{"id":19155,"date":"2026-02-19T16:16:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/cox-pushes-back-on-trump-over-gambling-and-ai-regulation\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:16:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:16:56","slug":"cox-pushes-back-on-trump-over-gambling-and-ai-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/cox-pushes-back-on-trump-over-gambling-and-ai-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Cox pushes back on Trump over gambling and AI regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox criticized the Trump administration\u2019s approaches to prediction markets and artificial intelligence on Thursday \u2014 as well as the president\u2019s lack of interest in unifying the country.<\/p>\n

During an interview at Blue Light News\u2019s 2026 Governors Summit, the Republican governor and occasional critic of President Donald Trump pushed back on the Trump administration\u2019s recent efforts to limit states\u2019 abilities to regulate gambling and AI, saying the federal government \u201ccoming in and trying to tell us\u201d to back off state-level fixes is \u201cpreposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, this is a joke, and I can\u2019t believe he tried to say this with a straight face,\u201d Cox said, referring to CFTC Chair Mike Selig\u2019s<\/a> announcement earlier this week that the agency has singular authority to regulate prediction markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about these new technologies, and what they\u2019re doing to our kids,\u201d Cox added. \u201cIt’s one thing if we’re fighting China, and you’re developing your model. But once you start selling sexualized chat bots to kids in my state, now I have a problem with that, and I’m going to get involved there, and the Supreme Court is going to back me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, the White House sent a letter to the Utah Legislature<\/a> warning lawmakers that a Republican-led AI regulation bill clashes with federal policy. Trump also signed a December executive order<\/a> that warned states of consequences for attempting to regulate the fast-growing industry.<\/p>\n

Cox said his approach does not conflict with his belief that the U.S. should win \u201cthe AI arms race with China and Russia,\u201d and thus states and municipalities should support construction of data centers across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s use this technology to benefit humankind, and let’s regulate it to make sure they don’t destroy humankind,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

He also made it clear he differs with Trump\u2019s approach toward bringing together Americans from different perspectives. Shortly after Trump\u2019s attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, Cox endorsed him<\/a>, saying he hoped Trump could bring the country together.<\/p>\n

Cox said Thursday that hope had been \u201caspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is \u201csomeone who, if he put his mind to it, could unify\u201d the country, Cox said. \u201cHe’s not putting his mind to it. He has said very clearly that he\u2019s not, and that’s okay. That’s different than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox also critiqued the growing \u201cHeritage American\u201d movement<\/a> within his party, saying the nativist message is a recipe for electoral failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about it because that’s a future where we lose a lot of elections in a very ugly way,\u201d Cox said. \u201cI worry about it because that’s not where most Americans are. It’s certainly not where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox criticized the Trump administration\u2019s approaches to prediction markets and artificial intelligence on Thursday \u2014 as well as the president\u2019s lack of interest in unifying the country. During an interview at Blue Light News\u2019s 2026 Governors Summit, the Republican governor and occasional critic of President Donald Trump pushed back on the Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}