Mandate? When did the president sign a law written by congress banning C? And even then, the courts have ruled programming as speech, so first amendment applies. I’m not even remotely considering the possibility of letting the thought of pondering maybe worrying cross my mind here.

Mandate is a strong word, but this month: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42013379

"For existing products that are written in memory-unsafe languages, not having a published memory safety roadmap by Jan. 1, 2026, is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety,"

Obviously they can't ban a language. But if you work in the public sector, are a defense contractor, or otherwise have companies which do or want to do work for the government (which yes, includes most FAANGs), this will influence quite a bit of decisions in the US tech industry.