Anthropic No Longer a National Security Threat, Trump Says
TL;DR
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy alerted Treasury Secretary Bessent to Fable 5 cyberattack risks, triggering the ban despite Jassy's own competing AI interests.
- The 2018 Export Control Reform Act covers physical goods and software code, not cloud API access, leaving the ban's legal basis broadly contested.
- A former senior Commerce official said Lutnick's letter is 'so badly drafted it might not restrict API or chatbot access at all.'
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supply-chain designation and the Commerce Department's June 12 order remain formally in place and have not been rescinded.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.
What others are reporting
-
Bloomberg Read →
Bloomberg's legal read, sourced to a former senior Commerce official, concludes the order asserts unprecedented power over API access that the 2018 ECRA was not written to cover.
A former Commerce adviser said Lutnick's letter is 'so badly drafted it might not restrict API/chatbot access at all.'
-
Fortune Read →
Fortune reconstructs the full origin chain: Jassy's call to Bessent, the 90-minute deadline, Anthropic's expansion to 111 trusted international orgs, and the $965B IPO now at risk.
'Anything that stops the evolution of technology is just going to leave the U.S. behind,' said Danny Jenkins, cybersecurity CEO.
-
Gizmodo Read →
Gizmodo independently corroborates the legal vulnerability and adds that the ban may be functioning as diplomatic leverage at the G7 rather than genuine security enforcement.
'If the administration fears dangerous AI models, it should work with Congress to write laws to govern them.' — Alasdair Phillips-Robins, former Commerce adviser
-
TechCrunch Read →
TechCrunch synthesizes WSJ, The Information, and Reuters reporting while surfacing David Sacks's competing 'jailbreak' framing and Anthropic's counter that these capabilities exist industry-wide.
Jassy told Treasury Secretary Bessent that Amazon researchers used Fable 5 to obtain information that could be used in cyberattacks.
-
SecurityWeek Read →
Macron's 'strictly nationalist' label at a June 20 AI executive meeting is the sharpest public allied-nation rebuke of the ban, with France threatening independent AI investment as a fallback.
Macron criticized the Trump administration's AI export restrictions as a 'strictly nationalist' reaction to security concerns.
-
Cryptopolitan Read →
Adds that Amazon, Anthropic's largest investor and a direct competitor, is the entity that triggered the crackdown, and ties the unresolved ban directly to the October IPO timeline.
'Well, not now, but a week ago, maybe.' — Trump to Axios on whether Anthropic posed a national security threat
Originally reported by The Next Web
Read the original article →Original headline: Trump Tells Axios Anthropic Is 'No Longer a National Security Threat' After G7 Meeting With Amodei