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.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
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 postponement was first reported earlier Thursday by Axios. The White House referred CNBC to Trump’s remarks when asked for comment on the delay.
Tech giants’ massive investments in the nascent AI industry have fueled rapid growth, helping drive stock markets to new heights even as the Iran war and other sources of geopolitical strife have caused global economic turmoil.
The AI-friendly Trump administration has welcomed the shift toward the technology and taken actions supported by industry leaders, such as backing their calls to preempt states from setting their own AI rules.
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