What Is an Executive Order?

Before diving into the substance of Executive Order 14365, it helps to understand what an executive order actually is.

The President of the United States wields significant authority through the executive branch. An executive order is a formal directive issued by the President that carries the weight of law. It does not require a vote from Congress. It is not subject to Senate confirmation. It flows directly from the constitutional authority of the executive to manage the operations of the federal government.

That does not mean executive orders are unchecked. Congress can pass legislation that overrides them. Courts can strike them down if they exceed constitutional authority. And the next president can revoke them on day one. We saw that play out clearly when President Trump took office in January 2025 and immediately revoked Biden’s Executive Order 14110 on AI safety through EO 14179.

Executive orders are tools. Like any tool, their value depends entirely on who is wielding them and why.

What Is EO 14365?

On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14365: “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence.” This order builds directly on EO 14179 from January 2025 which cleared out Biden-era AI regulations and declared American AI dominance as a national priority.

EO 14365 goes further. It addresses a growing problem: states are moving fast on AI regulation and they are not all moving in the same direction.

The order makes this argument plainly. A state-by-state regulatory approach creates fifty different compliance regimes. That burden falls hardest on startups and smaller companies who cannot afford armies of lawyers to navigate a different rulebook in every state. It stifles innovation. It fragments the market. And perhaps most concerning, some state laws are actively requiring AI systems to produce biased outputs.

The order specifically calls out Colorado’s law banning “algorithmic discrimination.” The administration argues this law may actually force AI models to produce false results in order to avoid statistical disparities across protected groups. Read that again. A state law could require an AI to be less truthful in the name of equity. That is a stunning precedent and the Trump administration is right to challenge it.

Here is what EO 14365 actually does:

The order establishes an AI Litigation Task Force under the Attorney General. This task force has one job: challenge state AI laws that conflict with the national policy of maintaining America’s AI dominance. The Secretary of Commerce has 90 days to publish an evaluation of existing state laws and identify which ones are creating barriers or compelling deceptive AI outputs.

States with onerous AI laws could also lose broadband funding under the BEAD program. The administration is not playing games. It is using every lever available to push back against regulatory overreach at the state level.

The FTC is being directed to issue a policy statement on when state laws requiring AI to alter truthful outputs are preempted by federal law prohibiting deceptive practices. The logic here is elegant: if the FTC prohibits deception in commerce, then a state cannot legally require deception from AI systems. That is a creative and principled use of existing federal authority.

The order also calls for a legislative recommendation to establish a uniform federal framework that would preempt conflicting state laws. Notably, the order carves out protections for child safety laws. States retain the right to protect children even under a national preemption framework.

This is not a power grab. This is the federal government doing what the Commerce Clause was designed for: ensuring that interstate commerce operates under a coherent national framework rather than a chaotic patchwork.

AI Is Changing America. Whether We Like It or Not.

Artificial intelligence is not coming. It is already here.

It is diagnosing cancer in hospitals. It is writing code for software engineers. It is screening resumes and underwriting insurance policies. It is generating images and videos that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. It is being used by our military to process intelligence data at speeds no human analyst could match.

The economic stakes are enormous. The administration noted that the early work of removing Biden’s regulatory barriers has already produced trillions of dollars in investment commitments. America is competing with China for supremacy in this technology and that is not a competition we can afford to lose. China is not wringing its hands about AI ethics. It is building.

For ordinary Americans the changes are more personal. AI is showing up in customer service calls and school classrooms. It is changing what skills matter in the job market. It is reshaping how we find information and who we trust to give it to us.

These are not abstract concerns. They are real and they are accelerating. The question is not whether AI will transform American life. The question is whether that transformation will happen on terms that reflect American values.

A Christian Perspective: How Should We Approach AI?

Here is where it gets personal.

As followers of Christ, we are not called to fear technology. We are also not called to embrace it uncritically. We are called to be wise. Proverbs 4:7 does not say “get knowledge.” It says “get wisdom.” There is a difference.

Wisdom asks different questions than policy papers do. Policy asks how do we win the AI race. Wisdom asks what does it mean to be human and will this technology honor that.

Genesis tells us that human beings are made in the image of God. That is the foundation of human dignity. It is why we believe every life has worth. It is why we reject systems that treat people as data points or resources to be optimized. The danger with AI is not some Hollywood scenario of robots taking over. The danger is more subtle. It is that we will begin to outsource the things that make us human: our judgments, our relationships and our moral reasoning.

When a machine tells you who to hire or who to lend money to, we have to ask who is accountable. When an algorithm curates everything a child sees online, who is responsible for what that child becomes. These are not technology questions. They are discipleship questions.

The Christian tradition has always held that power requires accountability. EO 14365 is largely a document about structural accountability: who gets to regulate AI and under what authority. That is a legitimate and important debate. But Christians should also be asking the deeper questions. Who is responsible for the outputs of these systems? Who bears the moral weight when an AI-generated lie spreads as truth?

We should also be honest that AI reflects the values of the people who build it. The administration’s concern about ideological bias in AI systems is not paranoia. It is documented reality. When the people training these models hold a particular worldview, that worldview gets baked into the model. Christians who care about truth should be paying close attention to that.

At the same time, we should resist the temptation to panic. The printing press terrified religious authorities in its day. Every generation has faced technologies that forced new questions about what it means to be human. The church has navigated those moments best when it engaged thoughtfully rather than retreating or capitulating entirely.

The right posture is engaged wisdom. Use these tools. Understand them. Hold them to the standard that every tool must meet in a Christian framework: does it serve human flourishing and does it honor the image of God in the people it touches.

EO 14365 is a step toward getting the policy architecture right. That work matters. But the deeper work of ensuring that AI serves human dignity rather than diminishing it? That is the church’s assignment. And it is one we cannot afford to delegate to Washington.