Two empty beige armchairs angled toward each other on a low round carpeted platform, with a small wooden table and two glasses of water between them, stand in pools of warm light from studio lamps overhead in a dark television studio, with studio cameras on wheeled pedestals in shadow at the left and right edges.

The White House

Trump Says He Doesn’t Mind AI Guardrails

Trump told 60 Minutes he “would absolutely” work with Democrats on AI safety, but doesn’t want America in “a deep second position” to China.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — President Trump said he does not mind guardrails on artificial intelligence, so long as they do not cost America its lead over China, in an interview for 60 Minutes that CBS published on Sunday. Asked by Ross Douthat whether he would work with the Democrats, who won control of both houses in last week’s elections, according to the Associated Press, he answered, “I would absolutely—” and then, “Yeah. Yeah.” Mr. Douthat finished the question: on AI safety.

“I don’t mind guardrails,” Mr. Trump said. “But I don’t wanna put us in a deep second position. We’re leading number one. And China has no guardrails, by the way.” Mr. Douthat answered that China has “the guardrails of being a totalitarian state,” and Mr. Trump agreed that in China what Mr. Xi says goes: “With me, it’s pretty strong, but it’s not quite that strong.”

Congress returns on Monday for its last weeks before the Democrats take the House and the Senate, so any AI law Mr. Trump signs in the next Congress will need their votes.The Lame DuckThe House meets at noon Monday and the Senate at 3 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. the Senate votes on cloture on the motion to take up H.R. 2347, the vehicle for the permitting bill. The Senate’s first business is that permitting bill, which one of its authors, Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, says “makes sure data centers pay for the energy they use and the grid upgrades they cause.”

CBS said the interview was recorded at the White House on Friday, three days after the election. Mr. Douthat asked why Mr. Trump was not worried by the doom fears of the people building the technology. “So if we don’t have it, China’s gonna have it,” Mr. Trump said. “That would put us at an unbelievable disadvantage. It’s all between us and China. There’s nobody else.”

He said the risk “is not nearly as real as it— as they talk. And I think the risk can be managed.” One reason he is an AI bull, he said, is China’s leader: “President Xi left here two weeks ago. We had a great meeting.” Mr. Xi, he said, is “all in to SI, as I call it,” adding, “’cause it really is super intelligence.”

He made the same pairing in September. On Sept. 13, in Ireland, he told reporters, “We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that … shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” the Associated Press reported. “But whoever wins with AI wins.”

The industry spent on both sides of the question in the midterms. Politico described Leading the Future as “pro-industry” and its rival, Public First, as a network that “supports stricter AI guardrails and is tied to rival AI lab Anthropic.”Public First ActionAnthropic says it has given $40 million to Public First Action, a nonprofit distinct from the network’s super PACs, and that the money “cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office.” This paper counted their spending on Nov. 4.

Mr. Trump did not say which guardrails he would accept. In the transcript CBS published, neither man mentioned the states’ own AI laws, or chips.

Sources

  1. CBS News (60 Minutes), “60 Minutes Transcript: Donald Trump, the 2026 post-midterm elections interview,” Nov. 8, 2026.
  2. Associated Press (via PBS News), “Trump downplays the need to check AI development and says he doesn’t want to cede edge to China,” Sept. 13, 2026.
  3. Associated Press (via PBS News), “Democrats win control of U.S. House, in major rebuke to Trump,” Nov. 4, 2026.
  4. Associated Press (via PBS News), “Democrats take control of the Senate after winning key midterm races,” Nov. 3, 2026.
  5. Congressional Record, “Daily Digest: Next Meeting of the Senate; Next Meeting of the House of Representatives (p. D992),” Nov. 5, 2026.
  6. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, “Capito, Lee, Whitehouse, and Heinrich Release Substitute Amendment to Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,” Nov. 7, 2026.
  7. Politico (via Yahoo News), “Dems made Big Tech a foil — and they couldn’t stop winning,” Nov. 4, 2026.
  8. Anthropic, “Anthropic is donating another $20 million to Public First Action,” July 21, 2026.