The Daily Fuckup

On December 11, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at state artificial intelligence laws. The order is an attempt to build a federal response to what the White House views as a growing patchwork of state rules, but it does not by itself wipe those laws away. Any actual preemption would have to come later, through Congress, valid federal regulation, or a court ruling applying existing preemption doctrine.

The order directs the Justice Department to create an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state measures the administration says interfere with federal priorities. It also tells federal agencies to review discretionary grant programs and consider whether funding conditions should be used against states that keep laws the White House views as obstructive. The Commerce Department, along with other agencies, is also told to assess how state AI rules affect federal policy and to identify areas where state requirements may conflict with national objectives.

That is a real escalation, but it is still a process, not a final legal ruling. Executive orders can set federal priorities and direct agencies to act within their authority. They cannot on their own invalidate state statutes.

The fight centers on questions the states have already started regulating in different ways: deepfakes, discrimination, consumer protection, and government use of automated systems. The administration argues that a state-by-state approach raises compliance costs and slows innovation. Critics are likely to see the order as a pressure campaign designed to narrow state authority before Congress has settled the issue.

What happens next will depend on agency actions, court filings, and whether federal officials try to attach new conditions to money already headed to the states. The White House has opened that battle. It has not finished it.