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Trump Delays AI Executive Order, Citing Concerns Over Language and Tech CEO Availability
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TechCrunch5/21/2026Tech1 min readUnited States

Trump Delays AI Executive Order, Citing Concerns Over Language and Tech CEO Availability

Quick Look

  • President Trump delayed signing an executive order on AI model evaluation, citing concerns about its language and potential to hinder US leadership.
  • Reports suggest a lack of tech CEO attendance also contributed to the delay.

AI-generated summary

Why It Matters

President Trump has delayed signing an executive order aimed at evaluating AI models before their release. The order would have tasked agencies with developing a pre-release security evaluation process for AI models, partly in response to concerns about AI's ability to exploit security vulnerabilities.

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President Donald Trump has delayed signing an executive order that would allow the government to evaluate AI models before they’re released.

Trump claimed he is not happy with the language of the order: “I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” he told the White House press pool. “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that leading.”

The unofficial reason: Not enough tech CEOs could make it to Washington, D.C. on short notice, according to several reports. And what’s an executive order signing without a photo op?

The anticipated executive order would have tasked the Office of the National Cyber Director and other agencies with developing a process to evaluate AI models for security before their release. This is partly in response to concerns from the release of Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 Cyber — both of which can quickly find and exploit security vulnerabilities.

One of the key sticking points in the EO’s language, per CNN, is a proposed requirement for AI companies to share advanced models with the government between 14 and 90 days ahead of launch.

Trump said he was concerned that the EO’s language today “could have been a blocker.”

Open Questions

  • When will the executive order be signed?
  • What specific language changes are being considered?
  • Will tech CEOs be able to attend a rescheduled signing event?
  • What are the specific security risks posed by Mythos and GPT-5.5 Cyber?

Related Topics

This article was originally published by TechCrunch.

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