Hands-off: Trump rejects calls by AI leaders to increase regulation and slow development, citing Chinese competition

Washington Post | September 14, 2026

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President Donald Trump on September 13, 2026, brushed off calls from three top AI leaders — Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and xAI’s Elon Musk — to slow the pace of AI development, insisting the US can’t afford to cede ground to China, as The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski reports.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Irish Open golf tournament in Dublin, Trump said: “We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way. Whoever wins AI wins.” He dismissed the executives’ concerns — which followed a high-profile Anthropic researcher’s resignation over safety worries — as coming from “negative forces” pushing “things that won’t happen.”

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The remarks expose a widening rift among Trump’s allies. Rep. Ted Lieu called the executives’ caution “a direct result of the Trump administration letting the AI industry run wild,” warning “November is coming.” David Sacks, architect of the administration’s hands-off AI policy, told companies to “go ahead” and slow down but to “stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission” — rejecting Amodei’s push for antitrust waivers so rivals can coordinate on safety.