Sources: Trump postponed AI EO signing after talking to David Sacks and others, and told staff the EO is not moving forward after calls with Musk and Zuckerberg

Industry leaders warned in last-minute calls to the president that the proposed safety vetting system could inhibit development of the pivotal technology.

Washington Post 2026-05-22

Context & Ripple Effects

The reported reversal follows a longer fight over whether AI policy should be set federally or left to a patchwork of state rules. Related coverage says Sacks had previously backed an order to block state AI laws, while tech lobbyists worried that approach would weaken prospects for a durable bipartisan federal framework.

The immediate dispute was not merely over regulation in general: related reports identify pre-release federal model reviews and government access to early models as central points of contention. The withdrawal therefore removes, at least for now, a proposed federal checkpoint that major AI companies viewed as a constraint on development speed.

First-order effects

Trump’s staff are no longer advancing the proposed AI executive order, sparing AI developers from the contemplated federal safety-vetting process before model release.
Musk, Zuckerberg, Sacks and other industry figures demonstrated that direct White House engagement can materially shape the administration’s AI-policy agenda.

Second-order effects

Companies seeking to move models quickly face less immediate federal compliance uncertainty, while officials favoring early model access or pre-release reviews lose a near-term policy vehicle.
The reversal strengthens incentives for AI firms and trade groups to pursue policy through executive-branch lobbying rather than await a settled legislative compromise; the unresolved state-law question remains a source of pressure.

Third-order effects

If repeated, this pattern would make US AI governance more dependent on episodic executive decisions and access by major developers than on stable, broadly negotiated rules.
The unresolved tension between rapid deployment, federal oversight, and state-level rulemaking is likely to keep regulatory fragmentation alive unless a more durable federal approach emerges.

The trend: This is a data point in the shift from abstract AI-safety principles toward a high-stakes contest over who sets deployment rules—and whether those rules can survive industry pressure for speed and national competitiveness.

Discussion

@rweingarten Randi Weingarten on bluesky
This is what's wrong with this Administration -the tech billionaires win again and Americans lose www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ 202...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@Techmeme This is false. I still don't know what was in that EO and the President only spoke to me after declining to sign.
@ericjgeller.com Eric Geller on bluesky
Last-minute calls from Trump-aligned tech executives (including the president's powerful former AI czar) convinced him not to sign his AI security executive order, which the executives said would hamper innovation. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ 202... [image]
@andymstone Andy Stone on x
This is incorrect. Mark didn't speak to the president until after the event had already been canceled.
@tomsteyer Tom Steyer on x
Clearly, Meta is planning for its future: Lobbying Trump to kill AI regulation, laying off 10% of its workforce, and giving $950K to elect Xavier Becerra, their candidate of choice. Is that the future you want? [image]
@benjaminjriley Benjamin Riley on bluesky
“The White House is increasingly grappling with backlash to artificial intelligence within Trump's base, as voters grow concerned the technology could eliminate jobs and increase electric bills.” — Memo to the Washington Post: by “Trump's base” you actually mean “most Americans…
@dashaburns Dasha Burns on x
NEW: Trump told me in an interview today that he “was hearing concerns” about the AI executive order but was also “seeing the concerns myself.” “I have concerns about it, and I don't want to approve anything until it's done properly,” he said.
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
interesting media study on how many different versions of “why the AI exec order wasnt signed” are going around right now and who gets to save face depending on where the story landed [image]
@kahuna686 Mark on bluesky
Oh sure. That's why.
r/accelerate r on reddit
“He just hates regulation” Trump delays AI executive order that might hinder progress, says, “it's just something doomers wanted,” the source added
@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
@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]
@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...

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