Trump, When Requested About White Home Assembly with Anthropic’s Dario Amodei: ‘Who?’

In Fact Social-ese, one would possibly say Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview mannequin is “the ‘hottest’ AI mannequin on the market”—with Trump’s patented awkward scare quotes round “hottest.” Anthropic has stated Mythos is so superior it “could reshape cybersecurity.” The UK is scrambling to respond to the obvious vulnerabilities it uncovered. European cyber businesses have been thwarted of their attempts to get their hands on it and see what new weaknesses it may well discover.

However in Anthropic’s residence nation, issues are a bit extra sophisticated. According to Politico, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei held a gathering on the White Home with chief of employees Susie Wiles, Nationwide Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday. The White Home stated the next in its assertion in regards to the assembly, per Politico:

“We mentioned alternatives for collaboration, in addition to shared approaches and protocols to deal with the challenges related to scaling this know-how. The dialog additionally explored the stability between advancing innovation and making certain security. We look ahead to persevering with this dialogue and can host comparable discussions with different main AI corporations.”

It virtually sounds just like the White Home is contemplating having a enterprise relationship with Anthropic.

However when President Trump touched down at Phoenix Sky Harbor Worldwide Airport on Friday, effectively, see for your self. (The related part begins at 4:19)

Trump walked out to a runway press scrum and answered a handful of reporters’ questions, largely in regards to the Iran Conflict. Earlier than turning and strolling away, one reporter (It’s not clear which), requested “Did Anthropic have a gathering on the White Home, sir?”

Trump’s reply: “Who?”

The reporter clarified, “Anthropic?”

The president then gave one among his well-known wing-flap shrugs and stated “I do not know.”

To refresh your reminiscence, the Trump Administration is still in the middle of a strange and unprecedented power struggle with Anthropic—arguably the tech chief in synthetic intelligence proper now, even when it’s not as valuable a company as OpenAI.

Again in February, the U.S. Division of Protection/Conflict got here into battle with Anthropic over licensed makes use of of Anthropic’s fashions. A Pentagon official at one level claimed that Amodei “is a liar and has a God-complex.” Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Protection/Conflict, branded Anthropic with a “provide chain threat” designation that supposedly means corporations that do enterprise with the Pentagon can’t do enterprise with Anthropic—which might sabotage Anthropic’s whole enterprise mannequin, and has by no means been utilized to an American firm earlier than.

Whereas litigation over the designation is pending, Anthropic briefly succeeded in getting the courts to droop the designation, however earlier this month it was reimplemented for the time being.

However our president loves winners, and if there’s such a factor as an AI energy rating, Amodei is on prime of it proper now thanks in no small half to Anthropic’s capability to persuade everybody it has the world’s scariest know-how chained up in its figurative storage. Trump’s pal Jensen Huang of Nvidia might arguably be gunning for silver in the meanwhile, though a latest clip of himself insisting he’s not a loser didn’t truly assist him not sound like a loser:

“You’re not speaking to somebody who awoke a loser” – Jensen Huang

Jensen almost misplaced his composure throughout a heated debate about promoting chips to China, regardless of exhibiting large persistence 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 tricky place. His Administration’s official place is actually that Anthropic should be shunned by virtually all of U.S. business, however his vaguely expressed beliefs about the way forward for U.S. business seem to revolve round AI and different automation. In the meantime, around the globe seemingly everyone seems to be wetting their pants in regards to the unspeakable evil Anthropic is able to unleashing, which should be a tempting prospect if you’re somebody who likes to brag about being able to cause an entire civilization to die.

With all this occurring, Trump is making an attempt to wind down his battle in Iran—which even friendly publications say hasn’t gone well—and with that hanging over him, he’s additionally presupposed to wind down hostilities with a bunch of dweebs in San Francisco?

I can see why he might need “no concept” what to say.