TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Signs an Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence, 12.11.25
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President Trump: Well, thank you very much. We have a big signing right now. And we have a tremendous industry where we're leading by a lot. It's the AI. Artificial intelligence. I always thought it should be SI, Supreme Intelligence, but I guess somewhere along the line they decided that the word artificial and that's okay with me. [Laughter] That's up to them. It's a massive industry. We're leading China. We're leading everybody by a tremendous amount. We're -- the electricity is being built by them in every plant. They're building the electricity. We're getting them rapid approvals. But they're spending trillions of dollars and they can't -- basically, this has a couple of other things that are less important. But one of the things that it has is you have to have a central source of approval. When they need approvals on things they have to come to one source. They can't go to California, you know, a, New York and various other places like Illinois with Pritzker, who's you know totally unreasonable person. And they have to have, you know, they're putting all this money in. It's a big part of the economy. And there's only going to be, I think, one winner here. I don't know if anybody agrees with that. I think most people agree, but there's only going to be one winner here, and that's probably going to be the US or China. And right now we're winning by a lot. China has a central source of approval. I don't think they have any approval. They just go in and build. But people want to be in the United States. And they want to do it here.. And we have the big investment coming but if they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you can forget it, because it's not possible to do, especially if you have some hostile. All you need is one hostile actor and you wouldn't be able to do it. So it doesn't make sense. I didn't have to be briefed on this, by the way, this is real easy business. I mean, this is simple. Uh, we're taking in trillions of dollars. We're taking in tremendous amounts of uh, countries, jobs. Everything's coming in. Uh, now just to get off AI for a second. Uh, auto plants are being built at levels that we've just about never seen before. We had -- our auto industry was decimated. 56 percent of our auto industry left our country over the years. It was at 1.100 percent. And then it got shriveled down. And really we lost a lot. And now because of tariffs, which have been so incredible, we've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars. And we're bringing back our factories. We're bringing back everything. It's -- we've never been in a position like this. Our stock market today was -- well, I saw it a few hours ago, but a few hours ago. It was way up. And we hit a new high. For the 52nd time in ten months, we have an all-time high stock market. And it's all reasons. A big reason was the election November 5th. And another big reason and maybe the biggest reason, but maybe not. Because without the election, this wouldn't have been done because people don't know how to do it. The second reason is the tariffs. We're charging, uh, countries that were really hurting us badly, were really decimating us. Hence, we have $38 trillion in debt, which we'll start paying off pretty soon with the tariff money coming in. But countries that were really decimating us use tariffs against us. Now we're using tariffs. All we want is fair. All we want is national security. It's given us great national security. I settled eight wars, and numerous of them was because of trade and because of tariffs. So we're very happy with that. But this is about something a little bit different. We want to have one central source of approval. And we have, I think, great Republican support. I think we probably have Democrat support, too, because it's common sense. I mean, you can't go to -- every time you make a change, and it could be a very reasonable change, you still won't get it approved if you have to go to 50 states. So this centralizes it. And it's something which the people behind me, the very distinguished people, all, but Tim Cook just left of Apple. And I spoke to all of the -- the big companies, great companies. And they won't be able to do this. This will not be successful unless they have one source of approval. Or disapproval, frankly. You could have disapproval too, but it's got to be one source. They can't go to 50 different sources. So I just want to thank everybody for being here. And uh, Will, what would you like to add to that?
Will Scharf: Sure. Uh, Mr. President, as you said, uh, in keeping with your commitment to grow the American economy, create potentially millions of new American jobs and maintain America's technological and military superiority in the years ahead, this is an executive order that orders aspects of your administration to take decisive action to ensure that AI can operate within a single national framework in this country as opposed to being subject to state level regulation that could potentially cripple the industry.
David Sacks, your AI and crypto czar has been one of the key players and key authors behind this EO. He can give you more of the granular detail. But the big picture is that we're taking steps to ensure that AI operates under a single national standard so that we can reap the benefits that will come from it in terms of economic growth, job development, national security and technological edge.
Trump: Yeah. And it's really the biggest industry that anybody's seen. I mean, it's -- it's taking off. And again, I believe there'll only be one country that really benefits. And it should be the United States. And it -- it will be if we do this, if we're unified. We have to be unified. China is unified because they have one vote.
That's President Xi. He says do it and that's the end of that. You know, we have a different system, but we have a system that's good, but we only have a system that's good if it's smart. David Sacks, could you say a few words please?
David Sacks: Yes, sir. So as you pointed out, we have over a thousand bills going through state legislatures right now to regulate AI. Over 100 of them have already passed. 25 percent of them are in California and New York and Illinois. You've got 50 states running in 50 different directions. It just doesn't make sense.
We're creating a confusing patchwork of regulation. And what we need is a single federal standard. And that's what the CEO says, sir, is it -- it basically states that the policy or administration is to create that federal framework. We're going to work with Congress like the chairman of the Commerce Committee, Senator Cruz and other -- other members of Congress to define that framework.
