New executive order shifts US AI policy toward national security

On June 2, 2026, President Trump issued an EO titled, Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security, accompanied by a White House fact sheet. The EO’s substantive directives fall into four areas:

• Developing a secure frontier AI model process. Within 60 days, the US Department of the Treasury, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency must develop and maintain a classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models and to set the threshold at which a model becomes a “covered frontier model.” The three agencies must also design a voluntary framework through which developers can engage the federal government to determine whether a model meets that designation, with the stated goal of providing trusted partners with secure early access to strengthen cybersecurity and promote secure innovation.
• Strengthening government cybersecurity. Within 30 days, federal agencies are directed to quickly prioritize the cyber defense of National Security Systems and US Department of War information systems. Within the same window, the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security must issue Binding Operational Directives (BODs) and other guidance to expedite the cyber defense of civilian federal systems; expand AI-enabled defensive tools; and facilitate access to cybersecurity tools and services, including (where appropriate) covered frontier models for agencies; state and local authorities; and operators of critical infrastructure such as rural hospitals, community banks, and local utilities.
• Creating an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse. Within 30 days, the secretary of the Treasury must establish a clearinghouse – in voluntary collaboration with the AI industry and critical infrastructure operators – to coordinate scanning for software vulnerabilities, discover and validate them, and prioritize remediation and distribution of vulnerability patches.
• Prioritizing enforcement against criminal actors. The US attorney general is directed to prioritize enforcement of federal criminal statutes against anyone who uses AI to illegally access or damage computer systems without authorization or who uses AI agents to unlawfully access data later used for criminal purposes.

How the Trump administration’s AI stance has evolved

The administration’s earlier actions were mostly focused on reducing regulation and limiting what it viewed as burdensome rules on AI development.

On January 23, 2025, President Trump issued EO 14179, Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, which revoked the prior administration’s AI policies and directed agencies to remove barriers to US AI leadership. In July 2025, the White House released Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan, a three-pillar strategy focused on accelerating innovation, building AI infrastructure, and leading in international diplomacy and security, with a stated goal of removing “red tape and onerous regulation.” That same month, President Trump signed EO 14319, Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government, which directed the federal government to only procure large language models adhering to “unbiased AI principles” of truth-seeking and ideological neutrality. Then, in December 2025, President Trump signed EO 14365, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, which sought to check state-level AI regulation by establishing an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state AI laws and conditioning certain federal funding on the absence of “onerous” state laws.

The June 2026 EO presents a new affirmative national security and cybersecurity agenda and introduces considerations that require coordinated action across departments and agencies to actively harness and secure AI capabilities. While it does not abandon the Trump administration’s anti-regulation messaging, it leans into more government involvement by adding a stronger security-focused agenda that relies heavily on voluntary cooperation between the federal government and private sector.

What’s next

Over the next 30 days, federal agencies will roll out specific guidance, establish a cybersecurity clearinghouse, and expand protections for critical infrastructure. Organizations should calibrate their AI governance, cybersecurity, and government-engagement strategies accordingly.

• AI developers, particularly those building advanced or frontier models, should monitor the forthcoming classified benchmarking process and “covered frontier model” threshold, as well as the voluntary early-access framework. Although participation is framed as voluntary and the EO disclaims any licensing regime, the designation criteria and government engagement mechanisms may shape competitive positioning and government-partnership opportunities. The express disclaimer of mandatory licensing or pre-clearance is significant for developers concerned about regulatory drag, but companies should watch how the voluntary frameworks operate in practice as there is risk of eventual evolution into a standard of care.
• Critical infrastructure operators, including rural hospitals, community banks, and local utilities, as well as larger financial, healthcare, and energy enterprises should anticipate new federal guidance and BODs expanding access to AI-enabled cybersecurity tools and evaluate how to take advantage of and prepare for the planned AI cybersecurity clearinghouse and vulnerability-remediation coordination.
• Government contractors and vendors providing AI or cybersecurity products should track the rapidly developing agency directives and programs, which may create procurement opportunities and new contractual and compliance expectations.
• All organizations deploying AI should note the EO’s emphasis on criminal enforcement against malicious AI use, which signals heightened US Department of Justice attention to AI-enabled intrusions and AI-agent misuse and reinforces the importance of robust cybersecurity governance and incident-response planning.

We will continue to monitor implementation of the EO. If you have questions or would like to discuss how the EO may affect your organization, please reach out to one of the authors or your regular firm contact.

Margie Sosa, a summer associate in the Dallas office, also contributed to this article.