Trump expects no AI guardrails from summit with Xi Jinping
The president signaled he wants to leave AI regulation unresolved, pointing to the DOJ as America's only needed guardrail
President Trump made clear on September 24 that his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping would not produce any meaningful framework for regulating artificial intelligence. In a Truth Social post, Trump used the term “super intelligence” to describe advanced AI and essentially said he’s fine leaving the matter untouched, arguing the Department of Justice is all the guardrail America needs.
That position puts the US squarely in alignment with China’s own preference: develop first, regulate maybe later.
A sequel nobody expected to go differently
The Washington summit, held September 23-24, was a follow-up to a meeting in Beijing back in May 2026. At that earlier gathering, Trump said he and Xi discussed a framework for AI “standard guardrails” and the potential export of Nvidia H200 chips. Neither topic produced a formal agreement.
Trump’s pre-summit comments confirmed what many suspected: the regulatory conversation was dead on arrival. He views aggressive AI regulation as a competitive handicap, and the DOJ-as-guardrail argument suggests enforcement would come after problems emerge rather than through preventive rulemaking.
The news moving money, markets, and the world—before your day starts.
Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.
Why AI executives are uneasy
Trump’s regulatory skepticism hasn’t gone unchallenged within his own country’s tech ecosystem. US officials from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have raised persistent concerns about the risks posed by rapidly advancing AI models.
Previous US-China discussions had identified at least one area of mutual interest: preventing AI misuse by non-state actors, essentially keeping advanced AI tools out of the hands of terrorists and criminal networks. Even that relatively uncontroversial goal hasn’t translated into binding commitments.