July 2025 – The Senate removes a 10‑year moratorium on state AI regulation from a domestic policy bill and declines to add a similar moratorium to the National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for federal pre‑emption efforts [4][6].

2025 (throughout the year) – More than 1,000 AI‑related bills are introduced in state legislatures, and 38 states enact roughly 100 AI rules covering chatbot disclosure, risk‑mitigation, anti‑harassment, IP protection and medical‑title usage [1].

September 2025 – A Pew Research Center poll finds that 50 % of Americans feel more concerned than excited about AI’s growing role, while only 10 % feel more excited than worried, signaling rising voter anxiety ahead of congressional debates [2].

November 2025 – White House AI czar David Sacks meets longtime Trump adviser Mike Davis in Vice President JD Vance’s office; Davis accuses Sacks of trying to “run over Congress” with an unchecked AI agenda, and Sacks replies he is merely carrying out Trump’s wish to unleash an AI boom, exposing a fault line within the MAGA coalition [2].

December 8 2025 – President Trump posts on Truth Social that he will sign an executive order pre‑empting state AI regulations, calling for “one rulebook” to keep the United States ahead of China and directing the Attorney General to form an AI Litigation Task Force [6].

December 10 2025 – The bipartisan super‑PAC “Leading the Future” launches its first TV ads in Texas’s 10th and New York’s 12th congressional districts, urging voters to support candidates who back a federal AI regulatory framework and oppose the patchwork of state rules [5].

December 11 2025 – President Trump signs the executive order that bars states from enforcing their own AI regulations and mandates federal agencies to develop a unified national AI framework in partnership with Congress, while pledging not to challenge child‑safety laws [4].

December 12 2025 – The order creates an AI Litigation Task Force, empowers the Commerce Department to label “onerous” state rules, and threatens to withhold BEAD broadband grant money from states with AI laws, prompting former adviser Steve Bannon to label the order “entirely unenforceable” on GETTR [8][9][7].

December 12 2025 – Tech industry group NetChoice welcomes the pre‑emption, saying it will create clear nationwide standards for innovators, whereas critics such as Julie Scelfo (Mothers Against Media Addiction) and Governor Gavin Newsom warn it erodes state safeguards and serves big‑tech interests [1].

December 30 2025 – AI moves from back‑office tools to front‑line policy and consumer services; President Trump highlights Nvidia and AMD chips as leverage in U.S.–China trade tensions, rolls out an AI action plan that reduces regulation, and the administration’s “summer framework” fast‑tracks AI projects while the industry spends tens of billions on data‑center infrastructure [3].

February 2 2026 – Reporting reveals that the November 2025 Vance‑office clash over AI policy has sparked a public rift within MAGA, with former adviser Steve Bannon warning supporters will “fight like hell” against the president’s AI push and commentator Joe Allen decrying tech leaders as building “sand gods” [2].

February 20 2026 – At the New Delhi AI summit, special envoy Michael Kratsios unveils the “American AI Exports Program,” a July 2025‑created initiative that will coordinate a consortium of U.S. chip, data‑center and language‑model firms to sell full‑stack AI packages worldwide, likening the effort to a “Founding‑Father revolution” [10].

2026 (upcoming) – As the 2026 midterm elections approach, pro‑AI super‑PACs and industry‑backed groups pour roughly $100 million into races, targeting anti‑AI candidates and positioning AI regulation as a decisive campaign issue [2][5].