In Truth Social-ese, one might say Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview model is “the ‘hottest’ AI model out there”—with Trump’s patented awkward scare quotes around “hottest.” Anthropic has said Mythos is so advanced it “could reshape cybersecurity.” The UK is scrambling to respond to the apparent vulnerabilities it exposed. European cyber agencies have been thwarted in their attempts to get their hands on it and see what new weaknesses it can find.
But in Anthropic’s home country, things are a little more complicated. According to Politico, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei held a meeting at the White House with chief of staff Susie Wiles, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday. The White House said the following in its statement about the meeting, per Politico:
“We discussed opportunities for collaboration, as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology. The conversation also explored the balance between advancing innovation and ensuring safety. We look forward to continuing this dialogue and will host similar discussions with other leading AI companies.”
It almost sounds like the White House is considering having a business relationship with Anthropic.
But when President Trump touched down at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Friday, well, see for yourself. (The relevant section starts at 4:19)
Trump walked out to a runway press scrum and answered a handful of reporters’ questions, mostly about the Iran War. Before turning and walking away, one reporter (It’s not clear which), asked “Did Anthropic have a meeting at the White House, sir?”
Trump’s reply: “Who?”
The reporter clarified, “Anthropic?”
The president then gave one of his famous wing-flap shrugs and said “I have no idea.”
To refresh your memory, the Trump Administration is still in the middle of a strange and unprecedented power struggle with Anthropic—arguably the tech leader in artificial intelligence right now, even if it’s not as valuable a company as OpenAI.
Back in February, the U.S. Department of Defense/War came into conflict with Anthropic over authorized uses of Anthropic’s models. A Pentagon official at one point claimed that Amodei “is a liar and has a God-complex.” Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense/War, branded Anthropic with a “supply chain risk” designation that supposedly means companies that do business with the Pentagon cannot do business with Anthropic—which could sabotage Anthropic’s entire business model, and has never been applied to an American company before.
While litigation over the designation is pending, Anthropic briefly succeeded in getting the courts to suspend the designation, but earlier this month it was reimplemented for the time being.
But our president loves winners, and if there’s such a thing as an AI power ranking, Amodei is on top of it right now thanks in no small part to Anthropic’s ability to convince everyone it has the world’s scariest technology chained up in its figurative garage. Trump’s pal Jensen Huang of Nvidia could arguably be gunning for silver at the moment, although a recent clip of himself insisting he’s not a loser didn’t actually help him not sound like a loser:
“You’re not talking to someone who woke up a loser” – Jensen Huang
Jensen nearly lost his composure during a heated debate about selling chips to China, despite showing tremendous patience in response to the pushback. pic.twitter.com/A6F7RAXAgh
— The AI Investor (@The_AI_Investor) April 16, 2026
And OpenAI’s Sam Altman is competing with rumors that he’s about to be fired.
So Trump is in a tough position. His Administration’s official position is essentially that Anthropic must be shunned by almost all of U.S. industry, but his vaguely expressed beliefs about the future of U.S. industry appear to revolve around AI and other automation. Meanwhile, around the world seemingly everyone is wetting their pants about the unspeakable evil Anthropic is capable of unleashing, which must be a tempting prospect when you’re someone who likes to brag about being able to cause an entire civilization to die.
With all this happening, Trump is trying to wind down his war in Iran—which even friendly publications say hasn’t gone well—and with that hanging over him, he’s also supposed to wind down hostilities with a bunch of dweebs in San Francisco?
I can see why he might have “no idea” what to say.