In the meantime, this EO gives your administration tools to push back on the most onerous and excessive state regulations. We're not going to push back on all of them. For example, kid safety, we're going to protect. We're not pushing back on that. But we're going to push back on most onerous examples of state regulation, sir.
Trump: So I spoke with other Republican senators, and we have great approval. I think I spoke to anybody that even had any question and seemed to have gotten approval. Uh, Ted Cruz has been a very strong advocate of common -- this is common sense. I mean, I think it's nothing more than common sense. Please, Ted.
Ted Cruz: Listen, this is the single most important economic question in the country and in the world. Who wins the race for AI? Uh, if you look back to the 1990s, there was a similar inflection point with the beginning of the internet. The dawn of the internet. And Bill Clinton was president at the time. He signed an executive order, just like you're doing, that -- that put into law a light touch regulatory approach to the Internet.
And the result was incredible economic growth and jobs in the United States. It was at the same time the European Union took a very heavy handed regulatory approach. Here's an amazing statistic, Mr. President. In 1993, the US economy's and Europe's economy were virtually identical in size. Today, America's economy is more than 50 percent larger than Europe's. And the two drivers of that are tech and the shale revolution.
It transformed this country. And AI is the same thing. It's a race. And if China wins the race, whoever wins the values of that country will affect all of AI. We don't want China's values of surveillance and centralized control by the communist government governing AI. We want American values of free speech of individual liberty of respecting the individual. So this executive order, I believe, is tremendously important. Thank you for your leadership.
Trump: Well, thank you very much. And Scott, please.
Scott Bessent: Yes, sir, this is pass, fail. And the -- as you said, this is the biggest technological innovation in our country's history. We've seen the canals. We've seen the railroads. We've seen the utilities. We've seen the build out of the internet and the fiber. And now it's AI. And it is pass, fail versus China.
We have the lead. We've got to maintain it. And it is also going to be the single biggest source of economic growth, but everything else we do but with our defense, there's no use in having a golden dome if China's AI can get around it. There's no use in spending all this money on defense and the US will remain the leader in this under President Trump's leadership.
He has the accelerated the growth.
We're actually going to move ahead further. We are seeing building everywhere construction jobs that are going to be jobs at the AI data centers. And most importantly President Trump had the incredible idea to allow the companies to create their own power. And we are going to see soon that communities near AI facilities will have the same or lower electric cost than other communities, which is a great innovation.
So this is an important document today.
Trump: Do you have any questions?
Question: On this subject, President Trump, are you more worried about the US winning the race for AI dominance with China or about AI's potential threat to humanity?
Trump: Both. We're looking at that very strongly. We have a lot of threats in the opposite way. If we don't do it, you know, you look at the medical and medical research. Already, the things that come have come out of AI in terms of medical and cancer research and things. We're way ahead of what we ever thought we'd be just from the infancy of AI. So really both and we want to be very careful with -- with it. We also know that a big part of our economy, it could be 50, 60 percent of our economy going forward for a period of time, at least especially during the startup, uh, is AI and AI based. We have trillions of dollars of construction going on and that construction would stop or it would certainly be -- a lot of it would be halted. So, uh, look, we're leading China. We're leading China by a lot. China knows that. And not doing this would be the greatest gift to China and other countries, but China in particular that China has ever received.
Question: And -- and with Venezuela, is that -- now that we've seized this tanker, is the campaign against Venezuela still just about drugs or is it now also about oil?
Trump: Well, it's about a lot of things, but one of the things it's about is the fact that they've allowed millions of people to come into our country from their prisons, from gangs from drug dealers and from mental institutions, probably proportionately more than anybody else. They came in from many countries.
We're getting them out. We had 11,888 murderers come into our country. Many of them are from Venezuela. We had thousands of Tren de Aragua, the gang come in from -- which they say is the most violent gang. I don't know MS-13 is pretty bad, but Tren de Aragua they say is the most violent gang that comes out of from the prisons of Venezuela came out of the prisons of Venezuela. So it has to do with a lot of things. They've treated us badly and I guess now we're not treating them so good. If you look at the drug traffic, drug traffic by sea is down 92 percent and nobody can figure out who the 8 percent is because I have no idea. [Laughter] Anybody getting involved in that right now is not doing well and we'll start that on land too. It's going to be starting on land pretty soon. Thank you, Peter.
Question: Mr. President.
Trump: In Indiana, just a few moments ago, the Senate there rejected the Congressional maps to redistrict in that state. A number of Republicans voted against that redistricting effort. You have spent a lot of time talking about this, the vice president traveled to Indiana. What's your reaction? Well, we want every other state that's the only state.
