DeSantis vs. Trump: Governor criticizes White House plan to overturn state AI laws

Former presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has once again clashed with the White House, this time over the Trump administration’s stance on artificial intelligence. In a post on his X account, DeSantis called the federal government’s intention to block states’ ability to create their own laws and safeguards against the massive advance of AI “bad policy.”

The Florida governor’s concerns escalated following the White House’s meeting this week with tech companies and child safety groups to garner support for bills to overturn certain state AI regulations, as reported by POLITICO on Thursday. For DeSantis, the Trump administration’s proposal amounts to leaving families unprotected to benefit large corporations in the sector.

"Preempting states re: AI without enacting a sensible federal framework is just an amnesty for Big Tech," the governor wrote on social media. "Combined with a potential de facto bailout of OpenAI, it represents bad policy and even worse politics."

The clash exposes a new rift within the Republican Party itself. Florida, led by DeSantis and State Attorney General James Uthmeier, is exerting strong pressure on AI regulation through bills, lawsuits, and even a criminal investigation into the role a chatbot allegedly played in assisting a suspect in a deadly school shooting. However, the governor clashed with the state House of Representatives this year, which aligned with the interests of the White House and refused to even consider his proposed AI bill of rights, despite the state Senate passing it 37 to 1.

That legislation would have required chatbot platforms to share with parents all of their children’s interactions with AI. It would also have allowed parents to limit minors’ usage time and receive alerts if their children expressed thoughts of harming themselves or others. DeSantis even called a special session to revive the measure, but the House never granted him a hearing.

Florida’s standoff with the tech sector goes beyond legislative barriers. State Attorney General Uthmeier sued OpenAI last week and asked a judge to alter its operations and impose damages in favor of Floridians, while DeSantis railed against the idea of the government acquiring a stake in the company. The governor fears that a strict federal injunction would nullify any future protections.

For now, he says, Florida has already managed to shield consumers from the costs of large data centers. "The bottom line is we were successful in enacting protections for ratepayers so that companies can't pass on costs from data centers to ratepayers," he said. "But the [Florida] House blocked out AI Bill of Rights (passed 37-1 by the Senate) so those protections have not been enacted into law."