| Inside Trump’s Anthropic alarm |
 Axios’ Marc Caputo interviews President Trump yesterday at the White House. Image: “The Axios Show” Watch the episode.President Trump said on “The Axios Show” yesterday that he reached the point last week of seeing Anthropic as a national security threat.  But in the conversation with Marc Caputo, Trump signaled relations have eased since, suggesting the White House’s tumultuous relationship with the tech giant is on the mend, Axios’ Maria Curi reports.Why it matters: National security concerns and personality clashes have left the AI heavyweight at the center of a government crackdown, with the company facing treatment typically reserved for foreign adversaries. Last week, the administration restricted any country outside of the U.S., and foreign nationals within the U.S., from accessing Anthropic’s most advanced models.  Asked whether he views Anthropic, or CEO Dario Amodei, as a threat to national security, the president replied: “Well, not now, but a week ago, maybe.” He walked away from a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit with the view that Amodei was “nice” and “smart.“Trump added: “He responded to us very quickly because you know it’s a tremendous liability. “In response, Anthropic told Axios: “We are grateful to the administration for their ongoing partnership in working to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible. We remain committed to working alongside them towards our shared goals of protecting critical infrastructure and making sure the U.S. leads in AI.” Reality check: Trump didn’t rule out leveraging emergency powers under the Defense Production Act if the AI lab didn’t get in line.Trump said: “I have the power to use a lot of things.”  Watch the clip. |
Jun 19, 2026
President Trump sits down with Axios’ Marc Caputo for a wide-ranging conversation about power, war and America’s role in the world. In this episode of The Axios Show, Trump discusses what he has learned about wielding power, why he says there are “no limits” to presidential power, and how he views the leaders shaping global politics, including China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi. The conversation centers on Iran, where Trump defends the military campaign, the deal that followed and his decision to stop short of further escalation. He also discusses the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, Cuba, Venezuela, artificial intelligence, Anthropic, China’s AI race and how he thinks about maintaining power in the final stretch of his presidency. This episode has been edited for brevity.
Watch the extended interview here: https://www.axios.com/2026/06/19/axio… Timestamps: 0:00 – Welcome to The Axios Show 0:11 – The one big thing: power 1:37 – “I’m the boss” and the G7 3:36 – What Trump sees in world leaders 4:05 – Trump on Xi Jinping and China 6:11 – Venezuela, military power and oil 7:19 – Trump on Modi, Pakistan and global leadership 9:08 – Macron, the G7 and Trump’s “weakness” 11:18 – Trump on Iran and the limits of power 12:09 – Was the Iran deal “unconditional surrender”? 13:39 – Trump defends the Iran campaign 15:27 – The Strait of Hormuz and the risk to oil 17:44 – Secret ship movements out of the Gulf 19:05 – Cuba, Venezuela and the Western Hemisphere 22:29 – Trump on American influence in the hemisphere 23:35 – Iran, nuclear weapons and Israel 25:59 – Trump on Netanyahu and Lebanon 26:59 – Trump on artificial intelligence as a weapon 27:45 – Anthropic and national security 28:37 – Could Trump shut down an AI company? 28:45 – Trump on beating China in AI 29:45 – The Defense Production Act and AI regulation 30:35 – Trump on maintaining power 31:39 – Trump on fixing the White House 34:04 – Closing
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