It's funny because I won the -- I won Indiana all three times by a landslide and I wasn't working on it very hard, would have been nice. I think we would have picked up two seats if we did that. You had one gentleman the head of the Senate, I guess, Bray, whatever his name is, I heard he was against it. He probably loses next primary whatever that is. I hope he does. But because he's done a tremendous disservice. I mean, think of it, it's a great place. I love the people there. They love me. We won in a landslide. All three times got tremendous votes, record -- I got record votes. And then you -- there's no reason for doing that. And the Democrats do it to us. So I can't imagine that they do it, but I wasn't very much involved. But there's a man named Bray as a, I guess, head of the Senate. Was that Bray? Is that the name Bray? Uh and uh, I mean, I'm sure that whatever his primary is, it's I think, in two years. But I'm sure he'll go down. He'll go down. I'll certainly support anybody that wants to go against it.
Question: Mr. President, if I could ask you briefly about on AI and then a question on Ukraine. On the AI side, the flip side of what you've done today is what kind of agreements you can get with China, particularly on the national security threats posed by AI.
Trump: Right.
Question: During the Biden administration, there was a vague agreement on not using AI in the nuclear weapons complex. Tell us what you envision and what conversations you've had, if any, with President Xi on -- on that topic?
Trump: Well, relative to AI?
Question: Yes.
Trump: I speak to him a lot about it. I speak to him a lot actually. I have a very good relationship with him, as you know. Uh, if you had another president, you would have had a big rare earth problem and it turned out not to be a problem. Uh, they're purchasing tremendous amounts of the soybeans and other agricultural products.
Now. we're getting along with them very well. Now we talk about AI quite a bit. We talk about everything quite a bit.
Question: Well, do you have specific uh, one of the things you're trying to put together with them?
Trump: One of the things I talked to China about is the denuclearization of weapons that we'd like to see if we could stop that.
Question: [Inaudible]
Trump: I've spoken to -- I'm talking about nuclear weapons, uh, I've spoken to China about that. I've spoken to Russia about that. And I think it would be something that we would want to do and they would like to do. And I think Russia would like to do.
Question: They've said they won't join New Start or a follow on to New Start.
Trump: Well, that's what they've told you, but, you know, what they tell you is different than what they tell me. [Laughter]
Question: And I'm [Inaudible], Mr. President, just briefly, you made a commitment to the Europeans back in July, if I remember right, to participate in some kind of a -- of a peacekeeping force. Should there be a peace agreement? You mentioned, I think, air support intelligence and so forth. Does that commitment still stand?
Question: Is the US ready to go contribute to this?
Trump: It's called the security agreement basically that they call it the security agreement.
Note [Crosstalk]
Question: -- which sound likes [Inaudible]
Trump: Yeah, we would help -- we would help with security because it's I think a necessary factor in getting it done. Uh, I thought that we were very close with Russia to having a deal. I thought we were very close with Ukraine to having a deal. In fact, other than President Zelenskyy's, people loved the concept of the deal.
You know, we threw something out.
Question: This is the four-part deal that?
Trump: Well, there's four or five different parts, you know, a little bit complicated because you're cutting up land in a certain way. It's not the easiest thing. It's sort of like a complex real estate deal, times a thousand, right? But it's a deal that would have stopped the killing of thousands of lives every month.
Thousands and thousands of lives, mostly soldiers. But as you know, there are some bombs being dropped.
Question: Are you headed to sort of a Korea-like cease fire there where you don't resolve?
Trump: Well, there's a meeting on Saturday. We'll see whether or not we attend the meeting. We said we'll attend the meeting if we think there's a good chance of -- they want me to attend, they want us to attend. And we'll be attending the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there's a good chance and we don't want to waste a lot of time, we think it's negative. We -- you know, we -- we want it to get settled. We want to save a lot of lives. Uh, as you know, uh, in the past, we spent -- could be $300, $350 billion, giving it to Ukraine. You know we got nothing in return, but we gave it to Ukraine. I ended up getting rare earth in return. Even though I didn't spend money, we -- we are now selling weapons to NATO. We're not selling it to Ukraine. We're selling weapons at full price to -- to NATO, as you know. They distribute those weapons probably to Ukraine for the most part. They're probably doing it to others also, but we're not involved in the war other than the fact that we are involved in a negotiation because people want us there. Uh, Ukraine wants us involved very much. Europe is -- Europe wants us involved. I have a great relationship with the countries of Europe. As you know, I took the -- I took GDP if you -- you know, I took what they're spending, uh, as a percentage of GDP, but it was a two and they weren't paying. And now it's at five and everybody's amazed, but that 5 percent is a lot of it's coming back to the United States. With that being said, uh, I'd like to see the killing stop. 25,000 people died last month, soldiers, mostly soldiers, but some people also where bombs were dropped, but for the most part 25,000 soldiers died last month. I would love to see it stop and we're working very hard. It doesn't really affect the United States unless it got out of control. You know a thing like that as you probably know because you are a professional, a real professional, which is something I don't say about a lot of other people, but you are a great professional. Things like this end up in third world wars and I'm told that the other day I said, you know everybody keeps playing games like this.