Trump Opposed Placing Guardrails On AI Amid Tech Industry’s Fears. Here’s What Lawmakers Had To Say

Lawmakers had mixed reactions to President Donald Trump Monday after he opposed placing guardrails on artificial intelligence (AI), with some agreeing that the U.S. is at major risk because of China.

Trump said that top tech leaders’ warnings about AI development needing to slow down was a “sick conspiracy” against AI and data centers, arguing the only guardrails needed are a “strong and smart president.” Many lawmakers told the Daily Caller News Foundation they supported guardrails, while others agreed with Trump.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told the DCNF and others Monday that he supports placing guardrails on AI, indicating a clear break from Trump.

“Obviously, there’s responsibility for the companies to do that when it comes to you know the frontier on some of these models,” Thune said. “But I also think that there is a way in which Congress can put guardrails around those types of more consequential threats, without in any way harming our ability to stay ahead in the AI race, which I think is also I think is very important.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Trump was correct in pointing out that the U.S. is competing against China on AI.

“Well, the president is correct in saying that this is a race between the United States and China, and America has got to win,” Scalise told the DCNF. “It’s not surprising that Anthropic of all people is calling for a heavy regulatory structure because they want to crush their competitors, the next start up, the next company that’s going to be the future tech company would be crushed if you had heavy regulations. Now, obviously, there’s laws on the books that say these companies not only have a moral responsibility to be responsible, they have a legal responsibility. You can’t create a product that’s going to kill people, and if they’re doing that, then they’re going to have serious problems.”

“The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. “The Trump Administration has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,“ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” – and we will continue to do so! We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

“If he’s gonna regulate it, that’s one thing. But then you get the next president in, then he can just erase it,” Burchett said. “So if he wants to make executive orders and then we codify them, I think that can be a wise decision.”

“That’s a hard one,” Tuberville told the DCNF. “Because, you know, we”ll eventually have to have some [guardrails], just like the internet. We had to figure out what it was about, how to handle it. But you know, right now, we just need to make sure we do the right thing and understand it’s already here. It’s not going anywhere.”