US President Donald Trump has dismissed Shira Perlmutter, the head of the US Copyright Office, shortly after her office raised concerns about the use of copyrighted material in training artificial intelligence (AI) models. This action has sparked criticism from Democrats, who are calling it executive overreach and interference in copyright regulation.

According to CBS News, Perlmutter was removed shortly after the Copyright Office released part three of a major AI policy report. The report questioned whether the mass use of copyrighted data by AI companies could be justified, stating that it is an open question how much data an AI developer needs and the marginal effect of more data on a model’s capabilities. Perlmutter, who had been leading the Copyright Office since October 2020, was appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

Carla Hayden herself was also dismissed in a two-sentence email from the White House on Thursday. Hayden had been serving a 10-year Senate-confirmed term. The White House has not released an official statement on either dismissal. However, internal Library of Congress communications confirmed that Perlmutter was informed on Saturday afternoon that her position had been terminated, according to Politico.

Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, has condemned the move as a brazen and unprecedented power grab with no legal basis. In a statement quoted by CBS News, he suggested that the timing was directly related to Perlmutter’s refusal to endorse tech billionaire Elon Musk’s apparent attempts to access copyrighted content for AI training. Musk, who owns the startup xAI and recently failed in a bid to purchase OpenAI, has publicly questioned the legitimacy of intellectual property laws. Last month, he appeared to endorse their elimination in a post on X, the platform he owns.

Morelle said this action tramples on Congress’s Article One authority and throws a trillion-dollar industry into chaos, referring to the federal law that places the US Copyright Office under the authority of the Librarian of Congress, not the president. Since returning to office, President Trump has aggressively promoted AI initiatives and recently announced a $500 billion private-sector joint venture involving OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle to develop national AI infrastructure.

Critics warn that the firing of both the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights sets a dangerous precedent. Morelle asked when his Republican colleagues would decide enough is enough.