Donald Trump told The Axios Show that he viewed Anthropic as a national security threat just one week ago.
However, the president signaled that relations have improved after CEO Dario Amodei responded quickly to the administration’s strong concerns.
What Trump Said About Anthropic
Axios journalist Marc Caputo asked Trump during a wide-ranging White House interview whether he viewed Anthropic, or its CEO, Dario Amodei, as a threat to national security. The exclusive moment now defines the entire ongoing controversy surrounding the Claude family.
“Well, not now, but a week ago, maybe,” the president responded. Trump added that he walked away from the recent G7 summit with the impression that Amodei was “nice” and “smart” during their meeting and direct conversations.
Trump explained the rapid resolution. “He responded to us very quickly because you know it’s a tremendous liability,” he said. Furthermore, the president stressed that “people get put in prison immediately for that. You can’t play games with that.”
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The controversy stems from the US export ban on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. The Commerce Department restricted any country outside the US and foreign nationals within the country from accessing Anthropic’s most advanced AI models last week.
“I would, but I’m not sure I have to do that. I think so far it’s been very responsible,” Trump said, answering a question on if he would use the Defense Production act to control national AI. “Actually it was a competitor, and a part owner, that turned Anthropic in. They didn’t like what they were doing. They were very concerned. Think of it, it’s a part owner, and I think it worked out very well. I think.”
Trump revealed that Amazon, both a competitor and part-owner of Anthropic, alerted the administration. “It was a competitor and a part owner that turned Anthropic in,” he said.
Amazon’s report on a serious vulnerability allegedly alarmed the entire White House.
How the White House and Anthropic are Building New Rules
According to Politico, the White House and Anthropic are now drafting a joint risk framework. The shared standard will assess the severity of AI security flaws and guide when the government should intervene across future incidents involving frontier AI models.
The framework follows the export controls imposed over a so-called jailbreak in Fable 5 and Mythos 5. As a result, the two sides have moved from open confrontation to direct technical collaboration on common benchmarks for judging future critical incidents.
Negotiators aim to define how far safeguards were bypassed, what capabilities were exposed, and the real-world consequences of any breach. Furthermore, the framework could serve as a template for all future interactions between governments and AI developers across the industry.
The talks offer a clear pathway toward restoring access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Moreover, the framework could provide a White House mechanism for evaluating future AI risks without resorting to emergency interventions each time a vulnerability is discovered.
Trump also confirmed that the US’s race to beat China in AI outweighs political clashes with Anthropic or its peers. “I was with President Xi. We talked about it. We’re beating China by a lot,” he said during the exclusive Axios interview.
For now, the relationship between the White House and Anthropic appears to be on the mend. However, the technical work of setting AI safety standards and what international cooperation should look like remains far less certain over the coming months.
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