Who Needs Regulation When Trump Is President?
The Atlantic critiques President Trump's stance on AI regulation, arguing that he is replacing formal legal processes with a reliance on his own personal judgment. The author contends that the risks posed by AI require structured oversight rather than a leader's subjective discretion.
Why it matters
This piece addresses the tension between executive power and the need for regulatory frameworks in emerging, high-risk technologies.
The president is turning the charge of personalism into a promise.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty September 14, 2026, 2:10 PM ET Share Save One consistent complaint against the Trump administration is that it is imposing personalist rule, in which the whims of the leader override the law. Now Donald Trump has come out forcefully against regulating artificial intelligence—and his argument is based almost explicitly on the superiority of his omniscience over any formal legal process. He is not so much refuting the charge of personalism as turning it into a promise.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” he wrote in a self-refuting post on Truth Social.
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