Trump Administration Says Private Sector Should Lead on AI Safety as Congressional Critics Push Back

The Trump administration signaled Tuesday that it has no intention of expanding the federal government's role in regulating artificial intelligence, with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett arguing that industry can address the technology's risks on its own — a position that drew swift pushback from Senate lawmakers and some AI company leaders.

"I think these are completely solvable problems," Hassett told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "These are solvable problems, and the private sector is the right place to solve them. And it doesn't mean the government is asleep at the wheel. Not at all. It's watching closely, using law enforcement when necessary to make sure that the firms are acting responsibly."

Hassett's remarks came a day after President Donald Trump posted a series of messages on Truth Social targeting AI industry leaders and others who have raised alarms about their own models, calling those concerns a "hoax."

The administration's stance sets up a direct confrontation with a growing chorus of voices — including the heads of several prominent AI companies — calling for stronger oversight or even a slowdown in development.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pushed back against the White House position during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" later Tuesday morning. Warner said he had spoken over the weekend with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI chief Sam Altman.

"The idea that we're going to simply allow a kind of, 'We'll trust you to take care of this,' would be shortsighted," Warner said. He added that some AI companies' experimentation on their products "has been sloppy to date."

Warner said he supports targeted guardrails rather than a blanket slowdown. "I think we need some guardrails around data centers, kids, around AI agents, some pre-testing in terms of national security," he said.

He also rejected the administration's framing that regulation would cede ground to China. "I don't want China to win this, but the idea that [if] you put any guardrails in place [it] will slow innovation is bogus," Warner said.

The broader debate over AI safety has intensified following a recent warning from Anthropic's Amodei, whose call for a development slowdown was backed by Altman and SpaceX's Elon Musk. Those alarms have drawn sharp responses from within the administration and from some corners of the tech industry.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang signaled agreement with Trump's position on Monday, taking a phone call from the president live on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles. Trump told the audience that AI alarmists and data center opponents are "playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don't want to see it happen," to which Huang replied, "We're not going to let that happen, sir."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, echoed the president's alignment with Huang's view.

In Congress, calls for intervention have also come from the House. Rep. George Whitesides, D-Calif., said Monday that the country needs "a safety stand-down" regarding AI, telling NewsNation that he is "setting out a vision for how we need to develop AI" amid growing bipartisan attention to the issue.

First Lady Melania Trump traveled to an elementary school in North Carolina on Tuesday, where the administration promoted AI and technology in education — underscoring how broadly the White House is embedding AI into its domestic policy messaging ahead of the midterms, now seven weeks away.

Despite the heightened political attention, Vice President JD Vance did not raise AI or data centers during remarks to Republican lawmakers behind closed doors on Tuesday morning, according to Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who spoke to reporters after the gathering.

With the midterm election approaching and a widening gap between the administration's deregulatory posture and the concerns raised by both legislators and some industry leaders, the debate over how — and whether — Washington should govern advanced AI systems shows little sign of narrowing.

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