocks for the industry. “I really thought that could have been a blocker and I want to make sure that it’s not,” he said. Trump added he’d discussed AI with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, saying Xi “acknowledges how well we’re doing” and describing the tech race as largely between the U.S. and China.
Why this matters for crypto and financial infrastructure
Although the announcement focused on AI policy, the proposed order’s pre-release access for banks and its cybersecurity screening could have implications for crypto firms, exchanges, and financial infrastructure that are increasingly exploring or using AI for security, fraud detection, and compliance. A pause in federal guidance leaves uncertainty about how and when the government might require early model reviews or vulnerability testing for entities that handle sensitive financial data.
Bottom line: The White House pulled back from a voluntary AI oversight framework it feared could hinder U.S. competitive standing vs. China. The move delays clarity on how the federal government plans to balance national-security testing and critical-infrastructure access with industry innovation — a balance that will matter not only for Big Tech but for banks and crypto platforms that interact with advanced AI.
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