Factions inside the Trump administration wrestle over how to handle AI

President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to scrap an AI executive order on May 21 has exposed a rift within the White House on how to regulate the emerging technology. There are three main camps in the West Wing, per two senior White House officials. The first, which includes former AI czar David Sacks, favors less regulation to help the industry compete against China. It was Sacks who called the president and derailed the EO at the last minute due to industry concerns that the order could be too onerous for the relatively nascent industry. On the go-slow side: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his undersecretary Emil Michael, a former Silicon Valley executive. They are pushing for greater barriers to Mythos-type models, according to the senior White House officials, over concerns that the technology could be used by rivals such as China. Then, according to the White House officials, there’s the middle ground camp involving Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who have pushed for a regulatory framework in which AI companies voluntarily provide the U.S. government with a first glance at their new models. These disparate camps underscore the degree to which Trump administration policy is being shaped in real time, trying to respond to a rapidly developing technology.