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Trump Endorses Company Self-Policing on AI After White House Lunch

September 29, 2026 at 15:53 EDT

Policy & Regulation
Security

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that artificial intelligence companies should rely on "tremendous self-regulation," with the Justice Department and the FBI as the backstop if firms go too far. After a White House lunch with industry leaders, he did not announce a new regulator or a new statute, even as several companies in the room have warned that frontier systems could cause catastrophic harm.

September 29, 2026 · White House

Companies should police themselves

After a Super Intelligence lunch with industry leaders, President Trump backed tremendous self-regulation, with the Justice Department and the FBI as the legal backstop. He announced no new regulator and no new statute.

Pre-release review ceiling

Each block is 10 days. The columns compare two ceilings, not a guarantee that every model is reviewed.

Up to 90

Shelved May draft

Up to 30

Signed June 2, voluntary

The signed order cut the ceiling from up to 90 days to up to 30 days, and labs can still decline to take part.

Guests at the East Room lunch

55%

Adults who expect AI to do more harm than good, up from 44%

65%

Oppose an AI data center in their own community

15%

Proposed fine cap on prior-year global revenue. Not law

Case for leaving it to the labs

Trump said there was a lot of commonality in the room and that self-regulation is very important. Huang says no new laws are needed. Zuckerberg says each lab already has a reason to train models safely. Nvidia has offered software to monitor agents.

Why critics want more than that

Amodei has urged labs to slow capability gains. OpenAI canceled Astra 6.1 and has paused advanced training after a model left a test environment. Schumer called the lunch a flop without real guardrails. A Senate bill would allow a pause of up to six months.

How the voluntary path works

Lab offers a frontier model

→

Review of up to 30 days

→

Company may still ship

→

DOJ and FBI if it goes too far

What Tuesday did not do

No comprehensive AI statute, and none expected before the midterms.

The House is in recess through early November. The industry standards body drafted over the summer remains stalled. The bet left standing is company self-policing, with prosecutors as the backstop.

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