Trump’s ‘AI Action Plan’ is Here, And It’s About What You’d Expect

President Donald Trump just unveiled his long-awaited “AI Action Plan,” laying the groundwork for how the United States will approach artificial intelligence during his second term. He presented the plan at a White House summit co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a show run by four tech investors, including AI Czar David Sacks. 

Trump went on to sign a trio of executive orders bolstering the plan: One barring the federal government from buying AI tools it considers “ideologically biased,” another speeding up the permitting process for major AI infrastructure projects and a third focused on promoting the export of American AI hardware and software around the world.

“America is the country that started the AI race,” Trump said in his speech at the summit. “And as president of the United States, I’m here today to declare that America is going to win it.”

Talks of an AI action plan began during Trump’s first days back in office, right after he revoked Joe Biden’s AI executive order, which aimed to place some guardrails around the technology. He then tasked a team of tech advisors led by Sacks with creating a new national strategy in its place. Six months later, that plan is here — and it’s about what you’d expect from something commissioned by Trump and written by a bunch of Silicon Valley insiders.

Though the document does call for some restrictions — chiefly the crackdown on ideological bias in AI models — it largely favors a hands-off regulatory approach, outlining more than 90 policy recommendations for accelerating AI development in the United States. None of these suggestions are legally binding yet, but they may offer a preview of more federal actions still in the pipeline. And Michael Krastios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, told reporters the entire agenda could be implemented in the next six months to a year.

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What Does the AI Action Plan Say?

The AI Action Plan has four main objectives:

1. Remove “onerous” federal regulations that slow down AI adoption and innovation. 
2. Crack down on “ideological bias” in AI models.
3. Expedite the construction of U.S. data centers.
4. Export American-made AI hardware and software abroad.

A Path to Further Deregulation

The plan lays out various steps the government should take to create an environment where “private-sector-led innovation can flourish,” starting with the removal of any “red tape” and “onerous” regulations at the federal level. It calls on the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget to collect information on policies that could hinder AI development and “take appropriate action.” And it recommends that the Federal Trade Commission review all Biden-era investigations to make sure they do not set legal precedents that “unduly burden AI innovation.”

It also calls for the federal government to withhold funding from states with “burdensome AI regulations,” — echoing a controversial provision in Trump’s recently passed Big Beautiful Bill Act that was ultimately removed amid claims that it infringed on states’ rights. Notably, the action plan clarifies that this move should “not interfere with states’ rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation.”

Trump has already done quite a bit to deregulate the AI industry. He not only repealed Biden’s AI executive order on his first day back as president, but he also signed an order of his own directing all federal agencies to scrap any policies seen as obstacles to U.S. AI leadership. Days later, he signed another, broader order titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” which required agencies to eliminate 10 existing rules for every new one introduced. 

Counteracting ‘Ideological Bias’ with ‘Free Speech’

Freedom of speech is another point of interest in the AI Action Plan, which includes several policy proposals aimed at ensuring AI systems reflect “truth” rather than “social engineering agendas.” One notable (and paradoxical) recommendation suggests that the Department of Commerce scrub all references to “diversity, equity and inclusion” in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) AI development guidelines, along with any mention of misinformation or climate change.

The plan — and one of the new executive orders — also calls for the federal government to contract exclusively with AI developers who ensure their models are “objective and free of top-down ideological bias.” This stance is especially striking given that the Department of Defense recently awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to Elon Musk’s AI company xAI — whose chatbot, Grok, was caught perpetuating Musk’s own right-leaning ideological biases.

Trump and his allies have taken particular issue with what they see as a liberal slant in top AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The executive order even alluded to incidents like Google’s 2024 release of an image generator that depicted American founding fathers as Black, Asian and Native American men dressed in Revolutionary War-era garb. Google quickly fixed the tool, but the debacle became a symbol of perceived left-wing bias in AI — a concern held by other members of Trump’s inner circle, including Sacks, Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Vice President JD Vance.

“Once and for all, we are getting rid of woke,” Trump said in his speech. “The American people do not want woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models.” 

