SCOOP: White House Working Against Florida Attempt to Limit AI for Minors, Seeking Federal Solution

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The White House is engaging against a Florida bill that would establish limits on artificial intelligence including protections for minors, sources familiar with the matter tell The Daily Signal. 

The White House has contacted Florida Speaker of the House Daniel Perez and his staff members about opposing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights, sources said. 

So far, Perez has sent the bill through four committees in the House since its introduction early this year. Perez told reporters on Tuesday that he is skeptical states should pass legislation on an issue where the federal government has “first dibs.” 

“I’ve been very clear that I think AI is an issue that should be dealt with by the federal government. I have massive concerns with the state’s ability to deal with anything in tech,” Perez said.

The view mirrors that of the White House and Silicon Valley, who favor a uniform federal standard over local attempts to address the potential perils of AI. The White House has already been revealed to be exerting pressure in Utah to kill an AI child safety and transparency bill.

“The speaker believes the states should not interfere with President Trump’s ability to lead on this important issue,” Amelia Angleton, Perez’s communications director, told The Daily Signal.  

DeSantis’ AI Bill of Rights would affirm existing protections against AI porn, including explicit images featuring minors; prohibit Florida government offices from using Chinese-created AI tools; and provide parental controls on AI for minors. 

In December, Perez asked committee leaders to consider the “potentially positive and negative impacts” of AI ahead of the 2026 legislative session.

Perez opposed the AI Bill of Rights before hearing from the White House due to his belief that the federal government should lead the AI conversation, a source close to Florida House leadership told The Daily Signal.

A White House official pointed to President Donald Trump’s Dec. 11 executive order, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” which ordered the attorney general to establish an AI litigation task force that would challenge state efforts to regulate AI.

“The White House supports AI regulation that supports minors, as outlined in the Executive Order – ‘That framework should also ensure that children are protected, censorship is prevented, copyrights are respected, and communities are safeguarded,'” the official said in response to a request for comment from The Daily Signal. “Any reporting otherwise is fatally flawed,” the official said.

“The Trump Administration is committed to protecting the dignity, privacy, and safety of children in the digital age,” the official continued. “In May 2025, President Trump signed the Take It Down Act, legislation championed by the First Lady to protect young Americans from deepfake exploitation online.”

Keith Flaugh, CEO of Florida Citizens Alliance, which has lobbied the state legislature to protect children with the AI Bill of Rights, sees the Florida legislation as necessary and is concerned it will not move forward in the Florida House. 

“AI, without regulation, will destroy the family unit when every child, either through the education system or just through getting a chat, has their own personal, godlike authority figure in their life, starting at age five or less,” Flaugh told The Daily Signal. 

Utah AI Bill 

Last week, the White House sent a letter pressuring a Utah lawmaker to kill his bill requiring tech companies to publish safety and child-protection plans, Axios first reported. 

The letter, which was subsequently obtained by The Daily Signal, asserts, “We are categorically opposed to Utah HB 286 and view it as an unfixable bill that goes against the Administration’s AI Agenda.”

White House “AI czar” David Sacks, a Silicon Valley investor close to technology companies, previously indicated that the administration would not to oppose existing AI laws that protect kids.

“Preemption would not apply to generally applicable state laws,” he wrote on X. “So state laws requiring online platforms to protect children from online predators or sexually explicit material (CSAM) would remain in effect.”

Now that the White House has opposed the AI laws in Florida and Utah, sources familiar with the matter fear it will interfere in Tennessee and Nebraska, where state legislatures are considering similar bills. 

“This is clearly a warning to the rest of the country that the Trump administration is opposed to any legislation, political candidate, or governor, or state that is going to do anything that would make the AI companies unhappy,” said Michael Toscano, director of the Institute for Family Studies’ technology initiative.

Why Oppose State AI Laws? 

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy opposes state AI laws because it believes they harm tech companies, an administration official told The Daily Signal.

Some AI experts tell The Daily Signal they believe the Trump administration is challenging state AI laws to lower the bar for the national AI framework.

Trump’s AI preemption order directed Sacks and Michael Kratsios, the assistant to the president for Science and Technology, to prepare a legislative recommendation establishing a uniform federal policy framework for AI. 

If red states have serious protections against AI on the books, it sets a higher bar for the national framework. The White House appears to be trying to keep the bar for national AI regulation as low as possible, Toscano said.  

The Utah law “has very simple transparency requirements, asking large frontier AI companies to just be clear about what its plans are for keeping the public safe and for children safe,” Toscano told The Daily Signal.

“It strikes me that if that is a bar too high for the administration, what they’re trying to do is aim extremely low,” Toscano said.

The Utah bill introduced by Republican state Rep. Doug Fiefia would require frontier AI companies to publish safety and child-protection plans and include whistleblower protections for employees who report safety concerns.

“I don’t know how much lower you go than that, with a transparency requirement,” Toscano added. “It’s hard to actually imagine what lower looks like.”

But Utah voters want AI companies held accountable for harms to the public and harms to kids, according to an Institute for Family Studies poll. Trump voters in Utah also said they are more likely to support candidates that protect kids and oppose preemption.

“This is a culture war against Trump’s own base,” Toscano said. “I’ve never seen anything like this, the dynamic where the White House is doing everything in its power to stop red states from passing common sense laws to protect people is shocking to the conscience.” 

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