DeSantis claims Florida has the ‘right’ to regulate AI rules, despite Trump executive order

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis encouraged his state to push ahead Monday with its artificial intelligence actions, stating that it has the “right” to regulate AI, despite President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to institute a national AI standard.

Trump signed the order last week, which creates a litigation task force run by the Justice Department that will decide which state AI laws are worth challenging, and which seeks to have “one central source of approval.”

DeSantis claimed the executive order does not block Florida or other states from instituting their own AI regulations, but does authorize the government to challenge state laws, which he said might not be successful. 

“First of all, an executive order can’t block states,” DeSantis said at an event at Florida Atlantic University. “You can preempt states under Article 1 powers through congressional legislation on certain issues, but you can’t do it through executive order. 

“But if you read it, they actually say a lot of the stuff we’re talking about are things that they’re encouraging states to do,” he continued. “So even reading it very broadly, I think the stuff we’re doing is going to be very consistent. But irrespective, clearly we have a right to do this.”

DeSantis noted that the executive order was created because of concern that liberal states like California and Colorado could do “really crazy things,” and that Attorney General Pam Bondi could bring challenges to state laws under the Dormant Commerce Clause, but was skeptical that it would pass muster.

“I don’t know how successful that would be,” DeSantis said. “But the reality is I don’t anticipate that even happening against the stuff we’re doing in Florida, but if it does, I think we would be well positioned to prevail on that.” 

The comments also come after DeSantis last week revealed his own “Citizen Bill of Rights for Artificial Intelligence,” which would include several guardrails for Americans, including protections for children and from deepfakes, and banning AI from using an individual’s name, image or likeness without their permission, according to The Hill.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.