Key facts
- Trump said his team acted after being told someone was doing something bad with AI, and he declined to name the person or company.
- Trump said the executive was from one of the big AI companies, when host Ross Douthat asked if it was a major AI firm leader.
- Trump said he did not believe the conduct was malicious, though he said it could have been malicious.
- Trump said he backs AI development partly as a contest with China and said the US could not fall into a deep second position.
- Trump said China has no AI guardrails, and that he does not mind guardrails but would not accept a lag for the US.
- The White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
President Donald Trump said his administration had once threatened the leader of a major AI company with jail time, recounting the episode in an interview on 60 Minutes that aired on November 8, 2026.
Trump said his team acted after being told someone was doing something bad with AI. He said the administration called the person and warned him to prepare for jail, telling him to kiss his wife and children goodnight because he would go to jail the next morning. Trump also said, "Do you like the color orange?"
Trump declined to identify the person or the company. Asked by host Ross Douthat whether the individual led a major AI company, Trump said the person was from "one of the big ones." He said the executive "totally changed everything" after the warning and that he did not believe the conduct had been malicious, though he said it "coulda been malicious."
The remarks came in a broader discussion about whether the US should slow development of advanced AI. Trump said he supported the technology partly because he views it as a contest with China, and said the US could not place itself in "a deep second position." He said he did not mind AI-safety guardrails but argued that China has none.
Representatives for the White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The report did not name the executive, the company or a date for the warning.