Trump postpones AI executive order signing: 'I didn't like certain aspects'

Key points

• US President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on May 21, 2026. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he postponed an upcoming signing ceremony for his administration's much-anticipated executive order on the artificial intelligence industry.
• The event, which was set for later Thursday afternoon, was delayed "because I didn't like certain aspects of it," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
• The U.S. is ahead of China and the rest of the world on AI and "I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead," Trump said.
• He added that AI is "causing tremendous good," and he was concerned that the executive order "could have been a blocker." The order would empower the U.S. government to pre-evaluate AI models to identify security vulnerabilities, The...