Sources: David Sacks told President Trump that federal reviews of AI models before release would slow down innovation and hurt the US in its AI race with China

But during a conversation with Trump, Sacks told the president that companies were already cooperating, and that having …

Politico 2026-05-22

Context & Ripple Effects

The administration’s AI policy debate has already centered on avoiding a fragmented state-by-state compliance regime. Related coverage describes Sacks advocating an executive order to curb state AI laws while the White House pursued a common federal oversight standard with Congress.

The newly discussed working group on AI oversight put pre-release model vetting on the table. Sacks’ reported intervention sharpens the administration’s apparent distinction between coordination on AI policy and a centralized pre-approval system; Krishnan has separately said Trump would not support an “FDA for AI.”

First-order effects

Federal pre-release reviews of AI models are less likely to become the administration’s preferred oversight mechanism if Sacks’ competitiveness argument carries weight with Trump.
AI developers would retain more discretion over release timing, rather than preparing models for a centralized federal clearance process.

Second-order effects

The policy debate shifts toward lighter-touch federal standards and away from model-by-model gatekeeping, while preserving the administration’s parallel push to reduce state-level compliance burdens.
Developers and lobbyists seeking nationally uniform rules gain a clearer argument against both state fragmentation and federal pre-approval, potentially complicating efforts to build a bipartisan oversight compromise.

Third-order effects

If this approach holds, US AI governance could develop around federal preemption and post-release accountability rather than a regulator that approves frontier models before deployment.
That would make the competitiveness-versus-safety tradeoff the central fault line in US AI policy, with the durability of any federal standard dependent on whether Congress can convert executive-branch preferences into legislation.

The trend: This is one data point in the Trump administration’s move toward nationally uniform, innovation-first AI governance rather than centralized pre-release regulation.

Discussion

@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
‘Regulation slows innovation’ is the same argument the telcos used to kill net neutrality. It worked then. The ‘innovation’ that followed was data caps.
@kenbazinet Ken Bazinet on bluesky
The reversal also came after industry officials raised concerns about a proposed voluntary review process for cutting-edge “frontier” AI models, according to four people familiar with the matter, who were granted anonymity to discuss private discussions, Politico reported.
@robertscotthorton Scott Horton on bluesky
The AI exec. order was postponed because David Sacks called Trump this morning and argued that having the federal government review models before their public release would slow down innovation and harm the U.S. in its AI race with China. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
@sophiacai99 Sophia Cai on x
2/ More of Trump's still un-released AI order that outlines a voluntary process for government review of advanced AI models [image]
@sophiacai99 Sophia Cai on x
NEW: Read the full AI exec. order that was supposed to go out yesterday 1/ [image]
@sophiacai99 Sophia Cai on x
New: The AI exec. order was postponed because David Sacks called Trump this morning and argued that having the federal government review models before their public release would slow down innovation and harm the U.S. in its AI race with China. David Sacks was read in on the EO

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