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Trump was about to sign the biggest AI executive order in history.
CEOs flew to Washington and the pens were ready.
But then ONE phone call killed the whole thing. And the guy who made that call literally owns 449 AI companies.
Here’s what happened:
On Thursday, every major tech CEO in America was either in Washington or on their way. Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg, and more.
The White House had invited them to watch Trump sign an executive order that would have given the federal government up to 90 days of access to test the most powerful AI models before they were released to the public. It would have created a coordinated response to AI-enabled threats against banks, hospitals, and critical infrastructure.
The order had been in development for months. White House staff believed everyone was on board.
Then at some point, David Sacks called the President directly.
Sacks is the venture capitalist who served as Trump’s AI and crypto czar until March 2026. His firm Craft Ventures holds stakes in 449 companies with AI products.
The New York Times investigated his portfolio and found he remained invested in hundreds of AI companies despite divesting from some holdings. A government ethics expert at Washington University called his ethics waivers “sham waivers” that were “like a presidential pardon in advance.”
On Thursday morning, Sacks told Trump the executive order could slow AI development and hand China the lead. He argued that the voluntary review process could one day be made mandatory. His pitch was simple:
Regulate AI, lose the race.
Elon Musk called Trump with the same message. So did Mark Zuckerberg.
Three billionaires who collectively own or invest in the majority of America’s AI infrastructure called the President in the span of a few hours and told him NOT to regulate their industry.
Trump walked into the room where the ceremony was supposed to happen and told reporters he didn’t like the order. Pulled the plug on the spot.
Now here is the part that makes this truly insane:
The executive order was VOLUNTARY. Companies did not have to submit their models.
There was no licensing requirement, mandatory approval process, or penalties for non-compliance. The government was simply asking to look at frontier AI models before they went live so they could test for dangerous capabilities.
And even THAT was too much.
Politico reported that White House officials believed Sacks supported the order all the way through the review process earlier that week. He raised zero objections during the meetings.
Then on Wednesday night, he suddenly had concerns. By Thursday morning, the order was dead.
The draft leaked to Axios on Friday. Now every AI company in America is operating in a policy vacuum because nobody knows what rules apply.
The national security team that spent months writing the order got overruled in 12 hours by a phone call from a man who profits directly from the industry staying unregulated.
But the companies that killed it are the ones building the most powerful systems with the least oversight. Musk’s xAI and Zuckerberg’s Meta AI are both developing frontier models. And both called the President to make sure nobody gets to test those models before release.
David Sacks officially LEFT his White House role in March 2026. But on Thursday morning, one phone call from a private citizen with 449 AI investments was enough to override months of national security policy work and cancel a presidential executive order hours before it was signed.
Nobody elected David Sacks or can vote him out. And he just decided what the rules are for the most powerful technology on Earth...
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