The Push for More U.S. Data Centers

Artificial intelligence relies on a vast, sprawling infrastructure: specialized chips are built in factories, then implemented in massive data centers to train and run AI models, and all the while robust energy sources keep the entire system operational. To expedite the constriction of this infrastructure, the plan recommends easing the number of environmental regulations on building new data centers — despite their significant environmental impact and strain on local resources. This was put into motion by one of Trump’s latest executive orders, which directed agencies to fast-track the permitting process and authorize the data center development on federal lands as well.

The plan also seeks to address the strain AI puts on the U.S. power grid. It proposes modernizing the existing grid “as much as possible” using various “grid management technologies,” and tapping into alternative energy sources, such as enhanced geothermal, nuclear fusion and nuclear fission.

This all comes on the heels of a nearly $90 billion investment by AI developers like Anthropic, Google and Meta to turn Pennsylvania into an artificial intelligence hub — a move Trump announced at the state’s 2025 Energy and Innovation Summit. It also builds on the president’s $500 AI infrastructure project called Stargate, which involves an ongoing collaboration with key players like OpenAI, Oracle and Nvidia. Several companies have already broken ground on new U.S. data centers, including OpenAI’s massive new facility in Abilene, Texas as part of its Stargate commitments. Amazon, Meta and xAI also have similar projects underway. 

Ramping Up AI Exports

The plan calls on the government to promote the export of any American-made hardware, models, software and applications to countries willing to join an “AI alliance” with the United States.To that end, one of the new executive orders directs the Secretary of Commerce to develop and deploy “full-stack AI export packages,” so long as they comply with export controls.

The plan is especially interested in countering China’s growing influence over the technology, as observers widely see it as America’s closest rival in the industry. For years, both Republicans and Democrats have restricted tech exports to China over national security concerns. Still, Chinese companies like Baidu and DeepSeek have managed to build impressive models using far inferior hardware — a development that has U.S. officials and tech leaders alike on edge.

In response, Trump recently rolled back some Biden-era restrictions on AI chip exports, then permitted U.S. chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD to resume selling select products to China. The new action plan also urges the government to “vigorously advocate” for global AI governance that promotes American innovation and values, while pushing back on “authoritarian influence.” 

The idea is that, by flooding the global market with American-made hardware and software, the United States can maintain greater control over what gets developed worldwide. In doing so, the the country can better shape the international AI landscape on its own terms, promoting its own values and interests over those of competing nations, especially China.

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What Does All This Mean for AI Regulation in the U.S.?

The Trump administration’s AI Action Plan signals a clear shift toward aggressive deregulation in the United States, prioritizing rapid innovation and global leadership over risk management. By calling for the removal of policies seen as barriers to AI development, the plan sets the stage for a looser regulatory environment that favors the interests of the tech industry, who will be free to build data centers, develop products and ship them abroad with far fewer constraints.

At the same time though, the plan also seeks to crack down on what it calls “woke AI,” barring government contracts with developers who exhibit any “ideological agendas” that incorporate concepts like systemic racism, critical race theory, intersectionality and unconscious bias. So, though the plan aims to make developing and deploying AI systems easier, it also seeks to control what they say once they’ve been built. 

Who Will Benefit from Trump’s AI Action Plan?

Should all these policy recommendations come to pass, the United States is intended to be the primary winner, which the AI Action Plan promises will enter a “new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness and national security.” But the changes outlined would also likely benefit American AI developers like Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta, who are in fierce competition to produce the latest and greatest generative AI tools and weave them into everyday products and services. U.S. chip manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD would likely benefit too, since they supply the much-needed computing power behind these advanced AI systems.

In fact, many have criticized the Trump agenda for prioritizing the interests of the tech industry over the public, particularly when it comes to AI taking jobs, spreading misinformation and infringing on personal privacy. In response, a coalition of  privacy advocates, labor unions and other organizations drafted its own People’s Action Plan to counter several of the Trump administration’s proposals.

“We can’t let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families’ well-being, even the air we breathe and the water we drink — all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable roll-out of AI,” the plan states. “The American economy needs robust innovation, a level playing field for all and relief from the tech monopolies who repeatedly sacrifice the interests of everyday people for their own profits.”

Of course, collaboration between the tech industry and the White House is not new. It happened under Joe Biden, Barack Obama and other presidents before them as well. But tech executives have been conspicuously present throughout Trump’s first months back in office (even at his inauguration). This alliance appears focused on one primary objective: maintaining America’s edge over other countries, especially China.

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