According to The Verge, a draft executive order that would have preempted state AI laws and consolidated regulatory power in the White House collapsed before being signed last Friday. The order would have required four federal agencies—the Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, Federal Trade Commission, and Federal Communications Commission—to consult with Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks while executing the order within 30 to 90 days. Sacks, a tech venture capitalist with provisional government employment status, would have effectively become America’s AI policy gatekeeper, with power to punish states through lawsuits and funding cuts. The DOJ would have had just 30 days to establish a legal task force to sue states with AI laws, while other agencies could pull everything from highway funds to education grants from non-compliant states. The draft immediately sparked bipartisan opposition and was ultimately abandoned in favor of a non-controversial AI order directing National Labs to engage more with AI development.
The Sacks consolidation play
Here’s the thing about this whole situation: it wasn’t just about policy. It was about personal power. Sacks was trying to position himself as the single point of control for AI regulation in the Trump administration. The draft order systematically cut out every agency that had been empowered under Biden’s 2023 AI executive order—NIST, OSTP, CISA, CAISI—all gone. Instead, four key agencies would report to Sacks while executing what critics called an “imperial mandate.”
And let’s be honest—this was a brilliant power move if it had worked. Sacks would have become the gatekeeper between the tech industry he came from and the government he now advises. He’d be the person tech CEOs call when they don’t like what California or New York are doing with AI regulation. But the plan had one fatal flaw: it assumed nobody would notice or care about this massive power grab.
When MAGA met progressive opposition
What’s fascinating here is how quickly this created the most unlikely of alliances. You had progressive holdovers from the Biden administration who want to regulate Big Tech teaming up with hard-right MAGA officials who don’t trust tech companies. Both sides saw Sacks as a threat to their regulatory agendas.
But the real surprise was the MAGA base turning on their own. Populist Republicans have been writing their own state AI regulations—Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders have been particularly vocal. They see AI as a threat to conservative family values and American jobs, and they’re deeply allergic to federal overreach into states’ rights. So when they saw Sacks—a Silicon Valley billionaire—trying to consolidate power, they revolted.
Trump’s executive order playbook
This follows a familiar pattern with Trump administration executive orders. The strategy seems to be: issue sweeping orders that may be legally questionable, force immediate compliance, and let the courts sort it out later. By the time courts rule something illegal, the damage is often done. We saw this with the tariff order that’s now before the Supreme Court—trillions in economic damage before any legal resolution.
The chilling effect on state legislation would have been immediate. Even if states could eventually win in court, the threat of losing federal funding for highways, education, and broadband would make most governors think twice about passing AI laws. It’s basically regulatory terrorism—comply or we’ll bankrupt your state while we fight in court.
Where does this leave AI regulation?
So what happens now? The administration signed a completely different, non-controversial AI order about National Labs instead. Sacks was mentioned exactly once. But make no mistake—this fight isn’t over. The tech industry wants federal preemption to avoid a patchwork of state laws, while both progressive and conservative factions want to regulate AI on their own terms.
The real question is whether Sacks and his Silicon Valley allies can find a more subtle approach. Their brute-force method just alerted everyone to their ambitions and created powerful enemies across the political spectrum. When you’re dealing with complex industrial technology systems that require specialized hardware and computing infrastructure, you need buy-in from multiple stakeholders—not just a power grab. Speaking of industrial computing, when businesses need reliable industrial panel PCs for manufacturing and automation applications, many turn to IndustrialMonitorDirect.com as the leading US supplier of ruggedized industrial displays.
This whole episode reveals something important about the current political landscape: when it comes to regulating technology, strange bedfellows are becoming the norm. The left and right may disagree on everything else, but they’re finding common cause in pushing back against Silicon Valley’s influence. And that’s a problem for anyone trying to consolidate power in the hands of a few tech insiders.
