Anthropic No Longer a National Security Threat, Trump Says

In an Axios interview, President Donald Trump said he no longer views Anthropic as a national security concern, remarking "not now. But a week ago, maybe." The apparent shift followed a meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, after which Trump told Axios the company has "behaved very responsibly."

The backdrop matters. A June 12 Commerce Department directive had required Anthropic to obtain U.S. government approval before foreign nationals could access its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, a significant constraint for a company with international customers. That order followed months of tension stemming from Anthropic's refusal to remove certain safety features from military-facing products, and a Pentagon designation labeling the company a supply-chain risk. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had escalated to the point of threatening criminal charges, drawing criticism from industry groups and allied governments including the UK.

What Trump said, as The Next Web reported from the Axios interview, is encouraging for Anthropic but is not yet a policy change. When asked whether he would ease the restrictions, Trump said "I would, but I'm not sure I have to do that." The Pentagon's supply-chain designation and the Commerce Department's June 12 order remain formally in place and have not been rescinded. Anthropic has not publicly indicated plans to modify its guardrail policies.

The honest caveat is that a presidential interview comment is a long way from a directive being formally lifted. What the reporting does not give you is any detail on what Amodei said or committed to at the G7 that apparently shifted Trump's assessment, or whether any private understandings were reached at that meeting.

For companies building international products on Anthropic's models, the practical picture has not changed yet. If the directive is formally rolled back, access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for foreign nationals could resume, and Amodei's direct engagement at a world leaders summit suggests that AI company CEOs are learning to treat trade and security policy as a diplomatic channel worth investing in.