Silicon Valley titans, including Elon Musk, have championed AI technology as essential for America’s future.
But government regulations threatened to slow down progress in this critical field.
And Silicon Valley scored a major victory after Trump dropped this jaw-dropping bombshell on copyright officials.
In a stunning weekend move, President Donald Trump fired Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter on Saturday, according to reports.
The timing raised eyebrows across Washington as it came just one day after Perlmutter’s office released a report suggesting AI companies were violating copyright laws by using protected works to train their systems.
For tech leaders like Musk who advocate for AI innovation, the report represented a potential roadblock to America’s competitive edge in the global AI race.
Politico was first to report the firing, revealing that Perlmutter received a brief two-sentence email on Saturday afternoon informing her that her position had been “terminated.”
Just 24 hours earlier, the Copyright Office had published its assessment of AI and copyright law that worried tech companies.
“Making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries,” the report stated.
The dismissal wasn’t a standalone action but part of a broader change at the Library of Congress.
President Trump had already removed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday – the official who appointed Perlmutter back in 2020.
These changes shift control of U.S. copyright policy away from an agency that has traditionally operated with limited direct oversight from the executive branch.
Musk has been straightforward about his views on copyright laws and their impact on innovation.
Last month, when Twitter founder Jack Dorsey suggested “delete all IP law,” Musk responded with a simple “I agree” – a position that alarmed many traditional copyright advocates.
Conservative legal activist Mike Davis, an influential voice in legal circles, expressed concern about the potential consequences.
“Now tech bros are going to attempt to steal creators’ copyrights for AI profits,” Davis wrote in a social media post that Trump later amplified.
Democrats were quick to criticize the President’s decision.
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said, “Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis.”
Morelle added it was “surely no coincidence” that Trump fired Perlmutter “less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.”
What Morelle seems to overlook is that President Trump campaigned on reducing regulatory burdens that hamper American innovation and economic growth.
The Copyright Office’s report had rejected the argument that AI learning from content is similar to human learning – a position that many tech experts view as outdated in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.
The report specifically mentioned the “superhuman speed and scale” of AI systems that replicate works “beyond established fair use boundaries.”
This decisive move by President Trump brings copyright policy into alignment with his administration’s broader goals of fostering American technological leadership.
The shakeup comes as legal battles are intensifying between content creators and tech companies building AI tools.
Companies like OpenAI, Google, and Stability AI already face lawsuits from content creators over the use of their materials in training AI systems.
With this bold action, President Trump has signaled his support for reducing regulatory barriers to America’s technological advancement.
