MAGA Allies Including Steve Bannon Push Trump to Mandate AI Testing and Government Approval Before Public Release

Over 60 MAGA allies, including Steve Bannon, are pushing President Trump to require mandatory government testing and approval of powerful AI models before public release, directly clashing with the White House's current hands-off regulatory approach and warning that unchecked frontier AI could enable bioweapons, infrastructure attacks, and financial market manipulation.

• More than 60 MAGA allies, including Steve Bannon, Amy Kremer, and Brendan Steinhauser, are urging President Trump to require mandatory testing and government approval of powerful AI models before they are released to the public.
• The push puts a vocal faction of the MAGA base in direct conflict with the White House's current hands-off approach to AI regulation, which favors light oversight and opposes most state-level AI laws.
• The letter, organized by conservative group Humans First, compares frontier AI to nuclear systems and aviation, warning that the most powerful models could assist in designing bioweapons, attacking critical infrastructure, or manipulating financial markets.